Who has shoes that scratch their cranks?
 

I’ve never had this problem but I have noticed that a lot of bikes on ebay (and that a lot of used cranks) had significant scuffing and deep scratches on their crank arms. I have 5,000 miles on one of my bikes and there isn’t so much as a smudge where the shoes pass the crank arms, so what’s the deal? Are my shoes too small or something? Do I have my cleats too far away from the crank? Or are the crank scratchers doing something wrong?

My shoes scuff my cranks occasionally. It just happens when you wear a size 13. I have Speedplays and have them adjust to where I can't actually slam into the crank, but I can still get a slight rub if I angle my foot right. Without the Speedplay I can actually knock my ankle into the crank arm.

Both pairs of Sidi's, Shimano, and Lake shoes in both MTB and road variations all scratch the cranks. In fact my XTR cranks are actually gouged.

I have scratches from the screws on my Specialized Pro Carbons.

I imagine if you don't ever get out of the saddle you wouldn't have to worry about it.

Me. Size 15. All Sidi .. All Genius (no one else makes them that big). velocitygraphics.com (or something) sells little clear plastic crank arm protectors

Like, live on your bike?

Depends on the cranks too. Cannondale's SI cranks scratch within, say, 30 minutes of riding, based on my experience, because they're painted. Polished cranks (Campy) are somewhat immune to this, but if you have dirty booties on smaller feet placed as inboard as possible (like me) then pretty much any crank will scratch.

cdr

All my bike cranks are scratched. Thankfully they aren't made of balsa wood.

Mine do it too, the sexy campy logo is almost completely rubbed off. That's because we're all duck footed though, not because shoes are made incorrectly.

Got an old set of LX 5-arm cranks that are on my singlespeed now. Both cranks have a wear mark on them where the black paint is completely rubbed off.

I use 4.5 degree cleats and they dont touch the arm.

i have fsa slk cranks and theres no scratches from my specialized s-works shoes... maybe im not putting enough watts down

I have scratched my cranks, which sucks because they are black 105s and look goofy with a 2 inch silver spot on them

My cranks said "Rival" on them for about a week. Now they just say "R...al." To top it off, "Rival" on my brake lever is wearing away as well. SRAM needs some better paint or something.

when i rode speedplays, yes, the cranks got way scuffed.

but now riding SPDs, not so much. i think it was the large float of speedplays that caused the scuffage for me.

ps- i have keo carbons with grey cleats

You might want to check if the seller is from a colder climate. Many riders use booties in the colder months and booties have a tendency to rub against the crank.

I scratch my crank often while riding...something that started when I was a young boy....

Me too. (Specialized BG)

Scuffing on the cranks is usually either from wearing booties in inclement / cold weather or for some people (like myself) whose natural leg rotation has the heel of their shoe toed in towards the frame combined with cleats with lots of float. Scuffs are purely cosmetic

I scratch my crank too,is normal,I mean I scratch it but not too much.

You are funny!!!:eek:

That's the difference between eBay and Craigslist. Typical eBayer has ridden their bike and selling because they want to upgrade. Typical Craigslister bought a bike 2 years ago and it's sitting in the garage, flat tires, dust, 35-50 miles on the onboard computer (if the battery isn't dead yet). :)

I try to keep my crank away from my shoes. However, a zipper can hurt like heII.:rolleyes: