 In this video where at the age of 41 I'm trying to get faster on the bike than ever before we're going to be heading into expert bike fitters studio Neil Stambry where he'll be refitting me on 165 millimeter cranks again from 172.5s in doing so. I'll share with you and point out three significant changes that have occurred to my overall position straight away. Now know up front that 165 millimeter cranks are more common than you think and surprisingly at an elite track cycling level according to Google and also according to Neil Stambry they're actually used quite a lot so you might be wondering why is it when I walk into my local bike shop and buy a bike off the shelf they commonly come with 172.5s. A long time ago there's a story behind this I don't know the details but someone came up with a crank length based upon a mathematical principle and it just kind of stuck and that was it it was like the ball of foot over pedal spindle idea where you should always have the center of the cleat underneath the ball of your foot exactly that was just someone said it one day and it kind of made sense and so everyone started doing it and you know that everyone followed the herd and that just became a thing for a long time crank lengths is very much like that. So let's now hear from 2023 Neil Stambry about what changes have occurred to my position now we've put 165 millimeter cranks back on and then we're going to come back here I'm going to show you some side-by-side footage to really emphasize those changes visually. Add out with the old in with the new we had 172.5 cranks on this which I've been sort of very nervous of you using for long periods and you've had all sorts of hip flexor problems and asymmetry niggles and that sort of stuff so we finally got you on to the 165s a bit more permanently I know you've been swapping bikes a lot. So just quickly on that because a lot of people have asked me questions since I published a video way back in September 2020 about my transition to 165 millimeter cranks am I still on the 165 millimeter cranks what's my long-term review on them and so forth but literally since late 2020 I have either owned or test ridden 11 different bikes which works out to be changing bikes roughly every two to three months and because most bikes particularly at my size level a medium 54 come stock with 172.5 and because I haven't really been focused that much on training I've just kind of copped it I've dealt with it but to my detriment which I'll share with you towards the end of this video this is the bike you're going to be doing most of your riding on we've finally got some 165s on it the seat has had to come up around 12 or 13 millimeters in your case it's a big change mate yeah you were able to control the bottom of the stroke so much better with the shorter cranks that it necessitated a much larger height change than it would then you would think you would think it'd be a seven and a half millimeter seat height change but in your case it was up over 10 or 12 millimeters so your control at the bottom of the stroke was just infinitely better we've also had to move the seat forward a little bit I've actually made a bit of a conscious choice to do that to open your hip angle even more because your hips are getting tighter as you get older and so we've we've we've gained you a whole heap of comfort in the front end so the bars are going to be 12 millimeters lower than they were before relative to the seat because the seat's gone up but you look so much more comfortable because you can roll your pelvis forward that bit better and so you're getting down to the bars much more easily we've gone up to a five millimeter shim on your on your right leg there you were using a three mil one as a bit of a test for a while we've gone back up to five and we've got some fancy new bonds on there mate yes you will still be woeful but you will be less woeful than you were before okay why is that yeah so you could you're rolling your pelvis forward a lot more so the height of your head and your torso will probably actually be lower even though the seat I would I would say 20 millimeters maybe more so there'll be a little bit again the big thing is that you'll be able to produce power more easily in a deeply flexed position which you note as soon as you ride them you just feels more open and free in the front of your hips so you'll be able to get down lower and produce power for longer periods as opposed to being forced out of that position when you're going really hard which is a big detriment to performance I'd be really curious to see if you're so a flat out one minute effort the riders neuro muscular power will taper off and start to become borderline aerobic towards the end so that the ramp will go like this and then come down like that often you'll see with shorter cranks that it will take slightly longer to get to the peak and the peak might be slightly lower in the first five to ten seconds but you'll be able to hold the neuromuscular effort for longer so you might see the graph the shape of the graph change and the power yeah you might see that the the power extends out longer into that one minute effort before it really drops off at the end the shorter cranks you require less muscular force so you your legs speed will go up often the cadence will go up but there will be less contractile effort required to produce the force on the pedal so you will um you you will have less muscle spindle contractile effort going on but at a higher rate of leg speed a bit technical uh but essentially you might find just like track sprinters often find is that you can hold it for a bit longer now a lot of the running 165s yeah yep so various different reasons for that but um yeah if if Chris Hoy or someone like that can produce um you know 1800 watts with 165s mate I don't think they're gonna be your limiting factor yeah just quietly so when I saw Neil way back in early 2020 he identified me with a hip impingement which is when the ball and the cup or the socket in the hip they just kind of don't get along very well and apparently this is very common the net result for me is I was rocking on the bike I had a bit of a leg splay and an inability to comfortably ride in the drops and to be honest since I started road cycling way back in 2009-ish I'd never really felt that good on the bike so when Neil suggested 165 said it could resolve a lot of my issues I was willing to invest not only financially but more importantly with my time despite the fact that there is a slight negative that comes with shorter cranks and that is that instantaneous power or torque that you can generate with a longer crank however I immediately loved the 165mm I felt more balanced on the bike I could comfortably ride in the drops and I was operating at a higher cadence organically I actually remember at the end of 2020 competing in the national master's road race here in Australia and I noticed in that road race less muscular fatigue than I typically would for a road race where I spent 35 minutes out of two and a half hours in my anaerobic zone I also surprised myself with the top 10 in that road race so that racing experience kind of put a line through any negative thoughts that I had that the 165's might influence or impact my racing in a negative way it was simply a positive all-round with the 165 so now running this series getting fast and fitter than ever at 41 changing to the 165's was right at the top of my priority list so let's have a look now computer screen's gone off at what has changed the first thing that you will notice as Neil pointed out is I'm still hopeful looking no matter what but there are improvements out of the gate you can see I'm organically pedaling at a higher rate that's obvious just showing the red line against the tyres here and also the bar so you can see we left the camera in the exact same location between crank changes and as we move up you can see the seat is notably higher but the big one is my head my head is now clearly lower with the 165 millimeter cranks despite the seat height being significantly higher I'm also slightly less hunched and there is a better bend in my elbows once again all organically but what you can't see is over the past couple of years since I've gone back to 172.5's I now have awareness I've really noticed the hip pain the discomfort that I experienced with 172.5's also really tight hip flexors they're getting worse as I age I've even had to go to the pool once per week to manage the hip flexor tightness so immediately changing back to the 165's from the very first pedal stroke I just felt so much more freedom in my hips so I feel relating to this series for me getting fast at 41 this crank length change is a big one it's going to help me mitigate injury going to feel more comfortable on the bike I'm going to be able to train harder and longer and I'm going to be slightly more aerodynamic and I think overall I'm just going to enjoy my riding more because I feel better on the bike if you've gotten value from this video today if you could please give it a like it's not an ego thing helps the video out pushes it to more people that would be greatly appreciated and there is a lot going on behind the scenes with this series a lot of conversations with sports dieticians with my coach etc and I'm providing that extended content on my Friday email newsletter so if you're keen to see that there'll be a link below where you can subscribe to that email newsletter and I'll catch you in the next video