Wolf Tooth Components Rounds Out Elliptical Line with 38-42t Rings for CX, Gravel, and Road

I don’t see anyone making directmount sram cx rings? Are they just too big to keep stiff with the center attachment? Cannondale’s SI direct mount seems to get pretty high marks for stiffness.

I do not think a direct mount would be a problem. It would be close to 200g I would assume. I currently have a direct mount carbon on an older set of cranks and it is 109g and there is zero flex.

I honestly do not understand direct mount for “large” road/cx/gravel chain rings. Why would one not want to take advantage of tying into the crank arm…maybe fears the crank arm is not stiff and actually induces flex into the chainring? (which for the most part is only tangentially loaded sans frame flex and chainline)

@ JBikes

If the crank has integrated spider with arms, ie. one piece design like Shimano road cranks, then such solution is a little bit stiffer than direct mount.

But in case of Cranks with removable spider like most Sram Cranks including CX1, attached spider to the crank arm and then chainring to the spider is not stiffer than one piece direct mount ring if made correctly.
Such removable spider is essentialy a part direct mount chainring in a sense if you know what I mean. More over such spiders are usually cast from softer aluminium. So to keep certain stiffness they are quite bulky and heavy.

One piece design like direct mount rings is best possible solution for cranks with removable spider. Such solution is lighter, looks better, uses less bolts and is as stiff as spider+ring combination if not stiffer in some crank cases. You can also use every possible size as you are not locked to BCD diameter.

hope that helps
Marcin
absoluteblack

JBikes – For me, personally, it’s about

1 – replacing a boat anchor rival spider (not the same as force/red models, not even swappable actually – different shape)
2 – looks. I admit it. I think DM chainrings in 1x setups look bad ass. I like my bike to look bad ass.

@absoluteblack

There is good reason to use bolt on versus direct mount for larger sizes.

First – The spider, although heavier, is also stiffer because of its deeper forged design (even if mounted in a direct mount style). Most spiders are forged not cast and there is no loss in stiffness between these “softer” materials and the 70XX used in rings. In fact, some 20XX spiders are actually stiffer for a given geometry.

Second – The replacement cost of a flat ring is significantly cheaper than replacing a direct mount.

will these work with SRAMs hidden bolt cranks? ive been looking for an elliptical chainring for my QUARQ Red crankset but all the options I’ve found say it doesnt work with the hidden bolt cranks. i hope this one does!

they actually added it now.