Originally Posted by Srix9

Thank you all for being so helpful - I really appreciate it. I think I will definitely be best off to take the bike down to the local shop so I can take a look at everything with them and have them show me how to do some of these routine maintenance jobs.
After looking at some stock pics of the crankset/chainrings, it looks like those "chips" are supposed to be there (good thing I checked here before buying anything!).