"I personally have a hard time understanding the fixation with 172.5, and would be interested in the results of some double-blind tests for the aficionados."
I guess I'm one of the fixated, although I wouldn't call it a fixation. I prefer to buy things in my size, and I've determined through experience that 172.5 is my best size. I know I could save money by accepting stuff that is not my size, but I prefer to avoid that if I can. "My size" in this case is just what I choose as my size, since dudes my height run anything from 165 to 185 and beyond. Personally, I also do not feel the need to run different crank arms for different applications, I like pedalling to be the same on all my bikes. Like it or not, believe it or don't, I can feel small differences in my seat-pedal position. There are certain work shoes that I try to avoid commuting in because they make my seat height feel too low. I can also feel bigger/smaller circles when I'm running a different length. Pain? No. Discomfort? Not really. But I can feel the difference and I prefer what I prefer. When I've bought mountain bikes off the rack, of course they always come with 175s and I've lived with it, but I felt the difference every time. I was glad to set up my Bombadil with 172.5, and I no longer feel the difference, and that makes me happy. I get it that there are folks under the big tent of cycling that would call me pompous or even delusional, but there's no way my preferring 172.5 is the most idiosyncratic purchasing tendency you've heard of. As long as I can buy what I like, I'll stick with 172.5. And no, I'm not interested in wagering $20 in a double blind test. If you can't tell the difference in crank arm lengths and are happy with whatever, I say good for you. Bless you and enjoy your ride. One poster on the Velo Orange blog made a pretty humorous comment. Chris was dismissing 172.5 as a figment of the imagination, that nobody can tell 2.5mm differences. The responder pointed out that by that logic, Chris should have built ONLY 172.5mm cranks and skip both 170 and 175, since both groups would presumably be perfectly happy with 172.5. A while back I saw a set of XD2 cranks on ebay in 155mm. I wonder if the enthusiastic short-arm folks would like that even better? I thought about buying them for a 42cm LHT for my 9-year-old, but I didn't pull the trigger. On Aug 20, 5:52 pm, Noel <emiller3...@gmail.com> wrote: > I took delivery of a pair of the VO cranks a couple of days ago, to > replace the late production Pro 5 Vis that broke. Overall they seem > fine so far. The cranks themselves seem approximately comparable in > quality and finish to the TA. The backside of the chainrings is a > "pebble grain" finish rather than the high polish on the front. I am > sure this is a cost-saving measure, but it doesn't bother me. The > crank bolts are Allen head which I dislike. I replaced them with > standard 15mm bolts and then discovered the big ugly Allen head > dustcaps don't fit over them, and the TA dustcaps are a different > thread. So I ended up using the Allen head bolts and dustcaps. I'm > sure they'll work, but I don't care much for the appearance. > > All the chainring bolts are Allen head both inside and outside. The > inner bolts (the ones that hold both rings to the crank) foul the BB > fixed cup. (SKF brand). I had to file material off of each inner bolt. > Also, none of the bolts were greased, so I had to disassemble all of > them and grease them. > > I consider these all minor foibles. As long as these ones don't break, > I'll have no complaints. The pinned and ramped rings, FWIW, do shift > better than the plain TA ones. > > Re. length: I grew up on 175 for road racing and 170 for track. I > personally have a hard time understanding the fixation with 172.5, and > would be interested in the results of some double-blind tests for the > aficionados. I've been riding for about 30 years, some of which were > as a cat. 1 on the track, and I'm not sure I could tell apart cranks > with a 2.5mm difference. I am positive that even if I can, it won't > matter. Some people may just be more sensitive, I guess -- but I'm > still skeptical! > > Re. VO quality: I like their stuff and have a lot of it. Most if it is > not quite as good as the stuff it is copying, but I haven't yet run > into any junk. I did sell a used VO saddle to a 230 pounder, who later > broke a rivet. That's the only really negative experience I am > personally aware of with their stuff. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
