Weight Weenies

Have you noticed any differences going back to regular rings after using Rotor Rings if any

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I'm one of those who didn't notice any significant difference + or -ve whilst trying out O'symetric, easily going between them and round. I've aborted my trial so will gladly offload my 50/38 compact 110mm.

I rode Q rings for at least 6 months before switching back to round rings. The round rings felt very strange for the first couple of minutes, but after that my pedal stroke smoothed out. That was the only difference I noticed.

Did you find the Rotor Rings helped your pedal stroke and going back to round rings was easier

I have just fitted Rotor rings on my new training bike, had them lying round a while and I decided to try them out. Swapping between bikes I don't notice any real difference, they are on setting 3 to start with. I will let you know if I notice any differences as I do more km on the Rotor rings.

Like others, switching back to round rings felt odd for a half an hour or so but then I noticed no difference.

I ended up switching to shorter cranks over a period of time and I've not looked back. I did this after a winter of experimentation on the Wattbike - which used 170mm cranks.

Since getting used to that, my pedal stroke has improved substantially as evidenced by looking at the polar patterns generated by the wattbike.

I noticed a bigger difference going from osymetric to round than from Rotor to round. Using round rings now I seem to run at a higher heart rate for a given power (measured, but I should probably do more tests). In general, I feel like I expend more energy with round rings for an equivalent output, but this could be that I'm now so used to osymetric. I also have Rotor rings on my other bike, but they are about halfway between round and osymetric in terms of noticeable effect. So if you find Osymetic too dramatic Rotor might be a good middle ground. For me though I cant go back.. I just wish Osymetric rings werent so heavy. 110BCD 52t in the new thicker design is ~200g (big ring only)! A friend of mine who owns a machine shop drilled out holes to drop it 75g but its still really heavy and not very stiff.

One more thing, I think its easier to utilize a longer crank with Osymetric. Longer cranks typically made dragging through the dead zone exhausting on round rings but now its a breeze, and the increased leverage on the pedal stroke seems to make a difference. I ordered some 190mm Ciamillo cranks for this reason but havent tried them quite yet...

The Rotor QXL rings are not much heavier than the normal Q-rings and shifts very well, not at least because of their stiffness compared to the other brand you mention.

Has anybody noticed a drop in watts.

You will notice that your bike shifts-

windsurfingodie wrote:Did you find the Rotor Rings helped your pedal stroke and going back to round rings was easier

I was always more of a spinner to begin with. The Q rings actually tended to make me spin slower which I didn't really like, so while my cadence increased going back to round rings it really just went back to normal. Regarding loss of watts I was immediately faster going back to round rings, but that probably has more to do with waxing and waning of form that chain rings.

I did try switching back to the Q rings for a crit and went from rolling around and chatting during the race to just hanging on. This was the same course with the same group of people at a similar average speed a week later. So, for me at least, the switch from round to Q rings is a much bigger difference than the switch from Q rings to round.

I have ridden Q-Rings on my race bike for nearly 8 years now. I run round rings on my training bike, sometimes with a standard crank and sometimes with PowerCranks. The biggest difference is my heart rate is a little higher for a given power output on round rings and my top end power is higher on Q-Rings. I don't really feel any difference between Q-Rings and round rings.

I have also raced with Osymetric rings and Rotor RSX4 cranks, all work as advertised for me. Only the PowerCranks improve your pedal stroke, but it takes time and dedication. I have been training on PowerCranks off and on over 8 years, first 2 years exclusively except races. My best time trials were done on Osymetric rings, but the Q-Rings feel more natural. The Rotor RSX4 felt the fastest, but I could never match my best on Osymetric rings. To get the most from Q-Rings or Osymetric rings you need to have a pretty smooth pedal stroke to begin with. If you are not applying significant power through the dead spots you probably won't see any significant performance benefit and there is a penalty in shift quality.

My pedal stroke is smoothest on round rings, based on Computrainer SpinScan, 75+ on round rings and ~65-68 on Q-Rings.

Wookieopolis wrote:

windsurfingodie wrote:Did you find the Rotor Rings helped your pedal stroke and going back to round rings was easier

I was always more of a spinner to begin with. The Q rings actually tended to make me spin slower which I didn't really like, so while my cadence increased going back to round rings it really just went back to normal. Regarding loss of watts I was immediately faster going back to round rings, but that probably has more to do with waxing and waning of form that chain rings.

I did try switching back to the Q rings for a crit and went from rolling around and chatting during the race to just hanging on. This was the same course with the same group of people at a similar average speed a week later. So, for me at least, the switch from round to Q rings is a much bigger difference than the switch from Q rings to round.

Interesting I find quite the opposite. Going to Q-rings increased my cadence at least 10rpm on climbs. I'm using the OCP3 position.

I have round rings on one bike and ovals on another, after 6 months on the Ovals I dont notice the difference when I switch between bikes.

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On one Sworks Tarmac I have Qring 36, normal 50.

On the other I have Qrings 34 - 50.

I can no longer notice a difference between any of them. No idea if they make me faster or not, but I like the engineering principle behind them, so......