Oval chain rings experience

[Mcdeez]

I know its been debating for a while, just wanned to hear some experience for you guys

im gonna probably try Absolute black ones

[bikeboy1tr]

I run a 52 outer AB and the inner is a Rotor36 both oval on DA 9000, reason being an inner and outer AB have a gap between that is big enough to swallow a 11 speed chain which can be a PITA. With the Rotor as an inner the gap between the two is narrow enough to keep the 11 sp chain from getting sucked in. I like the oval rings as they work for me but I run etap which can be pretty finiky to set up the FD but I made it work. Also the Rotor is a little more oval than the AB which makes the chain throw from the 36 to the 52 a little closer.

[bas]

I'm about to try an AB oval 39 chainring, leaving my standard 53 Dura Ace. The logic of oval with better torque at lower cadence made sense to me (seems very popular in mountain biking), not so much for the big chainring- sprinting, etc. Should be here tomorrow so can let you know what I think.

[tomee]

run them on all bikes except my gravel as there are no 80BCD oval chainrings available for GRX cranks

my knees thank me for it.

[wltz]

I'm running oval inner / round outer (Rotor Q/noQ) on my bikes. I find that oval inner gives me an easier climbing gear at lower (and more controlled) cadence whereby I can remain seated for longer on some steep gradients. Round outer for better shifting and high cadence accelerations.

[TobinHatesYou]

AB chainrings don't have anti-drop pins, so you can't pick up your chain with a downshift if it drops to the outside. Also you run a bigger risk of mangling drivetrain components if the chain wraps around the crankarm.

[Mcdeez]

run them on all bikes except my gravel as there are no 80BCD oval chainrings available for GRX cranks

my knees thank me for it.

Ive heard thats better for the knees, but ive also heard its worse lol

[MaxPower]

Run AB on r8050. 53/39 and 50/34 sets. The 53/39 shifts better than the 50/34, but shifting is still good with the 50/34. The r9100/r8000 sets take the space between wings into account and the outer ring fills this spaces so that you can't jam the chain between rings.

I had not had any overshift issues, but fd adjustment is very crucial and needs to be spot on.

Had rotor q-rings with sram red 10 speed, that would through the chain regularly over the big ring, no matter the fd adjustment.

So, they work for me, may not work for others.
I like ovals as they give me a "stomp-stomp" sensation instead of the feeling of "skiing"/"going through mud". I find round rings to give a more monotone sensation/pain and ovals give me a 2-stroke sensation. Hard to explain.

They work better with my knees too.

[Lucendi]

I ran Rotor Q-rings 53/39t for a while. I took about 45minutes to get used to riding.

I never got the front derailleur to work right with the Q-rings and I dropped the chain constantly and my crankset got scratched up.

I finally gave up the experiment and returned to round rings and never had a chain drop since.

[alanyu]

I had runned AB 48-32 for over 6 months. It took me about one month to get used to oval rings. The shift quality is better than rotor oval rings, but still can drop outwards. I felt AB rings better than round rings when climbing, especially on steep HCs. However, I definitely dislike it on flat. I tends to spin over 110 rpm on flat with AB rings which increases my hrm at a similar power vs. round rings. Now I'm running with round rings where all flat.

[Hexsense]

Not working well for me on flat (see last paragraph for where it works).
The workload is reduced from weaker muscle, but there is no free lunch, extra work pile up on the stronger muscle.
This sound good right? But what if my stronger muscle is usually the one that tire out and give up first, rather than the weaker one that just never seems to gas out even after 5 hours?

That's... what I found. We all know that, for the same average power, putting out power consistently is easier than surges of hard and easy interval. With round ring, my force spread across large rance of motion. Push forward at the top and pull back at the bottom with two legs, push downward with one leg (no pull up on the hind leg). This spread is relatively even. Down stroke with one leg is still stronger than push+pull with two legs naturally, but it contribute quite a bit regardless.
Oval ring de-emphasize top push forward and bottom pull backward, which was shared by two legs simultaneously. And then give extra work for down stroke which is performed by one leg at a time. My quads just burn faster with oval ring when cruising on flat.

However, there is one use case that I see useful. It's when you run out of gear and struggle to generate enough torque to climb. In this case you naturally stand up and push down hard. The top and bottom push and pull technique just break down in this case. And you'd be better stand and climb using oval ring. For this case, I'd consider using oval only on small ring and keep big ring round.

[tmr5555]

Running 52 - 36 Doval with %13 outer and %16 inner ring ovality for more than 5 years.
The below is entirely subjective:
Positive:
1- less tiring, same power for less effort or more power for same effort. It is the best parts of a compact chainset and 53-39 melded together
2- after one ride does not feel funny at all
3- Works best with time trialling or drilling out a pace during a climb.
4- possibly easier on knees

Negative:
1- sprinting may be funny
2- chain drop is possible unless set up perfectly
3- seems to lower cadence
4- difficult to spin up the crank

Neutral
1- bamboozles some power meters

[Hexsense]

Not working well for me on flat....

Adding to what I wrote above:
What I wrote is only true if you have appropriate crank length which allow the top push bottom pull action with ease. When I use crank arms that are too long, it's simply impossible to generate any significant power at the top and bottom part of the pedal stroke (legs are either too stretched or compressed to work). Since the crank is too long and you can't generate much power outside of down stroke, oval chainring will also help with knee discomfort. However, rather than buying oval chainring, you can also solve it at the root cause: make a switch to shorter crank arms.

[Mcdeez]

Only thing is bothering me is hearing about the shifting

[tomee]

Has anyone tried the osymetric rings which looks to be almost rectangle like