Hi quick question i know its probably been asked a billion times on here but anyways currently riding my 29er with 150mm cranks and find them ok can cruise pretty well and ride distances up to 9-10 miles with ease atm … i hear the smaller cranks are faster for road riding? Im deciding between 125mm or 114mm?
Suggestions?
Thanks.
I ride 29er with 137 mm cranks: quite smooth pedalling with enough torque to jump.
Thanks i will still go with 125mm as i have ridden 125mm on a 24 muni as was quick enough, on municycle.com.au i cant get 137mm for nimbus cottlerless it appears by the website anyways.
Thanks for the reply 
Thanks,
Might try both out.
Thanks for the reply.
Mine has KH Spirits. 150mm is great for muni and XC, I do 125mm in town and other light XC and it’s pretty cool. If there were no hills around, I think I’d try 110.
Cool I have only ever used 150mm for road so far as I’m just getting into touring/communting. I also do street/trials which I have used 125mm, 127mm and 137mm before.
So I will try the smaller ones for road riding I think, 114mm and 125mm to see how I like it
On my 29er I used to use 145’s. I was pretty adamant about it, and would shrug off any mention of shorter lengths being better, claiming that I climb/descend too many hills and do too much Muni to shrink them.
2 weeks ago I put on some 125’s, and really, they’re amazing! 
Climbs are no harder, and yet are faster. Descents are slightly tougher though. I can ride all the same terrain I could with 145’s, and have the added benefit of not wobbling all over the place when I pedal fast on-road (And not having my feet hop off the pedals at speed, which is the reason I went shorter to begin with).
I’m an official convert and fanboy to the 125 size for what I consider 29ers to be best at - A bit of everything, without the extremes. I Muni, but I’m not an EXTREME Muni rider, and I road-ride, but I’m not an EXTREME distance trekker, and I like having one uni to do it all.
If you’re purely road-riding, maybe even shorter would be better, but I’ve never tried. 125’s are definately short enough for me, I think if I went any shorter I’d lose control too much (I did for the first couple of days on the 125’s, and still can’t idle properly).
I normally run 100mm on the 29’er, it works great. That’s what I use for unitouring and grocery shopping. Climbing works great too- I did a 2000m climb a couple of years back and it just flew up the hill.
Nowadays I tend to go for lightweight 700c rather than a heavy 29’er, and 75mm cranks work great.
Thanks guys,
Wow 2000m climb thats awesome!
Just got the 125’s and 114’s today really liking the 125’s so now going to test out the 114’s I reckon they will be great too!
GizmoDuck
You wouldn’t happen to be Ken Looi would you?
I had a look at some of the records. Really inspiring man!
Are you located in Australia?
yep, back in New Zealand now though
Cool,
Do you ride mainly in New Zealand or I see you do travel the world alot on the Uni’s
Great stuff!
The more experienced you are, the shorter cranks would suit you. That’s how Gizmoduck comes to recommend 100 and even 75 mm cranks for a 29’er. If anyone is experienced, he is.
If you are used to 150’s and want to try shorter, step down to 125 and ride those for a while. Don’t think of it as a lifetime decision. Cranks are cheap and swapping them is relatively easy.
I’m running 102’s on my 29. I bought a set of 75’s because they were on sale.
For me at this point they don’t give me enough leverage. Maybe later I’ll be at a level where they will be fine. The 102’s give me the speed but still some control. The 75’s can always go on my 16’’. It wasn’t a waste of money and the experience taught me alot.
Like, wear protective gear when trying something new.
Next step is to go crank-less, and just weld the pedals to the axles! That should really make climbing easy without all that pesky leverage in the way! 
Hey thanks just got another set of 125mm’s but this time for my new Nimbus Titan 36er and they are fantastic, so happy with buying two sets of 125mms one set for the 29er Nimbus and one set for the 36er, been riding 29 and 36 for about a month and suprised how quick i adpated from riding trials and street for so long, dont think i will go back to smaller wheels, hooked on the big ones
What you say there is a bit ambiguous. It could be read as saying that experienced riders prefer shorter cranks, which I strongly disagree with.
Equally, it could be read as saying that experienced riders can handle short cranks better than beginners, which is obviously true.
There used to be on this board a view that shorter cranks were better and that a rider should, as they progress, move on to shorter and shorter cranks.
Of course, now we know better, as several very experienced riders prefer a longer crank.
I just want to save beginners from wasting the time that I did trying to get short cranks to work and feeling somehow inferior when it turns out they just don’t suit them- short cranks are not for everyone, and riders who prefer longer ones are not inferior in skill.
Personally, I prefer 145’s on my 29-er (or 150’s if I didn’t have the quax 145’s).
I can use 125’s, and did appreciate the lesser chafing that the shorter cranks provide, but, I prefer the greater control and much easier idling attributes of the 145’s.
I did go as low as 110’s, but almost killed myself in the resulting upd 
That is for road riding- though the extreme hills here certainly contribute to that choice (I can get up the hills fine on 125’s, but the downhills are damaging to my knees- obviously, those who use a brake would not have that issue)
It’s a bit of both. Not all experienced riders prefer shorter cranks for easier conditions (such as flat asfalt), but generally they do. Obviously for “extreme hills” such as you ride, and also for other more demanding situaties such as muni or riding in traffic, longer cranks are more suited, also for experienced riders. But then again, in the same situation experienced riders tend to use shorter cranks.
Oh and while I’m at it, let me correct one thing: gizmoduck did not recommend 100 or 75 mm cranks to anyone, he just stated that they work great for him. His short legs may be a factor there.
That’s something I’ve long suspected actually- that riders with shorter legs do better with short cranks. I first thought of it when Roger from unicycle.co.uk was posting about his cranks lengths and some of them seemed absurdly short. Having met him in person I know he’s got pretty compact legs.
Would also account for my preference for longer cranks, as I’ve got lovely long legs
I don’t get to meet many unicyclists so I don’t know if it’s a general rule- would people concur that, in general, shorter legs can handle shorter cranks better?
125s for 29
Hey there. I purchased Nimbus 29 with duel 150/125 cranks. Since switching to the 125 have found no reason to revert to 150. Mainly flat rides for me though.