oval rings

[Tony]

I like them! I have them on all my bikes, road and mtb, except one, cross bike. If I spent lots of time on the cross bike when I get back on the road bike (w/ovals) it takes a few miles to feel like I'm pedaling a round ring again. Almost all those who I mtb with use them on their 1x setup. One person in our mtb group is a single speeder, has been for 15 ten years or more. He said after he went to an oval "it felt like I'm cheating"

[fogrider]

thanks for the responses. I'm going to start with a gravel bike I"m going to build in the next few months. I'm planning on a 1x 11 speed drivetrain. if I like it, I'll start converting my road bikes...I currently have 5 road bikes.

[jumphigher]

I've had the olf Biopace rings on several older bikes. Lot's of people bashed them but I always liked them, though I cant say they made a huge difference. I'd be willing to try the newer versions though.

[hobbanero]

I've been riding Oval...mostly Q rings, for a few years. I also rode Osymetric (which are twin cam, not oval) for a while.

While I like the oval, I have been switching back and forth on the road bike lately. At the higher rpms of a road bike, I don't notice the benefit as much, except when I am in the drops late in a hard effort, when I am starting to pedal squares. Oval makes it easier to come over the top at a pinched hip angle. The Osymetric's were especially nice for this, but otherwise, the dramatic on/off of the power curve feels weird to me, and their shifting is hard to set up well. I use them on my TT bike for this reason. I tried the more dramatic Q rings on the TT bike, but felt like they were a bit much. I do a lot of one-legged drills, so my pedal stroke does not need a lot of help over the top.

Where I most enjoy it and feel like it helps is on an mtb, where you have generally lower cadences, and you hit rocks/roots with your feet at top and bottom of the pedal stroke, which can be hard to push through. Though I think the Q rings shift well, because they are heavily ramped and very stiff, on an mtb I am running 1x, so no shifting issues to worry about.

Oval rings can create issues with certain spider-based power meters.

Finally, as far as I know, there is no independent study that has validated the performance benefits of oval rings. From a mechanical point of view, they make sense, but apparently you do some trickery with your ankles on a round ring to get the same result. Maybe that is less effective at lower rpms.

In a nutshell, my experience with them is that I like them. I am not convinced they help on the road bike, but on a TT bike or mtb, I feel like they offer an advantage.

[Mark McM]

Here's a recently published study, which shows that noncircular chainrings don't increase maximal power:

http://journals.humankinetics.com/do.../jab.2017-0035


Noncircular chainrings will change the pedal speed & leverage ratio through out the pedalling circle. But what the study author found was that riders naturally vary their ankle angles during the pedal stroke to maintain their preferred hip & knee angular velocities and muscle power, regardless of whether the chainrings are circular or noncircular.

[toosahn]

Really enjoying my 38T Absolute Black oval chainring on my 1x setup. Have only used it a handful of times but already I'm feeling less fatigued at the end of climbs.