Quote from JimFPU on Apr 4th, 2013, 12:35pm:With all this chainring and tooth count talk, can you offer a riders simple versiion of what it all does?
Here is GA, looks like I'm gonna be climbing A L.O.T. when I catually get back to riding (old/new house remodeling...)
When crank arms are shortened there is a loss of mechanical advantage. Going to lower tooth counts on the chainrings helps regain some of that lost advantage. Lower tooth count chainrings also let you ride on the smaller cogs of the cassette where the tooth counts are closer together. That way you don't bog down as much when you upshift, as you're trying to gain speed. With a 700cx28 tire and a 52T/15T gear combo, a theoretical velocity of 23 mph would be achieved at an 83 cadence. With a 48T/15T combo it would take a 90 cadence to achieve the same velocity. The general recommendation for a crankset with short crank arms is to spin it up. According to an article by Ken Mierke, titled: "Cycling Cadence and Pedaling Economy", spinning at higher cadences reduces the watts-per-pedal-stroke, and makes the workload more tolerable for the muscles. Works for me. Haven't noticed significant degradation of my performance, due to the short cranks. The main reason I went to short cranks was to stop the knee pain I was experiencing, which they did. Elimination of crank strike on my Musashi was a secondary benefit. Don't have any hip pain from going down on the bike, anymore.
With your long and strong legs there would be no need for you to go to short cranks. Your best bet might be to install a mountain bike crankset (and/or mountain bike cassette), like Kenny and I did on his GRR. These cranksets have lower tooth count rings than a road bike triple has. A downside to installing one of these cranksets is you would probably spin out in the big ring, if you pedaled down steep hills, instead of coasting. Kenny's crankset didn't cost over $40 and the bottom bracket not over $30.