Again, thanks for all the input everyone, I really appreciate it.
The design with some of the "wide" teeth not being truly wide I don't understand either. The weight saved by this must be 1-2 grams maximum. I did not realize this when I bought it, and most of their product pictures does not show this "feature". On the 30T ring, 15 of the teeth are supposed to be wide, but 5 of these are only wide on the outside and narrow on the inside, leaving only 10 truly wide teeth.
DanW wrote:Few things....
A 30T chainring will always compromise your chainline a little due to the required offset. Just stick to a 32T. Working marginally harder on the climbs is preferable to chain drops. Extralite make a 30T with the least offset IIRC if you really do insist on sticking with it and chainline is your only issue.
Thanks for your input, Dan. However, I think the chainline is pretty good actually. In theory, you would like the chainring slightly offset inwards to the bigger cassette cogs (as opposed to have it dead center on the cassette), as the larger diameter of the bigger cogs result in a larger angle for the chain. For example, a 42t cog has a 4,2 times larger diameter than a 10t, so the distance from where the chain leaves the chainring and engages the cassette is shorter. Or imagine running 100t cassette cog, you would need to offset the chainring inward to compensate for the larger diameter.
So I don't think the chainline is the problem here, and they could have constructed less built-in offset if they had wanted to. Besides, I have this chain drop issue not only on the 11t cog, but also on the 13.
I will give the clutch a proper look, but I don't expect it to solve my problems. But it's worth a try. Chain length should not be an issue, the chain is far from slack on the 11t cassette cog. I'm only running a 11-36 cassette, and if I would have run an extender (say 40t or 42t even), the chain would have had to be longer. So my current length should not be causing these problems in my opinion.
DanW wrote:The chainring design should be last on the list of problems (if we ignore the offset required for the 30T for a second). The clutch mech does the majority of the work keeping the chain on. You should be able to get away fairly well with the right clutch tension, chainline and chain length only.
That would be my hope too, but as far as I'm concerned, the chainline and length are correct (chainline also confirmed by Carbon-Ti), so that leaves the clutch, the chain and the chainring design.
To be continued...