Riders who already ride lower cadences often find no cadence change when going from, say, 180mm to 205mm; they instead just report a straight increase in speed, and, usually, comfort as well. However, riders who tend to keep a cadence of 90RPM or higher will find that to be unsustainable with a longer crank.
As Jan Ullrich demonstrated when attempting to ride with Armstrong’s cadence, turning, longer, bigger, heavier legs around quickly is actually quite inefficient. With longer cranks moving those legs in a bigger circle, this effect is of course magnified. And the longer crank already provides the reduced peak force and hence reduced lactate buildup that high cadence is intended to do, so you gain efficiency as well as leverage even when pedaling at a lower cadence with the longer crank.
Was this answer helpful ?
Yes
(0)
/
No
(0)