I’ve only been cycling 2 seasons but for some reason I already have 9x cycling jerseys!? I normally spend very little time thinking about clothing or buying it, most of my clothes my wife buys for me or I get as birthday or Christmas presents. There are basically three reasons I think why my cycling jersey collection keeps growing to the point that I should probably start thinking about running for el’ presidentia of some 3d world country.

One of the reasons that I have so many jerseys already is because I’ve lost 65lbs in the last year and still losing, I went from wearing a XXL to a medium or large depending on the brand and if I want to be as aero as possible.  So half my jersey’s don’t really even fit my anymore. When you’re racing you want your jersey a bit snug so it’s not flapping in the wind and also if it rains bad things happen if your jersey is even a little too big, I found out that in the rain the material on some jersey’s will stretch out and also the weight of being wet will open up a gap in the shirt’s collar and arm sleeves and you turn into a parachute, and to make matters worse the material being wet doesn’t let air escape like it would in a dry shirt so it really can be super annoying for training and esp. racing.

The other reason is that depending on what racing event or training ride I’m doing I might wear my local cycling clubs jersey, or when I ride with the other clubs I wear a neutral jersey as there always seems to be someone that has a rivalry with some club and I don’t want to get mixed up with that. So that means I needed a couple other jersey’s besides the 3x different sizes of club jersey’s I have now.

And the last reason is that I find that I find something I don’t like about every single jersey I own, I have yet to find the perfect jersey, here is a list of my gripes, this makes me sound really anal, maybe I a bit, but hey maybe one of these jersey design people will read this a finally make a jersey that doesn’t suck.

1. the zipper is tiny and weak or
2. has too big or small a zipper handle, or
3. the length of the zipper doesn’t go all the way down so I can unzip it all the way and get it off and on easy esp. if it’s one of my snug medium sized jerseys
4. the torso is snug but the arm bands sleeves are too tight.

So far in my quest to find the ultimate jersey I’ve found two that I’m mostly happy with

A Giordana Cycling Jersey I just got this year, the zipper is full length YKK quality zipper that works really smooth, easy to engage and zip up fast even with one hand it will open and close., the handle on the zipper is just about perfect, it’s metal which stupid as a big metal zipper handle flips around on every pedal stroke swinging into the zipper and making a clicking noise, or flip up and keep hitting in the neck or chin on every single pedal stroke. I know it’s anal but little things like that get on your nerves after a couple hours of riding. So the Giordana Jersey is nice because it a nylon zipper handle with a perfect sized plastic/rubber handle neither too small to grab full finger gloves on, or so big it flips all around.

My next favorite Jersey I picked up recently was a BellWeather Cycling Jersey, the good points are that it has material I think it’s spandex type material that stretches in all directions not just one like typical jersey material. It has some sticky rubber cycling jersey type band around the waist of the shirt, seems to help keep the jersey down, the cut is good, the fit is good. Now there are a couple things that are bad though, the zipper is only a 1/2 length, and the zipper is tiny with small anemic teeth, certainly not a YKK zipper  and small with a small flap of nylon for a zipper handle but no actual rubber or plastic ball etc. to get a grip on you can work with gloves on. Also as much as I like the spandex type material they made it so thin that I can’t see it lasting long also I made the mistake of buying a white/black jersey that basically becomes transparent when you start sweating or it rains, you can not only see my heart rate monitor strap, cycling bib straps, you can see my chest hair and man nipples ahahaa. Just looks really stupid when make a water stop at a gas station I mean you’re walking looking silly to begin with with full cycling gear then your man nipples and chest hair are visible as well LOL ahahaa In the city it might not draw much attention, but where I ride, I get into some pretty rural areas where people think an alien has landed when you come walking into their gas stations all decked out in cycling garb and kit lol…

All my other jersey’s suck for more reasons then they don’t so they hardly get worn esp. now since they don’t fit any longer, one of the good/bad parts of losing weight and getting in shape from cycling.

So let me know what your favorite cycling jersey is what brand and why.
Anyway I feel better now that I got that “off my chest” lol ahaha

So after much research and inner reflection, meditation, intuitive hunches, signs from above etc. I decided that it’s only logical that a taller rider would best fit a longer length crank which would be relatively proportional to their leg length. Any other argument against it wasn’t logical to me.

Saying that a tall rider should ride a 175mm or even 180mm length crank that in reality isn’t long enough, is like saying that a 5′ 9″ tall rider with a 30″ inseam that normally rides a 172mm or 175mm cranks comfortably should instead ride a 150mm length crank, to get the most power out of their riding and a better more ideal fit.

