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Comments - The Curious Case of Osymetric Chainrings

December 25, 2011

Fitted a set of these rings about 4 weeks ago on my turbo bike (with a Polar power meter fitted) an the improvements are across the range - pedaling index and power up, heart rate down - an to be honest after a little fiddling on the front dreileur (shimano) i didn't have any problems getting used to them, so for me great all round!!!
- Nigel, Plymouth

July 25, 2011

Did you even read "the science" in the link above? It says Osymetric as sold (i.e in original) format actually hurts the performance and certainly does not support the O.Symmetric USA claim of 7-10% increase in power.....
- Chris, Washington DC

June 21, 2011

I've been using Rotor's for a couple years now and love them. Don't ever contemplate going back to round. They are a couple miles faster at the same effort everywhere - win-win
- Steve, Tucson

June 20, 2011

Re Thomas Craven - briefly led the Tour De Trump way back in the day. I did some training with him down in Florida back in 1989, he's a hell of a nice guy, and obviously a really good rider. Best of luck to him!
- Tom, Mount Kisco

June 17, 2011

This post seems awfully familiar: http://www.embrocationmagazine.com/online/product-review-osymetric-chainrings What's up with that?
- Marc, Ontario Canada

June 17, 2011

At the Smithsonian Air and Space Museaum, hanging, is the non-motorized aircraft that won the one million dollar prize for flying a prescribed course, with only human power. Look more closely, the machine was powered by a pedal powered bicyle tecnology. Look more closely, the crank is an oval style huge crank. That prize lay unclaimed for a long time, just as bicyclists are now discovering it. Its about time.
- Doug,, Somerset, PA

June 17, 2011

Interesting that that study recommends orientations completely different from the designers of nearly all those rings. Makes me think that their model is somehow flawed.
- Nick, Santa Barbara

June 17, 2011

Peak power means squat. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4018055?dopt=AbstractPlus] "When compared to the reference group, the racing cyclists showed peak values that were significantly lower at all levels of work load." Or put another way - the more you ride, the more efficient you become at providing power to the wheel and won't peak as high on your stroke. Sell more power meters, Assos bibs, and cream. Less fluff please.
- Anon, Anon

June 16, 2011

Very interesting article. It seems lacking without a signature of the author, especially since the author uses very personal comments like, "makes my mouth water." Hope ya'll carry them soon.
- Rene', Little Rock

June 15, 2011

How do you think these rings will affect a true all out sprint? I'm concerned mostly about the impact during a complete neuro-muscular effort at very high cadence.
- Matt, West Chester, PA

June 15, 2011

the front changer issues can be fixed with a road triple front changer,(dura-ace filed down) works a treat!!
- robert, elche, spain

June 15, 2011

If you are masters age rideer and have been riding a while (20 years), this is the third or fouth time in your lifetime you have seen biopace type rings get popular. They never stick around... I classify q-rings rings the same as forwarding an email and for each person on the list Bill Gates at Microsoft personally pays you .02 cents. yeah, right! If you consistently place in the top 20... you will continue to do so with Q rings.
- Keith, Delray Beach, FL

June 15, 2011

These look interesting, but hacking the front derailleur sounds funky to me. I have a pristine 86' Schwinn Cimarron with BioPace that I ride just for a workout I don't really notice them being odd shaped.
- Brian, Los Angeles

June 15, 2011

Per Mr. Sheldon Brown "Biopace chainwheels have the small radius engaged when the cranks are horizontal, the large when they are vertical." Even you write "God forbid" to the notion, so how is this any different? Is it a larger offset to the ellipse? is the amount of offset the difference between a osymetric ring and a Q ring?
- Pat, Springfield

June 15, 2011

@George - since the chain is wrapped around ~1/2 of the chainring, regardless of the shape, the same amount of chain is wrapped. A 42T round ring engages 21 links of chain, just like a 42T elliptical or a 42T square ring would. There may be a slight wobble, but there are people (including the late, great Sheldon Brown) who run/ran Biopace on a single-speed without incident.
- Chris, LRAR

June 15, 2011

Are you sure that's not Tom Hanks from his Bosom Buddies days? heh heh
- Spencer, Charlotte

June 15, 2011

Armpit hair on ladies makes me gag. Im curious if the chainrings wear faster than round ones ? Presumably corners are high friction points
- Dan, Kansas

June 15, 2011

Out of curiosity, since the effective crank size and presumably, effective length of chain taken up, changes through the revolution, doesn't this make the pulleys flop back and forth rapidly? And wouldn't that be kind of rough on that part of the drivetrain?
- George, NYC

