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Pedal into new Absoluteblack Ovals for the road to improve pedaling and shifting

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absoluteblack-road-Oval-chainring-Ultegra-6800-Dura-ace-9000-qrings-2

With a couple exceptions around the Bikerumor crew, we’ve become oval chainring converts. While Rotor’s been at it for quite a while, Absolute Black has been pushing the aftermarket harder than anyone. And not just by machining drool-worthy components, but by making sure they have as many crankset fitting options as possible. Fortunately for all of us, they keep finding ways to improve their product’s performance.

Or, in this case, bring that performance to new segments. The new Absoluteblack Oval Road Premium chainrings follow their narrow/wide mountain and cyclocross single rings, but take a whole new approach by offering smooth shifting across double chainrings for the road…

absoluteblack-road-Oval-chainring-Ultegra-6800-Dura-ace-9000-qrings-4

Absolute Black first started turning out ovals for the mountain bike crowd, but they say they’ve had demand from roadies. They presented their first road offerings at Eurobike in September and now have an expansive set of offerings. While oval rings have proven to improve performance by easing up the gear ratio during the weaker position in the pedal stroke so not to lose as much momentum when entering the stronger portion of the rotation, one of the drawbacks is front shifting. With 1X mountain bike systems it didn’t really matter -chain retention was more important- but on the road, you have two chainrings. And when they’re oval, the distance between the chainring and front derailleur doesn’t remain consistent, which can reducing shifting efficiency.

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The new Absoluteblack Oval Road Premium chainrings feature an extensive, complex machining process unique to other systems on the market. Most chainrings have pinned “catch” points that grab the chain and carry it up a flat surface. Think of it as rock climbing up a sheer face.

Although those catch points are essential, Absoluteblack found a different way of making the chain move. Rather than abrupt pins and miniature ramps carved into the back of the ring, AB machined a ridged, sloped inside face with six angled grooves that help guide the chain upward and support along the way, even under load. Think of it as the difference between grabbing and shoving the chain up and encouraging it to smoothly move of its own accord and at an even speed. And because there’s six of those grooves, it should shift at any point in the crank’s rotation regardless of how the front derailleur is sitting in relation to the ring.

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Another key to crisp, accurate shifting is to make sure the chainrings stay stiff. Though the machining is sexy as hell, it also creates a stiff, strong ring that holds its linear position even under heavy loads and eliminates as much material as possible to keep it light. AB says they’re 5mm thick, making them 15% stiffer than Rotor’s Qrings.

All of Absoluteblack’s chainrings’ timing are pre-clocked in the position they found to be most optimized in relation to the crankarm’s position. This takes any guesswork out of setup, and it saves weight. Outer rings come in Black, Racing Red, or Grey and retail for $124 (50T & 52T). Inner rings come in black only for $61.95 (34T & 36T). They’re available in Shimano’s asymmetric 110/4 bcd for cranks like Dura-Ace 9000, Ultegra 6800 and 105 5800.

New folder 36T_

Though not near as pretty (or visible), the small oval rings follow the same ovality as their big sisters. If you’re on the fence, Absoluteblack says oval rings shine best when climbing or correcting a less than perfect pedal stroke. It’s fine to mix ring shapes but they recommend starting with the small oval ring first and determine if a big ring is necessary. Some pro riders will do this to keep their sponsor’s big ring visible while taking advantage of the oval’s benefits.

Specs from Absoluteblack:

Size (Mass +/-1g): 34T (31g), 36T (37g), 50T (120g), 52T (137g) (38&53T coming soon)
Color Black, Racing Red, Grey (inner ring in black only)

Compatibility

Shimano Dura-Ace 9000, Ultegra 6800, Shimano 105 5800, Tiagra 4700

BOLTS For Outer chainring please order Long bolts. Use original bolts if changing Inner ring only.
Material & Finish CNC machined 7075 Txxx Aluminum with hard Type II anodizing

Ovality

Optimized to each size separately. 34T- 6.5% ; 36T- 11.4%, 50/52 – 10.3% ; Timing of 108 -109.5° after TDC (top dead center) – Ideal for road climbing. Patent Pending.

