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Act fast, Rotor is giving away oval Q Rings to celebrate 25 years of drivetrain innovation

25 years of Rotor and 25 sets of Q Rings up for grabs, 25th anniversary contest
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Rotor has been machining wild looking cranks & oval chainrings in Spain since 1994 when they set out to improve pedaling efficiency by eliminating the dead spot in the pedal stroke. Twenty-five years on, Rotor is still cranking out oval chainrings under the name Q Rings as well as a number of standard & power meter cranksets. To celebrate 25 years, they are giving away 25 sets of oval Q Rings, but you need to act fast as the contest ends tomorrow.

25 years of Rotor and 25 sets of Q Rings up for grabs!

Rotor "Buy a powermeter and get the chainrings for free" deal

Whether you’ve never tried oval rings or just need a new set, it’s worth getting in on the Rotor 25th anniversary for a chance at a free set for road, gravel, cyclocross, or mountain biking. There are little tons of different Q Ring options available. They’ve been ridden to a Tour de France win, among many other on & off-road victories. We’ve even raced them through some muddy cyclocross testing!

Rotor 2INpower CNC machined aluminum dual-sided left-right balance power meter crankset powermeter cranks

To get in on the contest, you’ll just need to: 1. Like Rotor’s 25th contest post on Facebook or Instagram. 2. Share the post publicly from your account. 3. Tag at least two friends in the process. 4. And use the hashtag #25yearsROTOR. Rotor also suggests following them on Facebook or Instagram, presumably to see who wins, although that doesn’t seem to be required to enter. The entry deadline is tomorrow, Nov 20, so do it now.

And in the meantime, if you have any questions for Rotor themselves about crazy, innovative drivetrain ideas (think: hydraulic shifting, 1×13, or super oval QXL chainrings) just drop us a line here. Rotor are joining our Ask A Stupid Question series, so over the next week or so, we’re taking your suggestions for the burning questions on Rotor tech.

RotorBike.com

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11 Comments
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fabiano
fabiano
4 years ago

who’s better? Rotor, Doval, Osymetric or Absolute black?

Pinko
Pinko
4 years ago
Reply to  fabiano

Absolute Black (and oneUp, wolftooth, sram, rf, etc etc) are just a poor copy of Rotor. The shape is the same (besides all marketing claims). But they missed the main point about oval: ring rotation adjustability. Absolute black are also less durable and prone to crack. Most of these companies started producing oval rings overnight…

Rotor is oval.
Osymetryc is asymmetric. (Doval too) like the shimano biopace.

Long story short… oval can be used in more scenarios and it is easier to adapt.
Asymmetric is for people that pedal at very high cadence (racers etc)

If you really want to go oval, rotor is the best option (crank + ring) because it allows to adjust the ring rotation, which is key. A fixed position oval ring is like having a fixed height seat post. You can’t tune it to fit you.

If you want to try oval on a budget, I recommend Blackspire rings.
And Doval if you want to try asymmetric rings.

Never tried Doval but I have run all others.

The ring shape depends on your riding style and type.

fabiano
fabiano
4 years ago
Reply to  Pinko

my experience is on doval, with adjust point .. really required more cadence, it’s different feeling.. required more rear leg muscles than front … standing up pedalling is less effective than high spin cadence

Lyford
Lyford
4 years ago
Reply to  fabiano

Interesting. My perception of the AB rings is just the opposite — I really like how they feel climbing standing.

Pinko
Pinko
4 years ago
Reply to  fabiano

If you have tried Doval, Osymetric is going to be even more extreme. Oval is going to be less extreme. But if you often pedal standing up, both oval and asymmetric are not ideal. At least in my experience.

If you do not pedal round but you stand up a lot, and wiggle you bike (ie flat pedals or mash) may want to try shimano biopace style. If your set up allows it, just rotate the Doval ring to follow the Biopace shape. It is not going to be perfect, but may give an idea. It keeps the momentum better. I have read a lot of comments regarding biopace, including one of the companies listed above(ab). Almost always by people who never rode it or were even born at the time and miss the big picture. Shimano dropped it because it did not work well with the (new at the time) index shifting. Back then everybody pedaled low cadence (compared to 10 years later) and mashing. Even won a TdF.

Lyford
Lyford
4 years ago
Reply to  fabiano

I went with the Absolute Black ovals because I didn’t want to replace my Shimano road cranksets. First tried just a 34T inner on my road bike, liked it, tried the 46/30 set on the gravel bike, liked it. YMMV.

snkullman
snkullman
4 years ago

Wolftooth feels very natural, been using it on my SS for 2 seasons now

Noel Smith
Noel Smith
4 years ago

What is that gearbox-like thing in the main photo? Looks cool..

Tim
Tim
4 years ago
Reply to  Noel Smith

I was wondering the same thing!

Lyford
Lyford
4 years ago
Reply to  Noel Smith

Could be the angle, but it looks like the two cranks don’t share the same axle.

Rider 8
Rider 8
4 years ago

That is a Rotor Box crank which allowed the two crank arms to move at slight different speeds depending on position. It was later commercialized as the RSX4.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crankset#Rotor_Box_System

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