June 14, 2011

Regarding the Osymetric v Q-Ring comparison: I can fill you in on my own thinking on the matter when pushing Alaina toward the Osymetrics - very simply, she needed some dramatic help to overcome the problems associated with her hip condition. Compared to the shape of the Osymetrics, the Q-Rings seem like a half measure. My thinking was "why screw around?" - if the non-round concept is a sound solution for her, then she should go all in on the big, crazy looking ones. Yes, I understand the pitfalls of this particular decision making strategy in the age of "evidence based" bike racing. But in Alaina's case, there wasn't much in the way of evidence concerning workable solutions to her problem. So we just took a leap of faith and so far it's paid off.
- Hoover, Philly

June 14, 2011

Alaina, who commented below, took a dramatic leap forward a couple of months ago with the installation of these rings - it shows in both her results and improvement in across the board power numbers in that brief period of time. Yeah, N=1 and YMMV, but I've been right there every step of the way through Alaina's bike racing career and I can tell you that in her case these things are the real deal. Her data backs it up. Something that nobody seems to have touched on, yet, is their use as an "adaptive" device by those with some sort of injury or otherwise limiting physical condition. In Alaina's case, it's a bad hip - the consequence of which means that her ability to deal with a "high torque" scenario, like certain climbs, that require a lot of hip flexor activation gives her serious problems. These rings remedy the situation to such an extent that she her riding is at a whole other level right now. I can speculate that someone with touchy knees - or, for that matter, anything aggravated by lateral tension across the top of the of the pedal stroke - would see some improvement. As far as the installation goes, the only thing I found slightly vexing was the rings themselves are rather thin compared to other modern round rings. On her Quarq/Sram crank, for example, I needed to use single-stack track chainring bolts to get everything to fit together tightly. And yes, various spacers and delicate fine tuning were required with her braze-on front derailleur bikes (Specialized Tarmac & Transition). However, installing the rings on her standard clamp-on front derailleur bikes was a no-brainer - no spacers required. Tom's availability and support have been outstanding, however, so even I, a relative klutz, managed the installations successfully. So, honestly, I think the concerns about complicated installation and adjustment are a little exaggerated. It's certainly something any shop wrench could handle. It's just not something you do in a hurry or the night before a big event. Anyway, that's my $.02. IMO you're doing yourself and your clientele a disservice by not carrying these things.
- Hoover, Philly

June 14, 2011

If you're going to have to jerry rig it,why not a 1x10? Solves the whole derailleur issue...
- James Liu, Chicago

June 14, 2011

Thank you @Sergio and @Alaina, I'm right back where I started: I want to try Osymetric, torn :-)
- Matthew, PRoB

June 14, 2011

Pro-tour races are won using both round AND non-round chainrings. This suggests there’s no significant advantage (or disadvantage) to either.
- Sergio!, Manitowoc

June 14, 2011

Interesting. I put my rings on an SRAM Quarq as well as SRAM Rival & Specialized crank sets and have had no problems with them. Sure it took some time to get the shifting dialed in -- some tinkering with the front derailleur but nothing crazy like having to grind down the crank. I've been riding on them for a little over a month now and have had chronic hip problems (most of my labrum has been shaved away inside my hip socket) so increase in torque & force has made competitive bike racing challenging. This is something that my other half has been implicitly professing I should use ever since Bobby Julich has raced on them. I finally caved -- and I've been able to climb & stay with competitive fields. I can't say enough great things about them, except they work. Hands down.
- Alaina, Philadelphia

June 14, 2011

The problem with and the beauty of the cycling world is that it's filled with free thinkers who have to do things their own way. Sometimes, you gild the lilly, other times you turn chicken shit into chicken salad. Most if the time, you get weird looking stuff.
- Steve, Muami

June 14, 2011

It isn't clear to me why Osymetric rings provide any greater benefit than Q-Rings (which I ride). I'm guessing you've ridden Q-Rings since CC sells them. Will you please elucidate via a comparison with Q-Rings, pointing out the deficiencies of Q-Rings in relation to Osymetric rings?
- Thomas, Jacksonville

June 14, 2011

Matt, Osymetric's tech is already solid but the hard part is just setting up the front derailleur. I ride these rings and personally i love them especially as it has helped me smooth out my pedal stroke 10 fold. As for the front derailleur i lucked out as Bobby Julich has a house here in reno and him being one of the first true advocates for Osymetrics had alot of his bikes worked on at my LBS VeloReno. So when i went in there with these crazy rings they knew exactly what to do and of course asked if Bobby had turned me onto them, I do agree that for people not as lucky as i was there should def be some sort of video or well guided manual to show proper set-up. With that i actuaky talked to their pr guy this morning on twitter @OsymetricsUSA and he told me that they had read the article and were working on some things addressed in it.
- Nate, Reno, NV

June 14, 2011

So are you saying the Osymetric are way better than Rotor Q-Rings? If I wanted to try out non-round rings should I wait for Osymetric to get farther along or buy some Rotor rings today?
- Matt, Portland