 

AbsoluteBlack.cc/Oval-Road

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28 Comments
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Will
Will
8 years ago

So, BioPace is back in style?? Hahaha!

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen
8 years ago

Well that grabs the eye, and no mistake!

sad
sad
8 years ago

that doesn’t look very aero 😉
I think another reason for ab’s success is that their rings for mtb are well priced.
Not sure how interesting its on the big ring, but i do like the feel of oval on my mtb.
I suspect its more interesting for the small ring in particular, as long as front shifting isnt too impacted.

MaraudingWalrus
MaraudingWalrus
8 years ago

I may be wanting something too obscure, but I want a narrow wide oval ring that’s for road 1x usage…maybe I’m just insane.

lambournrr
lambournrr
8 years ago

Rotor do QX1 rings from 38T to 52T

Kal
Kal
8 years ago

Not too obscure, both absoluteBLACK and ROTOR make them!

Bill
Bill
8 years ago

I generally like his stuff, but I’m sorry.. those look awful. The hollowtech cranks from this and the last generation look terrible with aftermarket rings in them. You’ve taken something with smooth, sleek lines and put gawdy red spiderwebs in it’s place.

Also, don’t love the blatant rip off of wickwerks’ bridge shifting.

greg
greg
8 years ago

@Bill,
I hate to tell you, but that general ramp style is much older than Wickwerks. Look at Real Designs chainrings from the ’90s. Five ramp sets, one at each spider arm. Plenty of others as well.
The point of The Big Three’s ramp placement, however, is to delay the actual chain crossing until the crank is at the weakest point in the pedal stroke. It’s easier on everything at that moment.

cerebis
cerebis
8 years ago

Checked out their site and I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping to see some sort of evidence based demonstration of the performance benefit of their product. All I can find are marketing anecdotes.

Skip
Skip
8 years ago

Thank god now I can get off of these AWFUL Dura Ace chainri……
god I cant even say it.

bb_nl
bb_nl
8 years ago

@MaraudingWalrus Rotor has narrow-wide x1, also in oval. Road (52 down to 46 teeth) and CX (44 down to 32 teeth) versions. Only for symmetric 5-bolt 110BCD cranks I believe. I have 3 round ones (which are fine) and one oval one (which I’ve not tested yet).

ps: If you use narrow-wide in muddy conditions, you will still need a chain catcher.

Alex
Alex
8 years ago

Think of a muddy ride. Would you want to clean these afterwards?
CNC may be cool. But this is what a company does when they just have CNC mills and nothing else. And for AB the CNC work is done by contractors.
They simply don´t have the technology to do things the way Shimano does.
Like putting in steel pins or combining carbon and aluminum for hollowglide rings.
All they can (let) do is to mill aluminum sheets. This is old-school and low tech these days.

MaraudingWalrus
MaraudingWalrus
8 years ago

@bb_nl maybe I have an old price-list, but I couldn’t find anything narrow-wide (and oval) bigger than their CX in a 44.

hooby
hooby
8 years ago

@MauradineWalrus, you can also check out Amber Bikes (from Lithuania). They have exactly what you are looking for. I will warn you that it took forever to arrive and you can only order on eBay but I’ve used Rotor rings for years and love them. However, I couldn’t find a 52t or even 50t narrow wide oval from them. I’m running the Amber Bikes ring for a month now and really pleased even in winter mud. bb_nl might be right about Rotor having one but I couldn’t find and the Amber bikes version was about $45 less

hooby
hooby
8 years ago

I mean $45 less than what I’ve typically paid for Rotor in the past

Andy
Andy
8 years ago

As said earlier, Rotor is making road 1X rings. I have been told that they are making rings compatible with the hidden bolt design of SRAM cranksets as well as the standard 5 bolt 110bcd. I have seen Kervin’s latest bike with a standard 110bcd 50t N/W ring.

gravelbike
gravelbike
8 years ago

Add me to the list of folks who want a NW 1x road ring (DM for SRAM).