For the record I’m 6′ 2″ with about a 34.5″ inseam, and my weight is usually anywhere from 190-230lbs. I’m not your typical sized rider, have been riding off an on for 20 years, road, MTB, touring etc.

So I purchased a custom length crank at 190mm, according to some calculations by long crank length proponents I could have even fit a 195mm, but I was concerned about chainstay, BB height, and toe/front tire clearance and thought better to lean on the short side with with my off the shelf commercial frame, in the future I might get a custom frame built to fit a 195-200mm crank, but we’ll see.

So here are my positive observations so far after riding the last two days on them. The only negative then I can think of is that my legs muscles and nerves have to get accustomed to turning a larger circle that I should have been turning all along. And that I’m so happy with my new cranks that I have buy another set for my MTB bike! hahaa

1. The cranks are heavy, but I don’t mind because relative to my size 200+lbs it doesn’t matter, the stiffness is more important I think, and these cranks are as stiff as they come.

2. I really like the 190mm I think this was a successful experiment

3. I put a set of FSA 50/34 chain rings on, ramped and pinned, they work great

8. I have no problem with rear chainstay or rear derailleur clearance.
9. No problems with front tire clearance
10. No problems with corning clearance that I’ve noticed yet.
11. I had to drop my seat about 15mm, which makes the whole bike feel different as my center of gravity is lower, but this actually feels good I think, I didn’t like that I was so high in the air pushing little cranks not using my legs all the way. So between my new lower center of gravity, and my wider foot stance in both directions I feel more stable and more part of the bike like a shorter rider does getting on a typical sized bike with typical length cranks I bet.
12. I can feel that my leg muscles and nerves will need a couple weeks to become fully adjusted to the new crank length, but already from riding 1 hour I can see I have much better pedal stroke, much better power, and I’m actually able to spin better with more power and and higher RPM. I have no problem riding 90-100+RPM with 190mm cranks, in fact it feels much more natural and I’m using my full leg muscle and full potential. I already am seeing 1-3MPH AVG speed increase with similar effort.
13. I can accelerate easier now
14. When I get out of the pedals and accelerate or power over short hills I feel like my bike is responding much better and I’m not wasting energy trying to build speed.
15. There is less pressure on my knees, even when I pedal at a harder slower RPM, I often have slight knee soreness after hard rides through the hills as I have to apply so much more force with 175mm cranks.

16. My feet would often will get hot spots, my feet feel better as the pressure is less now.

17. I can spin better actually with the longer cranks, even though everyone says short cranks are better for spinning, I feel like an airplane propeller with my 190mm cranks I love them! I can not only just spin, but more importantly spin with real POWER.

18. I can accelerate and sprint faster, I can convert more of my leg strength into power because spinning is feels much better to me know with the longer cranks.

19. My pedal stroke and form is much improved from the longer crank

20. I can use my hip flexor i.e pulling muscles on the upstroke when pedaling much more effectively now as I have now 1″ more total length to pull up on my pedal stroke

21. I can maintain my momentum over small hills much better, it’s like I have another gear now I didn’t have before. I don’t slow down like I did before when hitting inclines. Before if I hit even small hills my speed would drop dramatically, my spinning had no power behind it, all I could do is crank really hard in a low RPM and sit back on the saddle to keep my speed up.

22. I’m actually thinking I could handle and might like even longer cranks 195-200mm perhaps

23. I’ll probably get a pair of these cranks for my MTB also in the triple crank format

24. I much prefer the classic square tapper BB Vs the new external BB designs, the BB is much smoother and stronger then the new external BB. Every other ride I would have to tighten the crank arms on the external BB. And I don’t like the exposed tiny little bearings that external BB’s use, I think that external BB are a gimick. What they need to do is take the best of both and combine them, if that’s possible.

- Internet rumors on forums and even “professional” blogs etc. of knee pain and flexibility issues etc. I’ve found at least for me to be totally incorrect as I suspected.

- I did drop my seat down as I expected I would have to do, but I also think I’m going to need to slide my seat forward slighting, and I’m pretty sure I need to drop my bars down by taking out some spacers etc.

25. Overall I will stay this experiment is a great success, I will know for sure in a few weeks of riding and my body adjusting and getting the full power out of the new longer cranks. But just from riding the last couple days I can say that I already notice a very big improvement to my riding, nothing like getting free power and speed, comfort etc. out of thin air! And as I get leaner and in better shape I will be able to tap even more power out of my body with these cranks.