SRAM has officially launched 150mm and 155mm crank arms to the public, bringing some of the shortest cranks from the WorldTour into bike shops for the first time.
The release follows their use by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) last season, satisfying UCI rules that require professional riders to race only on commercially available equipment. It was not just an experiment, and the industry now seems happy to stand behind the shorter options.
In one sense, the launch simply underlines what we all know, that shorter cranks are no longer a novelty in the pro peloton. What once felt radical – 165mm cranks on a road bike – now feels comparatively long in this context, giving riders a much broader range to choose from or experiment with.
Vingegaard’s use of them, and now SRAM’s decision to sell them, shifts the debate. The question is no longer whether shorter cranks work in elite cycling – that has been answered – but rather where the practical limit lies.
