Crank lengths - anyone gone shorter?

[Sea of vapours]

When it comes to hills, you just ride a lower gear.

My bikes have 172.5mm cranks. I'm 175cm tall, and I can pedal at 100 rpm comfortably . I tried 165mm cranks a while back, but not for long as the detrimental effect on *steep* hills was considerable. By 'steep', I mean any road over 15%, of which there are many around here in the Dales. Yes, as @Sharky says, you can just change down a gear to compensate for the reduced torque due to the shorter crank, but I'm in my lowest gear anyway, above 15%, so there is 'nowhere to go' and the short cranks made steep hills much harder. Up to about 10%, the 165mm cranks were fine, but for me not really better in any way, so it was all downside.

 

[super_davo]

I changed all my bikes from 172.,5 to 165 last year. TBH I always thought 172.5 was a bit long, but it came with my bike, then I had a 4iii left crank power meter in that size, so stuck with it for a long time...
Anyway I'm a massive convert now. Main benefit is I get less DOMS after hard rides, which if I'm going away for a cycling trip, is really useful indeed. It definitely benefitted my fitness as I didn't need to take so many easy days.
WRT to the less leverage and struggles on higher %... yes you can definitely feel the reduction in leverage but modern gearing has so many options now you should be able to work around (especially 12 speed).

 

[Profpointy]

I have short cranks on my fixie and prefer it, at least on the fixie, on which it also gives slightly more lean angle when cornering