Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but after learning to do crank grabs, mostly on hard surfaces, I’ve noticed that the cranks are getting pretty banged up, including where it fits on to the splined axle. Is this par for the course, or not? I’d rather be doing pedal grabs, but I’m not there yet. I was thinking maybe I could cover or line the bottom of the cranks with hard plastic or vinyl, in the hopes it would protect the metal part. 
Yea it happens, it wont do anything to comprimise the cranks just scratch them up some, They give your unicycle some Moxie.
If you look at the cranks of guys who do alot of grinding you’ll see some real scratches.
Learn pedal grabs. That’ll solve that problem. 
i noticed that to. Would putting some thick ass tape on the bottom of the crank (the pedal grab side) be an option at least until i need to use my cranks for grinding (im not quite up to that stage yet)?
I’ve found the same thing. I don’t think it matters so much on the cranks, but because I’m not too accurate I often land on the bearing holders, and they’ve been eaten up quite a bit. I’m going to glue an old piece of bike tyre to the underside of the bearing holder to protect it a bit. I cut the tyre crossways so that the curve fits the holder. Does anyone think this will actually do any good, or will it just fall straight off/not protect the bearings themselves at all?
I used to think crankgrabbing would ruin my cranks, that was half a year ago, I land on them like an atomic bomb and they’re still fine. Don’t use tape, just go on crankgrabbing, like Checker said, they’re just scratches. I suggest you pollish your cranks when you start grinding though, much smoother.
wonderul. thanks for that.
I thought most if not ALL grinding was done on the pedals ONLY…no? 
Terry,
You need to see some vids. The vids show you how all this works out. It’s fun to watch and even more fun to do. I got the whole package of DVD’s and videos.
Next time you come over the hill to the valley for riding, we can arrange for you to take them home and watch them. You supply the drool cup.
Cheers
Hey Rod,
I’ve DL’d tons of great vids, but I can never quite tell if it’s pedal only, or cranks as well, on grinds. Believe me, I’ve studied ALL of these including the HUGE 85 megs of Jess’s latest vid. The angles don’t allow me to see close-ups of the grinds from the side of the grind. So it’s not that I haven’t seen vids; I’ve have more than 100! And the problem also is that I cannot slow down the (grind) footage. Yes, many are shown in slo-mo but agin, not from the angle that CLEARLY shows the contact; at least not of the cranks during grinding. So, having clarified that to you, do you grind with cranks and pedals, or just pedals?
Not me, I even use some of my bearing holder 
It’s horrible on boxes, but rails are going just fine… If I’d grind on my pedal I’d be dead :<
I don’t grind at all on my cranks, on purpose, but it’s hard to keep the crank from scraping a little.