Chainset wear

[Andy W]

Over the course of the last 2 months whilst cycling on  muddy and debris strewn rural roads, my MTB winter boots as well as the lower half of my bike become covered in a layer of fine,wet grit. This has led to an extraordinary amount of wear, especially on the drive side crank arm.
FWIW, my bike is a Genesis Criox de fer, with 11 speed shimano grx groupset. It is fitted with full SKS mudguards and additional mudflaps extending an extra 3" on the front and6" at the back.
The cleats on the boots are set centrally,  so I shall move them a maximum of 5 mm to place the foot  slightly further away from the crank. I have no idea how this may affect  biomechanics. I'll give it a try.
My best bike 16 years old is fitted with triple Campagnolo Centaur 50: 39: 30 and has very little wear.
I don't consider it a woe, as a new crankset will cost about £110. My best estimate is that the crank set will cove 6000/10000 miles.
Curious as to whether others have experienced similar wear?

[Duckfoot1606]

Similar experience to yours with my CdF, mine has Sora crankset and again and drive side crank is worn through the paint to the extent that the silver is showing through. Bike is 4 years old and has covered 10 -15k

Personally i would not change the cleat set up from what works for you, i value my knees more than an easily replaceable crankset.

A

[hubner]

Where's the wear, is it from the shoe rubbing the cranks?

[rogerzilla]

A lot of people have heels that rub on the cranks.  It's pedalling style.  Probably better to suffer a bit of crank wear if you're somewhat duck-footed, rather than force your feet parallel and wreck your knees.  Just don't buy black cranks. My mate is a bit of a toes-out pedaller and his black Deore cranks quickly became

DeOre

[Paul H]

Rather than move the cleats, you could use pedal washers to move the pedal out.  I know there's some who would notice the effect on riding position, I'm not one of them.  You could also protect the crank with a bit of helicopter tape. 

It is fitted with full SKS mudguards and additional mudflaps extending an extra 3" on the front

Better than nothing but I'd suggest that's probably not long enough to be optimal, the shop bought ones from the likes of RAW are at least4.5" 6"and I find even those a bit short on my bikes and guards. If you imagine a straight line from your tyre's contact point to the bottom of the crankset, the flap needs to intercept it.
That'll be good for keeping your shoes and chainset cleaner, I'm not sure it'll make any difference to crank wear.

EDIT - to correct the length of RAW mudflaps

[LittleWheelsandBig]

People worry about the effects on knees from changing cleat angle. Absolutely correct, with varying degrees of sensitivity.

People worry about the effects on knees from changing cleat width. This fear is a little overblown. Changing overall ‘tread width’ by centimetres is quite noticeable by most folk (and often needs cleat angle changed to suit) but not changing width by millimetres.

Q-factor is the width between the pedal axles at the faces of the cranks. I believe that the critical measurement is actually where you want your ankles to be and whether your ankles and shoes clear the cranks. Splayed and curved cranks have a wider Q-factor than straight cranks but may allow your ankles to be closer together, if you pedal toes-out.

[hubner]

I would measure the cranks on the two bikes, then work out what adjustments can be made without making the two setups too different.

[FifeingEejit]

Curious as to whether others have experienced similar wear?

I don't have a single crank without the paint or finishing being scuffed off the arm by my feet.
I'm ridiculously duck footed.
I've not worn through a crank arm... yet.

[quixoticgeek]

Over the course of the last 2 months whilst cycling on  muddy and debris strewn rural roads, my MTB winter boots as well as the lower half of my bike become covered in a layer of fine,wet grit. This has led to an extraordinary amount of wear, especially on the drive side crank arm.
FWIW, my bike is a Genesis Criox de fer, with 11 speed shimano grx groupset. It is fitted with full SKS mudguards and additional mudflaps extending an extra 3" on the front and6" at the back.
The cleats on the boots are set centrally,  so I shall move them a maximum of 5 mm to place the foot  slightly further away from the crank. I have no idea how this may affect  biomechanics. I'll give it a try.
My best bike 16 years old is fitted with triple Campagnolo Centaur 50: 39: 30 and has very little wear.
I don't consider it a woe, as a new crankset will cost about £110. My best estimate is that the crank set will cove 6000/10000 miles.
Curious as to whether others have experienced similar wear?

The paint coating (or is it anodising?) on Shimano cranks has shit durability. On both my old Tiagra and my current XT, I've worn off the pain on both cranks. I mentioned this to shimano and they said it's a known issue, I suggested why paint them then if it only wears off? and they said "people prefer black".

J

[salar55]

Cranks that have the surface coating wearing off. The solution is not wearing overshoes.

[freeflow]

q factor = quack factor (a summary of the science behind the gap between pedals).  To avoid issues developing long term, the alignment of hips, knees, ankles needs to be as biodynamically correct as possible.  This objective is not aligned with much of the 'reasoning' behind q-factor.

[Andy W]

I don't wear overshoes , I wear winter MTB boots. I'm not overly concerned about black paint wear, this is black paint/ black anodised finish and also deep .5mm plus of aluminium worn away.  The wear is caused by the MTBboots towards the front third of my foot,  not heel scraping.
Lastly, I can't see that moving my feet outboard by 5mm will make much difference to my own health.
I'm not racing and consider myself fairly robust in terms of minor bike adjustments