Q-Factor

Q-factor is the distance (in millimetres) between the outside faces of your crank arms. It is one component of your stance width, which is Q-factor plus the distance from the outside face of each crankarm to the center of the pedal spindles. In common speech, people may conflate Q-factor with stance width.

The term may originate as a contraction of “quack factor”, originating with Grant Peterson, an engineer formerly at Bridgestone Cycles. A larger Q-factor, all else equal, means that your pedals are further away from the bike's center line, and therefore your feet are further apart. The diagram below illustrates.

Ultimately, when you are pedaling, you want your feet to be moving straight up and down. A stance width that is too wide or too narrow can make your knees depart from this ideal path, e.g. they might wander outwards at the top of the pedal stroke. This can eventually cause knee problems.

Q-factor is an inherent property of your crankset and your bicycle. Road cranksets have Qs around 146mm, with gravel-specific groupsets having about 5mm wider Q than this. MTB cranksets have Qs of at least 160mm for non-Boost bikes, and wider for bikes that use Boost spacing. MTBs have wider Qs in large part to enable sufficient tire clearance. There are generally few options to adjust the Q-factor, and besides this cranks are expensive.

However, there are many options to adjust stance width. The picture below shows a pedal extender, which usually adds 20mm on each side to the stance width. It is usually safe to add 1-2mm washers to a standard pedal, although going further is not recommended as not enough threads on the pedal spindle will engage. Most pedal manufacturers use 52-53mm as their default pedal width, but many offer axles that are 4mm longer than standard. Last, you can move your cleats laterally on their mounting points, usually by about 2-3mm from the centerline. Aside from moving cleats, options to reduce stance width tend to be fewer, but fewer riders need these.

Note - Q-factor is NOT measured from the bike centerline because some frames are asymmetric.

Q-Factor

Related: Stance width

Q-factor is the distance (in millimetres) between the outside faces of your crank arms. It is one component of your stance width, which is the Q-factor plus the horizontal distance from the outside face of each crankarm to the center of the pedal. In common speech, people may conflate Q-factor with stance width.

The term may originate as a contraction of “quack factor”, originating with Grant Peterson, an engineer formerly at Bridgestone Cycles. A larger Q-factor, all else equal, means that your pedals are further away from the bike's center line, and therefore your feet are further apart. The diagram below illustrates Q-factor, and it also shows how Q-factor is distinct from chainline.

Ultimately, when you are pedaling, you want your feet to be moving straight up and down. A stance width that is too wide or too narrow can make your knees depart from this ideal path, e.g. they might wander outwards at the top of the pedal stroke. This can eventually cause knee problems.

Q-factor is an inherent property of your crankset and your bicycle. Road cranksets have Qs around 146mm, with gravel-specific groupsets having about 5mm wider Q than this. MTB cranksets have Qs of at least 160mm for non-Boost bikes, and wider for bikes that use Boost spacing. MTBs have wider Qs in large part to enable sufficient tire clearance. There are generally few options to adjust the Q-factor, and besides this cranks are expensive.

However, there are many options to adjust stance width. The picture below shows a pedal extender, which usually adds 20mm on each side to the stance width. It is usually safe to add 1-2mm washers to a standard pedal, although going further is not recommended as not enough threads on the pedal spindle will engage. Most pedal manufacturers use 52-53mm as their default pedal width, but many offer axles that are 4mm longer than standard. Last, you can move your cleats laterally on their mounting points, usually by about 2-3mm from the centerline. Aside from moving cleats, options to reduce stance width tend to be fewer, but fewer riders need these.

Note - Q-factor is NOT measured from the bike centerline because some frames are asymmetric.

Q-Factor

Q-factor is the distance (in millimetres) between the outside faces of your crank arms. It is one component of your stance width, which is Q-factor plus the distance from the outside face of each crankarm to the center of the pedal spindles. In common speech, people may conflate Q-factor with stance width.

The term may originate as a contraction of “quack factor”, originating with Grant Peterson, an engineer formerly at Bridgestone Cycles. A larger Q-factor, all else equal, means that your pedals are further away from the bike's center line, and therefore your feet are further apart. The diagram below illustrates.

Ultimately, when you are pedaling, you want your feet to be moving straight up and down. A stance width that is too wide or too narrow can make your knees depart from this ideal path, e.g. they might wander outwards at the top of the pedal stroke. This can eventually cause knee problems.

Q-factor is an inherent property of your crankset and your bicycle. Road cranksets have Qs around 146mm, with gravel-specific groupsets having about 5mm wider Q than this. MTB cranksets have Qs of at least 160mm for non-Boost bikes, and wider for bikes that use Boost spacing. MTBs have wider Qs in large part to enable sufficient tire clearance. There are generally few options to adjust the Q-factor, and besides this cranks are expensive.

However, there are many options to adjust stance width. The picture below shows a pedal extender, which usually adds 20mm on each side to the stance width. It is usually safe to add 1-2mm washers to a standard pedal, although going further is not recommended as not enough threads on the pedal spindle will engage. Most pedal manufacturers use 52-53mm as their default pedal width, but many offer axles that are 4mm longer than standard. Last, you can move your cleats laterally on their mounting points, usually by about 2-3mm from the centerline. Aside from moving cleats, options to reduce stance width tend to be fewer.

