I run Nimbus Venture 150mm cranks on my ebike. Please see the picture below.
To balance up the length of the cranks I run a 170mm OneUp dropper. I also have 180mm to 150mm Lyrik dual position forks. My head angle is 65 degrees.
Please note, Before I had my ebike, I always ran all of my analogue bikes with 165mm cranks so when I changed down to 150mm I did not notice any difference apart from a drastic reduction in pedal strikes.
The cranks are the Venture2 models. I got these from unicycle.com. There is an updated version called the Nimbus VCX which are stronger but they will not fit unless you modify them by filing or grinding them down a bit where they connect to the motor as they will scrape the motor covers on the Levo 2017. I weigh in at 75kgs all kitted up and have had no issues with the strength of these cranks.
Before I made the purchase I had a long conversation with the uni cycle.com man to check out his view on shorter cranks and pedal strikes. It was a very interesting conversation and he suggested 150mm would be fine to start with but said I could go shorter if I was still getting pedal strikes. I tried the 150’s and found them to be perfect for my style of riding.
They may not suit you but for me, they were exactly what I needed. By the way, he runs 100mm cranks (yes 100mm) on his off road unicycle and also 100mm on the pennyfarthing he races so this was a real eye opener to me and made me think I may try some shorter ones in the near future, possibly a set of 135mm ones?
Yes, I have read the emtb magazine article when it was first released and for me, everyone has there own opinions. I am just going by my own experience and at least half a dozen other people who have ridden my bike. Not one of those people noticed the cranks were 150mm until I told them after our ride. All of them were running 175mm cranks on their analogue bikes and we swapped over from their bike to my bike throughout the 2 to 3 hour ride a number of times. Maybe if they were all riding ebikes instead of analogues they and I might have noticed something, I honestly don’t know. All I know is I do not feel I am losing any Watts and I do not feel I need to spin a faster cadence. I got 3 KOMs on my ride this morning and all of them were uphill segments so in my opinion the cranks can’t be robbing too much power from me.
All I can suggest to everyone here is to try them, for £48 delivered they are a bargain and the fact you will reduce your pedal strikes, to me, it’s a no brainer. Ride safe and enjoy!
What do you guys think?
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