rotor cranksets

[AngryScientist]

someone edumacate me. i know they have fancy oval rings, but what makes the cranksets so expensive?

http://bikereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/rotor-3d-cranks.jpg

[Joachim]

someone edumacate me. i know they have fancy oval

I think they are stiff, making it ideal for racing (some claim even that they are light). Now I also think that crank stiffness between mid and high end cranks can't be distinguished from each other (ie all threaded BB cranks, even square taper feels good to me). Maybe you can feel increased stiffness with BB30 Hollowgrams, but I haven't tried those out. I have a Quarq on a Rotor 3D and a second 3D to be able to swop between bikes and not change BB's. I use round rings with them. FSA Super Pro or Stronglight CT2, yes with 11 speed. I like the BB options I have, 7900 or Rotor BB1 or Chris King. I feel they last longer than my previous UT Campy bearings but YMMV.

I also don't know if the Rotor oval chainrings improve your riding/power/what not, but they are a bit expensive for my racing budget.

[rice rocket]

someone edumacate me. i know they have fancy oval rings, but what makes the cranksets so expensive?

They're Spanish.

[wooly]

I have them and was somewhat pigeon holed into buying them. I wanted the q-rings and had a 7950 dura ace crankset. The q-rings could be mounted on the DA cranks but you could only use one position. I wanted the added flexibility and dial in the right position for me so I bit the bullet and got the rotors. I got them from twohubs.com at a better than market price. I wasn't too stoked on the looks initially but they've grown on me. And I do like the rings. With my knee issues, they have helped.

Regarding the stiffness? Honestly I can't tell the difference from the DA cranks. But I'm not putting out huge amounts of power.

No habla

[AngryScientist]

thanks all, i'm thinking about trying out some oval rings next season and evaluating my options.

[wooly]

thanks all, i'm thinking about trying out some oval rings next season and evaluating my options.

If you can ride a 55-56, then get out here to the Left Coast and you can take the rig for a spin!

[oldpotatoe]

Ya need these!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160699285761

[Jaq]

someone edumacate me. i know they have fancy oval rings, but what makes the cranksets so expensive?

They're in 3D. Says so right on the crank arm. 'Course it's gonna be more expensive.

The IMAX 3D version is even worse.

[Kontact]

Ya need these!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160699285761
We have some of those in the shop from when the owner was on the national team. Ridiculous.

The Q rings will work on lots of different cranks - including old Suginos or whatever.

The Rotor crankarms are bored out and plugged - lots of machining. They also have a built in preload adjuster thingy on the 3D+ version instead of wave washers. That's part of the expense.

I personally don't care for the Rotor cranks. If I wanted Q rings I'd find some of the older external bolted Hollowtech cranks and use those, or some SRAM or FSA carbon thing.

[echappist]

i got mine new for $284 shipped. Not too bad, i guess, but you do have to source it from Germany.

I only got it b/c it's the only non-BB30 Quarq compatible crank available in 165mm.

[toaster]

thanks all, i'm thinking about trying out some oval rings next season and evaluating my options.

I'm not an expert on these things and what I read about them makes sense to me about the eccentric rings not giving you any real advantage.

The reason lies with the fact that the mechanical advantage or an increase of torque or leverage or gear size gain has to be measured over time and distance. So, an ITT would be an ideal test situation and yet the rings can offer no wattage gain or overall power increase. It's like if you make your muscles work slightly harder over, say 20 degrees of the pedal stroke then your physiology will balance that out with a slight drop somewhere else like simply an overall drop in power in order to pay for that extra muscular tension or work.

I did see where in an anerobic effort lasting for a very short duration like the ten second sprint to the line that maybe the mechanical advantage of eccentric (Rotor) rings could propel the bike many inches or a couple feet in distance more with the same wattage.

[slowandsteady]

They're Spanish.

...so they are out of work!
(23% unemployment in Spain right now)