Wickwerks has just added a new 46/38 cyclocross chainring combo for the SRAM Red/Force 22 cranksets with a 130 BCD that’s designed to work with their hidden bolt design.
There’s no difference in tooth width from their 10- and 11-speed chainrings, so technically these can work with 2012 Red Exogram 10-speed setups, too, but they’re designed with SRAM’s new 11-speed groups in mind.
As such, there’s a little more space between the rings to mimic SRAM’s placement, which helps prevent rub when fully cross chained. SRAM claims the “22” groups can use all 22 gears, and Wickwerks’ engineer Eldon Goates says they’re worked really hard to make sure all of their chainrings work throughout the entire range of gears, but he still doesn’t recommend cross chaining outside of “oh crap, I need to shift” situations. Why? There’s more friction created, so it robs energy, particularly in crappy conditions. And in ‘cross, we need to save all the energy we can. And that extra energy also creates faster component wear.
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The new chainrings will work on 2012 Red Exogram and 2013 Red/Force 22. The Red cranksets thread the fifth (hidden) chainring bolt directly into the crank arm, and the Force 22 uses a stubbier threaded bolt insert on the spider. So, be sure to select the type of crankset when ordering so they include the correct bolt kit. They have very details charts and instructions on their website that make it pretty clear.
Last year they introduced 44/34 (110BCD) and 46/36 (110BCD) cyclocross rings, and both get updated tooth profiles for better shifting smoothness and a bit of noise reduction. Those changes were driven by Mark Compton, Katie’s husband, and Eldon says they’re something that’s so minute that you and I will be hard pressed to notice the difference, but they are just that little bit better.
Speaking of Katie Compton, she’s been running a 42/34 combo using a custom made 42-tooth large chainring. Eldon says with the 11-speed cassettes, there’s no more 12t cog, so a 42 gets the bracketing similar to what she was able to do before, making the entire cassette range useable and making it easier to stay in the middle of the cassette (better chain lines) for her style of riding. He says a 42t is about as small as you can go on a 110BCD. He also says there’s been a lot of demand for them and that they’re figuring out how they can sneak them into the production cycle early so they’ll be out for this season…but that’s still end of December at the earliest. Could be later.
The ‘cross chainrings retail for $152.50 to $158.50 per set.
Lastly, they’ve got a 52/36 110BCD road set coming any day now.