Andrew
Andrew
8 years ago

Three things:
– I think they’re pretty, but don’t really mesh with the smooth lines of the crank….maybe if they made a bolt-cover?
– I love how the word ‘proven’ gets thrown around with regard to gains from oval chainrings. I’ve seen them ‘proven’ to be affective and also ‘proven’ to be unaffective.
– Regardless of points 1 and 2 above, I have an Absolute Black ring on my MTB and love it.

elvis
elvis
8 years ago
Reply to  Andrew

and we’ve seen them proven to screw up power readings for crank based solutions (in case peeps don’t know, your powermeter assumes a constant velocity on each revolution or phase of the revolution depending on what meter you have).

ExPhys
ExPhys
8 years ago
Reply to  elvis

and then there is always what researchers have seen in the lab with the rings… http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=oval+chainring

bb_nl
bb_nl
8 years ago

@MaraudingWalrus I think 46 and larger is new for this year. I got mine (44T, 36T) online. They (Rotor themselves, but this webshop as well) does list CX rings (44 and smaller) in a completely different category than road rings (46 and larger), which makes finding what you want harder and makes little sense to me since they’re almost the same thing. But 46 and larger does exist for this year!

So you should probably look for 46 and bigger in the “road” category 😉
“Rotor road QX1” = 46 and larger
“Rotor QCX1” = 44 and smaller

Just Google it. I got mine here, but of course I don’t know where you are located. http://www.rotor-shop.nl/contents/nl/p507_Rotor-Qring-singlespeed-QX1.html

@ Andrew

Yes indeed. They’ve also proven to cause massive knee problems for some athletes, and relieve knee problems for others. I guess it’s one of those personal things.

onion
onion
8 years ago

I love how consumers now don’t appreciate CNC machined parts until they’re poorly cut with inadequate tool stepover.

markatanovich
8 years ago
Reply to  onion

Took the words out of my mouth! And if oval chainrings are such a leap in performance, why isn’t the entire pro peleton using them?

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago
Reply to  markatanovich

Any idea why everyone doesn’t use the same saddle, bar tape, chamois, or hell, drive the same car with the exact same features? Easy, you buy what feels good. There’s no shortage of people that think these feel good. One big name… Marianne Vos!!! The best cyclist to EVER pedal a bicycle…far more dominant than big Eddy. She even used less oval rings from Rotor to win Olympic gold on the velodrome

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago

I’d like to try these but they’re missing the adjustability of Rotor.

Thor
Thor
8 years ago

So those two guys…Wiggins and Froome have no credibility with regards to ovals working or not… Funny how that works

TheKaiser
TheKaiser
8 years ago
Reply to  Thor

And don’t forget that Carlos Sastre won the TDF on Rotor rings too. If you were to base your assessment of their validity on TDF wins in the past 10 years, you would think they are pretty legit.

Keith
Keith
8 years ago
Reply to  TheKaiser

@ Greg
“I hate to tell you, but that general ramp style is much older than Wickwerks. Look at Real Designs chainrings from the ’90s.”
The general style maybe older but if you’ve purchased WickWerks and look at their numerous patents listed on their packaging the ramps of absoluteblack and others infringe on their IP. The WickWerks website even shows a drawing with 2 or more load points below a chain link sitting on and being lifted by a ramp, that’s what their patents cover, check out their site and see for yourself. I guess I’m a geek, I check out the USPTO website for fun, it’s interesting to me. There aren’t any patents from Real Designs that I’ve seen. It’s kind of like SRAM and their new patent on narrow-wide that was issued late last year, the narrow-wide has been around for years but they have specific things covered in their patent. It’s my opinion that you’ll see them going after some narrow-wide manufacturers soon, I think WickWerks should do the same thing and protect their IP, just my opinion.

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