Elliptical Chainrings - any info or advice on them?

diquad

I have yet to see an elliptical chainring on any bikes on Irish roads but there has to be somebody out there that has them if Wiggo has! Im just wondering if anybody has some experience using them or advice on where to go to buy them?

patrick151

I don't have them, nor have I used them personally, but they are meant to be a pain in the A to set up and shifting suffers. Wiggins only used them while racing last year (he hasn't used them this year yet).
Rotors rings are meant to be more reliable because the ellipticality(?) is less though that will hurt any performance gains

niceonetom

There are two main types of non-circular rings on the market - ROTOR Qrings which are slightly elliptical and Osymetics which are very elliptical.

I can only comment on the Q-rings as that what I have. I like them. For me they encourage keeping a higher cadence as they do (slightly but effectively) lower resistance at the top of each pedal stroke. They take a little getting used to but within a ride or two they feel completely normal. They're light enough and, to me, they're have that ugliness that I associate with ruthless functionality, like CNC brakes or the like. Not so much pretty as purposeful. Shifting is fine once they're set up right, which is a little trickier than with round rings but nothing major really.

Osymetrics, which I have not used but would like to try, are much more bizarrely shaped and are devoid of ramps and pins on the inner surfaces which accounts for their notoriously poor shifting - I can't help but wonder if ROTOR are suffering becasue people tar both with the same brush. Good article here about them. As for Bradders not using them in Oman well:

"Jean-Louis says that it’s effective to go back to training on regular circular chainrings a week before competition and then put the Osymetric back on the day before competition. He calls this the “turbo boost”. I’ve asked around about this and this is what Bradley Wiggins does. However, most of the pros don’t do this because of practical reasons and not wanting to fiddle with the front shifting (most pros only have one training bike, but Wiggo would be well looked after)."

I'd be confident he'll be back on tour-spec bean shaped rings when he means business.

dermabrasion

I have Rotor Q-rings. My LBS offered me a trial of them and I have kept them. I looked at the avilable opinion on the web which was mainly positive. I was told it would take 500K or so to get used to them. I have to say that I immediatly noticed a difference in my pedal stroke, but I liked them right away and there was no learning curve. I am sure they improved my power and noticed this on climbing in the saddle.
There was a learning curve in shifting. I have a chain catcher with them, but on my first time out on a club spin I had to stop 4 times to replace the chain while shifting to the big ring. I find now that when I initiate the shift when me left pedal is at 6 O'Clock, it does fine.
So, I think these are fantastic, but pay attention when shifting

monkeyslayer

I have an old elliptical set up on my steel commuter racer, i don't race or anything so its hard to comment on its performance really, it does feel quite fast out of the saddlle and there is a nice 'kick' in the downstroke when really pumping it, no major problems shifting to the small ring, but then very rarely need to use the small ring in dublin

Idunnowho

Just moved to Qrings... cant say I had any adjustment period in terms of pedal stroke (seemed to be immediate - so either I'm doing something wrong, or right!). Definitely comfortable and possible feeling of freshness and/or minimal increase power in power (I hope to have the power meter back in a few days so might be able to do a test but that would be completely unscientific as cannot recreate exact conditions). I have heard that it requires a 30 day muscle memory buildup and so the optimal solution is to have Qrings (or Osymmetric across all bikes)... not sure I buy that 30 day buildup though.

There is a lot of marketing and user feedback about the benefits/perceived benefits but also a very detailed reserach paper that the benefits are not quite as claimed (although the paper does acknowledge that some benefits remain - will post it if I find it again)

Absolutely no problem shifting.

All in all worth a punt...

mark19184

In the Tour De Connemara last year Bernard Hinault were riding these.

http://29in.ch/post/3034809943/ogival-another-non-round-chainring


They looked crazy!

Rotor were doing a deal for a while through Local bike shops where you could try their rings and if you weren't happy get a refund. I'm not sure if the promotion is still running

Seweryn

diquad wrote: »

I have yet to see an elliptical chainring on any bikes on Irish roads but there has to be somebody out there that has them if Wiggo has! Im just wondering if anybody has some experience using them or advice on where to go to buy them?

I use these slightly ovalised 50x36T chainrings on my commuter / winter / Irish summer / all season / hack / good bike since September and I like them. When they wear out, I will be looking to replace them with the same set.

niceonetom

Seweryn wrote: »

I use these slightly ovalised 50x36T chainrings on my commuter / winter / Irish summer / all season / hack / good bike since September and I like them. When they wear out, I will be looking to replace them with the same set.

Unhelpful link is unhelpful.

What rings are those?

Seweryn

niceonetom wrote: »

What rings are those?

This link should be more helpful .