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Wolf Tooth crafts a new CAMO chainring system for White Industries MR30 Cranks

Written by Zach Overholt
13 Comments
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One of the advantages to the Wolf Tooth Components CAMO chainring system is that from crank to crank, the chainrings are the same. That means that WTC can simply design a new spider to fit rarer cranks, giving their owner more choices in chainrings without creating a ton of extra SKUs for dealers.

WTC CAMO spider White Industries

The latest to join the WTC CAMO party is the new spider for White Industries cranks. Specifically, this was optimized for the MR30 cranks which have a 3mm boost offset. The 52mm chainline of the spider is best used for these cranks, but WTC says they can also be used on the White Industries R30 and G30 cranksets which have a 49.5mm chainline.

White Industries crankset taken apart

Once the spider is mounted to the direct mount attachment for the crankset, the chainrings can be swapped using only a T25 Torx. The design even lets you wiggle the chainring around the crank arm preventing you from removing it to change out the ring. Depending on what pedals you’re running and chainring size, you may have to remove the driveside pedal though.

White Industries Camo spider crankset

Offered only in black, the White Industries CAMO spider is priced at $29.95 and sold in the M5 (minus 5mm – Boost) offset only. Made from 7075-T6 aluminum in Minnesota, the spider has a claimed weight of 31g and is compatible with both round and elliptical CAMO chainrings in aluminum and stainless steel.

Learn more at WolfToothComponents.com.
Zach Overholt
5,730 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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13 Comments
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OriginalMV
OriginalMV
4 years ago

Am I the only one who thinks it’s somewhat ironic that DM chainrings became so popular that now there are chainring manufacturers who are catering to the consumer demand for retrofitting cranks with 5-bolt spiders and rings?

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Sean
Sean
4 years ago
Reply to  OriginalMV

From a manufacturing point of view this makes a lot of sense actually. The cranks and DM chainrings are much simpler and easier to machine than those designed specifically for 5-bolt rings. If the customer wants the ease of swapping that comes with 5-bolt rings, get a camo adapter, a part that is also pretty simple to machine.

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Jeff
Jeff
4 years ago
Reply to  Sean

Why don’t they just use the regular old 4 bolt? Last time checked my math 4 was less than 5 but now 2+2= 5 so I may have that backwards.

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Riley Smith
Riley Smith
4 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

Because Wolf Tooth makes 5-bolt rings for the CAMO system.

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Cheese
Cheese
4 years ago

How is this more flexible than the 110 mm BCD standard?

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blahblah1233445
blahblah1233445
4 years ago

How is this more flexible than just making a DM chainring for specific system?

It’s just 2 variables – mounting system (DUB, Cinch etc.) and teeth number. Divinding it into 2 separate parts and with it’s own individual connection type between those is nothing else than dumb.

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Sevo
Sevo
4 years ago
Reply to  blahblah1233445

Actually the reality is the solution Wolftooth has created is nothing short of brilliant. While White Industries makes products worth emptying your wallet over, you destroy or simply need a new chain ring while traveling good luck walking into a shop that has a White Industries chain ring in stock….much less the size you want. Reality is, just won’t happen.

But that’s the brilliance of adapting the CAMO system being applied here. Wolftooth’s chainrings are becoming more and more common at shops. Their camo chainrings are less expensive to replace than a direct mount chainring. From a shop standpoint, I could see investing in a few sizes of chainrings and stocking 3-4 camo spiders for those cranks that one sells (or bikes come with) the most in the shop. Now you have one chainring that is quick/easy to swap yet can be used on a variety of cranks so long as they have the CAMO spider. Prices are quite fair too.

From a SKU standpoint for Wolftooth, they just had to add one SKU (the WI specific Camo spider) to the shelves to serve WI customers vs 6 chainring sizes to fit WI cranks. While White Industries cranks are well loved and they make a surprisingly large number of them a year….their still aren’t that many out in the market vs the other DM standards out there.

My guess is you will see a DM chainring for WI one day if the demand dictates it from Wolftooth. Starting with the CAMO system is simply the quickest, smartest, and most economical way to test the market for the demand.

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blahblah1233445
blahblah1233445
4 years ago
Reply to  Sevo

“Now you have one chainring that is quick/easy to swap yet can be used on a variety of cranks so long as they have the CAMO spider.”
Exactly – so long as… The problem is it’s a niche product, that barely anybody uses and not for casuals (which are the biggest customer group). If that spider had standard BCD104, or 110 sizing and bolt holes, then it would make sense – You could’ve used any narrow-wide chainring that’s on the market. What WTC tries to do is force another standard without any practical profit for the user/bike shop – it’s not universal, stronger/lighter, cheap, easy to use…

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Bill
Bill
4 years ago
Reply to  blahblah1233445

CAMO looks to allow rings down to 28T. 104 BCD allows minimum 32T (30T if you cheat with a RaceFace ring machined with spacer and female chainring bolt interface in the ring).
The ability to run smaller rings is an advantage over 104 BCD.

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Riley Smith
Riley Smith
4 years ago

Because they wouldn’t be able to afford making a complete run of chainrings for every DM standard on the market. It’s the same reason why Race Face started Cinch: smart modularity is cheap. In Wolf Tooth’s case my guess is it’s less like RF/Easton chasing profit and more like this is the only way they could possibly make stuff for every crank based on scale.

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Cheese
Cheese
4 years ago
Reply to  Riley Smith

“The only way”
Well, they could make 110 BCD spiders for these cranksets for Universal compatibility.

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Riley Smith
Riley Smith
4 years ago
Reply to  Cheese

I understand where you’re coming from, but honestly I stand by it. The only way this sort of product makes sense for them is likely to have their chainrings be compatible. Want the spider? Get a chainring. Want the chainrings? Get the spider. Want the sweet bashguard? Well, they don’t make a White Industries bashguard, sorry. Anyhow, I seriously doubt many MR30 customers are looking for something to buy to enable using cheaper chainrings. This is a super niche product and doesn’t make sense to make unless they can use it sell more chainrings. Even as a White Industries devotee, I can understand wanting easier chainring swaps that don’t require removing the crank. I would -really- understand a spider that enables use of non-White Industries double chainrings, as the WI ones don’t shift as well as modern alternatives, but this is just for 1x, so… shrug. It’s weird. Love it or leave it.

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Dominic
Dominic
4 years ago

But why would you want a spider for your flash new spiderless crankset??????? Plus more bolts where you finally got to be rid of some?

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