Talk about a niche that popped up over night. In less than a year, a number of manufacturers including Absolute Black have sprung up offering machined narrow-wide chainrings for your 1x needs. The sudden drive to drop the front derailleur has created a chainring BCD arms race that the smaller, more mobile ring makers seem to be winning. The latest comes from Absolute Black in the form of the 64 BCD 30t ring.
Why 64? Find out next.
After researching chain lines on a number of bikes, Marcin from Absolute black found that the 30t rings performed better and had improved chain line when mounted on on the 64 BCD position on the crank. This was especially true when the ring was mounted to the 104 BCD position on a 2x crank – something we can attest to after using that set up on our Turner Burner. It works, but the chainline is definitely not ideal which led to one drop so far during some very aggressive riding.
By mounting the ring to the inner 64 BCD position on a 3x crank, the chain line is improved to 45mm rather than a 48mm chain line on a 3x crank with something like a WTC 30t 104 BCD ring. Absolute black will initially offer the 64 BCD rings in 28, 30, and 32T configurations.
Other big news for Absolute black is the designation of Tune as their official distributor in Germany. You can check out both if you happen to be headed to Eurobike.
