Ovalized rings, anyone?

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avispa
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:36 am

by avispa

Are any of you folks using ovalized chainrings such as the Rotor Q Rings or O Symetric?
I got a set of Q rings that would fit my Campy 5 bolt SRM power meter and I’m curious if these rings are worth a try...

Do power meters need to be sent in for calibration to use with these specialized non-round rings?

Thanks!
Last edited by avispa on Sun Jun 03, 2018 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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tabl10s
Posts: 754
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2017 5:40 am

by tabl10s

Can't speak for power meters, but I have two bikes with Rotor Quarbon's(compact/standard)and I like them as I have bad knees.

One thing I noticed was no sudden leg "drop" during the power phase(as with Shimano's Biopace)until you got used to them.
Last edited by tabl10s on Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:21 am, edited 2 times in total.
2015 Pinarello F8: 13.13lbs/5.915kg(w/Roval 64's). Sold.
2016 Rca: 11.07lbs/5.048kg.
2015 Rca. 11.15 lbs(w/Roval CLX 32's)
2015 Rca/NOS(sold).
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TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

Most PMs will read a little high because they don’t measure cadence at a high enough frequency to compensate for the micro-acceleration in your pedaling with non-round rings. It’s not going to be a massive difference, maybe 2-3% and it should be fairly consistent so you could just live with the slightly inflated numbers. If you have a PM with the capability of manual offset, you can always do that too.

At least for us SRAM Yaw users, oval rings are a bit of a pain to deal with. A lot of people throw their chains over the big ring with round rings, let alone Q-Rings. Shimano FDs seem to deal with them much better. Don’t know about Campagnolo.

Qarbon rings are 5mm thick instead of 4mm so keep that in mind. It shouldn’t present a problem except for SRAM hidden-bolt patterns, but just leaving it here.

addictR1
Posts: 1878
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2012 1:11 am

by addictR1

I use the QXL rings and I love them. But yea it’s a PITA with Red YAW FD.


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bilwit
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Location: Seattle, WA

by bilwit

If you're curious about them, try them. There is no absolute answer, it's just preference. I've tried QxL and Osymetric and the first initial feeling after being on round rings is kind of weird (like pedalling in squares) but it feels normal after a few kms. I currently have one bike with oval and the other with round and switch between the two pretty regularly. At this point, if I only had to use round rings, I wouldn't really miss ovals. I could take it or leave it. :noidea:

As for power on it, Stages has on their FAQ that there's likely a 4-5% increase in the readings. Like all power meters though, the reading is normalized to that specific setup so a "100w" effort on your normal setup would be the exact same as a "104w" effort on the oval setup.

TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

bilwit wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:22 am

As for power on it, Stages has on their FAQ that there's likely a 4-5% increase in the readings. Like all power meters though, the reading is normalized to that specific setup so a "100w" effort on your normal setup would be the exact same as a "104w" effort on the oval setup.
I think 4-5% would be reserved mainly for QXL rings and 2-3% is more representative of regular Q-Rings.

I will say that I am a fan of Q-Rings from a theoretical standpoint. It is better to make elongate the peak power phase with your glutes and quads than to engage in circular pedaling...fatiguing your calves/hamstrings prematurely. Whether it's worth the occasional chain drop is up for debate. A chain drop once a week? I could deal with that. Once per ride, nope.

Shrike
Posts: 2019
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 5:08 pm

by Shrike

I would say try them out. I've spent the best part of a year with eTap and Q-Rings and a couple of months on QXL.

Personally I love how they feel at high cadences and probably suit guys who love getting on the nose and mashing it out on their quads best.

That said, I've ordered round rings and will be switching back this week. I just can't get eTap to play as well as I want with them. I can set it to work decently, but after a few rides it'll need some adjusting again. And even when you think you've got it set up great, it'll still occasionally let you down and throw the chain over.

I've developed a habit of shifting to the big ring, waiting a moment, then glancing down as I turn the pedal over into the big ring to make sure the chain isn't going over.

That's why recently I've decided enough is enough. Shifting should definitely not be like that on a high end rig like mine. I should be able to shift more confidently and not be a bit neurotic about it. Also it's boring playing with the FD to get it right. Note too that local mechanics are not your saviour with this. How they can get it in the shop isn't reflective of how it will shift a couple of weeks later on the road. You need to master your adjustments yourself.

I will be a bit sad but at least I can say I gave it a proper run.

