Rotor Q-ring question

[Marin]

I don't think oval rings will let you make more power, but they might reduce fatigue, and that's very hard to measure.

I prefer the feel, and I know I use a slighly lower cadence with them. The also reduce the feeling of a too easy end-stroke near bottom dead center when pedaling standing up. This was immediately apparent to me when I ride the bike I switched back to round rings for looks

[grouk]

beyond the FD still have to deal with the ocp, my case 2 in the big ring 4 in the small ring

[Tinea Pedis]

I have just gone back to round rings on my road bike - but keeping QXL on my TT rig. Run P2M on all my bikes. Have found a slight power difference between the Q-Rings and round (same as found in the Twitter link). I liked the q-rings, just gone to round rings to see if I can feel a difference. So far...not. But would not be without them on the TT bike.

I'm really interested to hear your personal results on this... as the osymetric guy is all about using round rings for training and oval for racing (I've heavily paraphased of course)

I'll let you know as the road race season goes along. Thoughts after nearly a month of this set up is that it's a lot easier going from oval rings back to circular than it was initially going from round to ovalised. Can switch between the two with only about 5 minutes of it feeling a little different. After that point no worries with either.

[addictR1]

grouk: is there a reason why the ocp is set differently on the inner and outter chainring? initially i thought if you are running position 3 (since it's most common), you should also set the inner to match that.

[grouk]

I can not explain the physics. in the big ring i roll in the drops or with elbows at 90º because of that I have a tendency to move forward in the saddle in the ocp 2 in the big ring the stroke is more "vertical"... I really can not explain,It is a matter of sensations...

[addictR1]

err.. i bought my inner ring from amazon and the bike shop that listed it shipped me the shimano one 104x4 bcd instead of what i ordered 110bcd... plus i ordered QXL.. they shipped me QX1

[superdx]

Is it normal that there's a slight chain noise every time I put power in the pedal? A "feature" of the q-rings? Happens whenever going up a hard climb or when standing sprinting.

[dmoneysworks]

I'll let you know as the road race season goes along. Thoughts after nearly a month of this set up is that it's a lot easier going from oval rings back to circular than it was initially going from round to ovalised. Can switch between the two with only about 5 minutes of it feeling a little different. After that point no worries with either.

Good luck with NRS season and I look forward to hearing your results.

I've noted exactly the same, that kicking at top dead centre when you first move from oval to round disappears within 5mins. I know your a ITT guy but assume you will do 2/3rd's of your riding on the roadie with round rings vs. the oval/ TT rig this summer?

[Tinea Pedis]

Had a bit of time off post-Nationals. But first VRS Tour is a month away so will be back on the TT rig this week. Performance aspect aside, I simply enjoy riding it so never end up spending a whole lot of time away from it. So the couple of weeks off that I've had is about as long as I go.

[lewolive]

A Qrings in position 3 is pretty close to a round chainring. Many riders will adopt oval with a few hundreds miles.
However, it remains hard to measure the real gain. I think it's first when the cadence is reduced, like 60-70 RPM and when you need to accelerate after a little climb. At the same time I find Qrings hard to use when the cadence is changing quickly, like on a criterium.
My own choice is to use position 2 for TT, position 3 for training or road racing, and keeping round for criterium.

The new Qarbon is well finished and is reducing the noise.The better stiffness is only sensitive at a high wattage and I don't really feel the weight saving. Clearly a beautiful product, but a "nice to have". Qrings is more a "must have".

[Marin]

I love then a company states "8% lighter and 20% stiffer" than the previous version...

1) Why not 8% stiffer and 20% lighter - are the aluminum rings really that noodly that a 20% increase in stiffness a valid engineering goal???
2) How much does your product weight now?

[tinozee]

None of the studies show anything much! Anyone on here claiming they know one way or the other as if it is fact, is looking to be a know-it-all. It may be impossible to test this.

And like I said earlier - It's not a concern that it reports power differently or inaccurately if you can manage basic math. It just requires a different slope and then it's the same thing as round power data. Any bobo who's trained with power for more than a season understands this.

People should really just try it and see. And definitely not comment in here if they have no idea beyond the crap studies. Or the ancient, weak arguments that it's a gimmick or the next biopace.

[addictR1]

i'll put up some photos and weights of the rings when i get them. won't be an apple to apple comparison since i'm going from 50/34 Red to 52/36 QXL rotor

[1415chris]

[addictR1]

Damn.. That heavy?