Crank length and hill climbs

[steveyo]

Originally Posted by siafirede

Very cool, I think 137s would be a very good overall crank length on the KH/Schlumpf 29er.

I'm loving the 137s after the ride. I only did 18 miles, but I did a hard hill, one of the steepest around here, and pretty long, as well.

With the 29er in 1:1, the 137s are a good climbing length, I only had to stand on the steeper parts. I may try some big climb races with that setup. Also the 137s are a good compromise for leverage vs spinning when just riding along in high-gear, and I was able to smoothly run out some hills because they were easier to spin than the 150s.

I also rode several of the miles on a often-rough dirt railbed that still has the rail ballast in places, so big gravelly parts. This is only place I missed the 150s, but it was "totally doable", just more effort to crank though those bits.

I'm definitely leaving the 137s on this wheel.

Originally Posted by siafirede

...it takes a few rides and lots of tightening of the bolts before the cranks become settled and those crank bolts round out too easy

I just had a couple new bolts shipped from Schlumpf because I rounded one out. I might have partly been due to my not getting the allen wrench seated in the bolt deeply enough a few times in the past and possibly the upper part of the bolt-hole stripped first, then the whole bolt-hole. I'm being very careful to get the hex-wrench in there all the way now. I hope I don't strip any more of these suckers. They ain't cheap.

Originally Posted by siafirede

Oh and let me know how the brake treats you, I always had issues with using a brake correctly on descents.

I really learned to brake on an 8 mile descent down Whiteface and now I never descend a steep hill without it, it's just much easier on my knees. Especially on a short-cranked guni, a brake is a must-have for me now. I'm putting brakes on my non-guni Coker and KH24 ASAP.