Interestingly though, part of me is looking forward to the round rings as they're like a new experience again :P

mbdurham17
Posts: 66
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2017 10:12 pm

by mbdurham17

I have been using rings on my mtn bike for about 8 years. When I switched to road about a year ago I initially started with etap and regular rings but switched to q rings rather quickly as I have found that although the shifting is noticeably worse the q rings are much easier on a severe knee injury (torn MCL) I had while mtn biking for some reason. I’d much rather deal with shifting not being as smooth than knee pain.


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northwestern
Posts: 130
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2015 11:13 pm
Location: Phoenix,AZ

by northwestern

I tried Osymetric. I felt no differnce other than my bike felt a little heavier. I usually have S-works.

Hexsense
Posts: 3270
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 12:41 am
Location: USA

by Hexsense

There is a theory that Q-ring make sense in paper for performance perspective but with good pedaling practice, the ankle movement actually cancel out the disadvantage of non-circular rings. Your ankle can elongate power phrase and reduce time spent in deadspot just like the Q-rings. So you end up not gaining anything other than reduced ankle movement on non-circular rings (in term of performance).

But perfect ankling movement and fluid pedaling technique does not achieveable on every body. I believe i'm still smoother on Q-rings. And it still reduce knee pain on some people anyway.

wingguy
Posts: 4318
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:43 pm

by wingguy

northwestern wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 7:13 pm
I tried Osymetric. I felt no differnce other than my bike felt a little heavier. I usually have S-works.
Really? I tried a friend's bike with Osymetric and thought I was going to bounce straight off of it. I had to stop half a mile down the road because I was laughing so much :P The ovalisation seemed to be totally out of phase with my pedal stroke so for other people it may feel completely different but still, the change in feel was dramatic.

Earlier this year I put the new Aldhu (halfway between Q and QXL) on my bike and I'm quite impressed. I don't believe that they allow you to generate more power, but I feel more stable on the bike during hard efforts and easier to retain a fluid rythm instead of pedalling squares when in the red. Also with the q-spiderring and R8000 mech the upshift is, to my surprise, absolutely superb. Probably partly the stiffness of the one piece rings, partly that it looks like they've deepened the ramps and pins but honestly, it picks up onto the big ring quicker and quieter even than the Shimano chainset and has never thrown it over.

Dropped on the shift down to small ring a couple of times, but a touch tighter on the low limit seems to have sorted it.

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LePouletTrapu
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:19 pm
Location: Scotland, UK

by LePouletTrapu

I've tried both rotor normal oval rings which felt not too different to round rings, and also osymetrics which you definately notice for the first few km. I got rid of the osymetrics due to the noise which you get as the chain engages with the large flat section of the chainring on every pedal stroke plus they were a pain to setup with the front mech, quite a hit of rubbing which I just could not get rid of however I expect that's quite bike specific. Shifting was fine although a bit louder and had more dropped chains so that with the extra noise meant they ended up on eBay.

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IrrelevantD
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by IrrelevantD

I'm using Absolute Black on both my road and cx bikes. Love them spinning at high cadence, especially uphill. Foot comes over the top of the cirle a bit easier. I didn't notice it as much when I first switched, but I REALLY noticed it when I switched back to round rings for a day or two.

As for the power meter, my PM is the WatTeam, which is crank arm mounted. I haven't noticed any dicernable difference in readings.

Downside... it took a bit of work to get FD setup tuned well. It's much more sensative to slight discrepancies in H/L limit settings and more suceptable to the chain dropping from the big to the small ring in larger cogs.
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NiFTY
Posts: 1493
Joined: Sat May 26, 2012 11:26 pm

by NiFTY

I have uses q rings for 7 or 8 years. I used to get knee pain as i don't have great pedalling technique. I coukd not get shifting to work properly with the yaw fd so i run a force fd with both road bikes and di2 on tt and they all shift perfect. Nil dropped chains. I both a mtb 2 years ago and got similar knee paim so i am now running absolute black oval narrow wide ring with good success.
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audiojan
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Location: New Hampshire

by audiojan

I've been using Q-rings for over 10 years... absolutely love them. I thought it would take me a few months to get used to them, but the first ride felt natural, didn't notice the ovalization in terms of feel. What I have noticed is that I do recover quicker and feel stronger during the rides, as well as having fewer knee issues. Being a duathlete, I can also say for certain that I do run better off the bike with Q-rings compared to traditional round rings.
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