Note - Q-factor is NOT measured from the bike centerline because some frames are asymmetric.

Q-Factor

Q-factor is the distance (in millimetres) between the outside faces of your crank arms. It is one component of your stance width, which is Q-factor plus the distance from the outside face of each crankarm to the center of the pedal spindles. In common speech, people may conflate Q-factor with stance width.

The term may originate as a contraction of “quack factor”, originating with Grant Peterson, an engineer formerly at Bridgestone Cycles. A larger Q-factor, all else equal, means that your pedals are further away from the bike's center line, and therefore your feet are further apart. The diagram below illustrates.

Ultimately, when you are pedaling, you want your feet to be moving straight up and down. A stance width that is too wide or too narrow can make your knees depart from this ideal path, e.g. they might wander outwards at the top of the pedal stroke. This can eventually cause knee problems.

Q-factor is an inherent property of your crankset and your bicycle. Road cranksets have Qs around 146mm, with gravel-specific groupsets having about 5mm wider Q than this. MTB cranksets have Qs of at least 160mm for non-Boost bikes, and wider for bikes that use Boost spacing. MTBs have wider Qs in large part to enable sufficient tire clearance. There are generally few options to adjust the Q-factor, and besides this cranks are expensive.

However, there are many options to adjust stance width. The picture below shows a pedal extender, which usually adds 20mm on each side to the stance width. It is usually safe to add 1-2mm washers to a standard pedal, although going further is not recommended as not enough threads on the pedal spindle will engage. Most pedal manufacturers use 52-53mm as their default pedal width, but many offer axles that are 4mm longer than standard. Last, you can move your cleats laterally on their mounting points, usually by about 2-3mm from the centerline. Aside from moving cleats, options to reduce stance width tend to be fewer, but fewer riders need these.

Note - Q-factor is NOT measured from the bike centerline because some frames are asymmetric.

Q-Factor

Q-factor is the distance (in millimetres) between the outside faces of your crank arms. It is one component of your stance width, which is Q-factor plus the distance from the outside face of each crankarm to the center of the pedal spindles. In common speech, people may conflate Q-factor with stance width.

The term may originate as a contraction of “quack factor”, originating with Grant Peterson, an engineer formerly at Bridgestone Cycles. A larger Q-factor, all else equal, means that your pedals are further away from the bike's center line, and therefore your feet are further apart. The diagram below illustrates.

Ultimately, when you are pedaling, you want your feet to be moving straight up and down. A stance width that is too wide or too narrow can make your knees depart from this ideal path, e.g. they might wander outwards at the top of the pedal stroke. This can eventually cause knee problems.

Q-factor is an inherent property of your crankset and your bicycle. Road cranksets have Qs around 146mm, with gravel-specific groupsets having about 5mm wider Q than this. MTB cranksets have Qs of at least 160mm for non-Boost bikes, and wider for bikes that use Boost spacing. MTBs have wider Qs in large part to enable sufficient tire clearance. There are generally few options to adjust the Q-factor, and besides this cranks are expensive.

However, there are many options to adjust stance width. The picture below shows a pedal extender, which usually adds 10mm on each side to the stance width. It is usually safe to add 1-2mm washers to a standard pedal, although going further is not recommended as not enough threads on the pedal spindle will engage. Most pedal manufacturers use 52-53mm as their default pedal width, but many offer axles that are 4mm longer than standard. Last, you can move your cleats laterally on their mounting points, usually by about 2-3mm from the centerline. Aside from moving cleats, options to reduce stance width tend to be fewer.

Note - Q-factor is NOT measured from the bike centerline because some frames are asymmetric.

Q-Factor

Q-factor is the distance (in millimetres) between the outside faces of your crank arms. It is one component of your stance width, which is Q-factor plus the distance from the outside face of each crankarm to the center of the pedal spindles. In common speech, people may conflate Q-factor with stance width.

The term may originate as a contraction of “quack factor”, originating with Grant Peterson, an engineer formerly at Bridgestone Cycles. A larger Q-factor, all else equal, means that your pedals are further away from the bike's center line, and therefore your feet are further apart. The diagram below illustrates.

Ultimately, when you are pedaling, you want your feet to be moving straight up and down. A stance width that is too wide or too narrow can make your knees depart from this ideal path, e.g. they might wander outwards at the top of the pedal stroke. This can eventually cause knee problems.

Q-factor is an inherent property of your crankset and your bicycle. Road cranksets have Qs around 146mm, with gravel-specific groupsets having about 5mm wider Q than this. MTB cranksets have Qs of at least 160mm for non-Boost bikes, and wider for bikes that use Boost spacing. MTBs have wider Qs in large part to enable sufficient tire clearance. There are generally few options to adjust the Q-factor, and besides this cranks are expensive.

However, there are many options to adjust stance width. The picture below shows a pedal extender, which usually adds 20mm on each side to the stance width. It is usually safe to add 1-2mm washers to a standard pedal, although going further is not recommended as not enough threads on the pedal spindle will engage. Most pedal manufacturers use 52-53mm as their default pedal width, but many offer axles that are 4mm longer than standard. Last, you can move your cleats laterally on their mounting points, usually by about 2-3mm from the centerline. Aside from moving cleats, options to reduce stance width tend to be fewer.

Note - Q-factor is NOT measured from the bike centerline because some frames are asymmetric.