For different reasons I did not like the single ring options available so far.
-chaincatchers in various options: just not as reliable as I want them the to be
-frontderailleur as a chaincatcher: dito + it looks odd, weight penalty and it lacks the bonus of easy cleaning of the BB area by just putting the chain aside
-double bashring: oldest & best solution so far. Very reliable + easy cleaning as explained above. But, having the chainring on the outer position and me being not so strong, I have my chain on the inside sprockets most of the time. The wear of the chain doesn't bother me. But the effort wasted to cause this wear does: I want as much of my energy as possible to help me going forward!
As I really like the single ring set up I wanted to try the new option for mountainbikes on my CX bike: a narrow-wide chainring. See for information on narrow-wide chainrings Wolftooth, Race Face, SRAM and other manufacturers.
Designed for mountainbike in combination with a special clutch deraillleur narrow-wide is not available for Campagnolo.
Now what? Because I own two Stevens carbon team bikes with the most beautiful crankarms ever made: Record carbon square taper. What to do?
I purchased a Race Face (due to availability in the Netherlands) 40 teeth narrow-wide chainring 130 BCD. Then carefully spaced up the 5 holes to match the 135 BCD Campy crankarms. To be more secure that I won't ruin my crankset I used spacers made of an old chainring for a more even powerdistribution on the crankarm. Having one other problem solved at the same time: the chainringbolts, which are different for Campy carbon cranks, need not to be shortened.
The hidden chainringbolt on the inside only needed two of the same spacer normally used to match.
Two more further steps and off I went:
-rearderailleurtension was set up at the highest
-chain is kept almost as short as possible
Both to prevent the chain from dropping of the chainring and so compensate for the lack of a clutch type rearderailleur (SRAM / Shimano).
I've done +10 rides now and the chain has bever failed me. Among them very bumpy tracks, with and without roots. Technical courses with a lot of turning, shifting, loose sand downhills and a midsummerrace. Shifting under load while humping & bumping: no sweat, it all worked excellent so far.
There has more testing to be done to be sure if this is as reliable as I want it to be. Among that should be heavy mud tracks. I will keep you posted to give more feedback how it holds up (the feedback may take a while).





