Posted by: Endur-Bro

That's messed up!

Cinch BOOST Titanium Spiderless Oval Chainring

€199.99 = $302.24 Cdn.

So, which ovalation (OneUp, Wolftooth, AB, Blackspire) is best?

No idea who's supposed to be 'the best'.....but AB says this about theirs...and it's a lot more than the others are saying about their own Ovals

I drank some of the AB koolaid...wanna get one once I'm more sure what tooth count I'll settle into.

"Other elliptical chainrings on the market

Clocking (timing) and shape of the oval are the most crucial parts of the design. Ride quality of AbsoluteBLACK Oval ring will be different to ovals from brand X or Y.

2 years of development of our ovals resulted in commercially most successful product of its kind. AbsoluteBLACK is the First company who managed to successfully popularize ovals in mountainbike sport.

Other manufacturers offer one timing and ovality setting for all chainring sizes, but pedaling behavior changes with each size considerably. To optimize for this, every chainring size needs to be slightly different. For example the smaller the chainring size the bigger the ovality has to be to help climb steeper hills more effectively.

This is where we specialize in and optimize every size to particular pedaling style. This is also why we do not provide exact figures about timing and ovality of the chainring as each one is special and we need to protect our Patent Pending solutions. Due to our Global popularity and success there are now more companies releasing "similar" products. But "similar" is not the same. Even very small change in parameters of the oval shape and timing gives entire different feeling and performance."

Posted by: Taz123

I'm still loving mine. I am quicker uphill, and the ovality allowed me to increase the ring by 2t vs round.

I'm curious, could you be quicker up the hills because you increased your chainring size from 30 to 32?

Careful, you buy AB rings through CRC they cheaper quality than through their webstore.  

What you compare is our CHEAP version of the chainring specially made/designed for the CRC (chainreaction cycles). Our Premium version is a LOT more advanced...........

AB - Range: 10.2-14.4% and Timing of 110.5-116.3° after TDC 

Wolf Tooth - Our proprietary design has ovality of 10% and timing of 112° after TDC

Blackspire - Features an ovality of 12-13% with a timing of 115º after TDC

OneUp - 12% ovality 115° TDC

Posted by: TonyJ

Posted by: Taz123

I'm still loving mine. I am quicker uphill, and the ovality allowed me to increase the ring by 2t vs round.

I'm curious, could you be quicker up the hills because you increased your chainring size from 30 to 32?

Assuming I spun the same cadence for sure. However, in this case,  I find it to be the same level (or less) effort to spin, so that yields a higher speed/effort (or tiredness) than in the past. We could get all technical with chainring sizing optimization for frame and suspension design, but for me, this has been good proof. 

In my case, my old chainring was done and needed to be replaced anyway. This was good timing for an experiment of the oval variety.

Ive been riding DOVAL brand oval rings for 4 years now. They are the only ones that make 2x oval systems. They have 5 positions for power point. Im running 21/34 with 11/36 out back. Very easy on the knees climbs like goat:)

I've been on a 32 Wolftooth oval for the past few months. As others have said, after the first one or two rides you stop noticing the oval motion. The best way I can describe it is your cadence always feels slightly faster than with a round ring. 

Another thing I've noticed is it feels faster on the road leading to and from the trails. I'm not sure if this is just in my head as I haven't heard anyone else mention this. The oval shape also seems to help with the steep, loose climbs of southern California.

I have a OneUp oval ring sitting in a box that I have never gotten around to mounting.  Which style of bike would you guys recommend putting it on; a hardtail 29r used for smooth single track and burning down fire roads, or a full suspension 27.5 used for more technical single track and general ripping around?

I really like how the oval ring feels with sustained pedaling on fire roads and the pavement to the trails. I say try it on both and see which you like better.

Thanks for the reply!  I'll slap it on my hardtail 29r and give it a go.  Maybe I'll finally be able to give my XC buddy a run for his money (probably not).

I had a OneUp Oval ring on my hardtail which I really enjoyed. I'll echo what others have said, the ovality came as second nature after a few rides. However when I stripped my hardtail to build my full suspension frame, the combination of oval ring+full suspension was AWFUL on my hightower. The antisquat characteristics were totally thrown off. I would lose traction and dive through the suspension on steeper climbs. I threw a round ring back on and was happy with the performance. 

SO. I think there's a lot to be considered when putting an oval ring on a full suspension bike. I'd love to see some analysis of the aftermarket companies to support claims of traction with respect to varied antisquat performance.

I love my One Up 32t oval on my bike. I do believe it provides great traction, like advertised. I seem to be cleaning a lot more than I did in the past, there's no dead spot in the pedal stroke so less slipping out.

Posted by: jan

I had a OneUp Oval ring on my hardtail which I really enjoyed. I'll echo what others have said, the ovality came as second nature after a few rides. However when I stripped my hardtail to build my full suspension frame, the combination of oval ring+full suspension was AWFUL on my hightower. The antisquat characteristics were totally thrown off. I would lose traction and dive through the suspension on steeper climbs. I threw a round ring back on and was happy with the performance. 

SO. I think there's a lot to be considered when putting an oval ring on a full suspension bike. I'd love to see some analysis of the aftermarket companies to support claims of traction with respect to varied antisquat performance.

Did you swap the same size oval for round ring in your experiment?  Antisquat is dependent on chainring size, but the difference between the same size oval and round ring would be negligible in regards to antisquat.