# Square Chainrings... Why Not?



## PoorInRichfield (Nov 30, 2013)

If you've been involved in cycling for any length of time, you've seen the various fads come and go with chain ring shapes. Most people ride bikes with round chainrings, but companies keep playing with the shape of the chainring in hopes of gaining some edge.

Anywho, this chain ring on one of Chris Froome's bikes is by far the goofiest shape I've ever seen. I first thought the photo was distorted... 










It'd be hard to argue that Chris Froome isn't fast, so might there be something to his nearly square chain ring preference?

Are any of you riding "oblong" chainrings? What benefit do you perceive (or better yet, what data do you have to support that a non-round ring is an improvement)?

Having lived through Shimano's Biopace chain rings from the 80s and 90s, I'm pretty skeptical that a chain ring shape other than round is really doing any good.

Discuss...


----------



## Marc (Jan 23, 2005)

Wooo is rampant among Talent of all kinds.

Take, for example, Kinesio Tape. Stuff has been found clinically to have no benefit whatsoever. Doesn't stop athletes from amateurs to professionals from still using it....did I mention the stuff is BS and doesn't actually do anything?


----------



## PoorInRichfield (Nov 30, 2013)

Marc said:


> did I mention the stuff is BS and doesn't actually do anything?


That's my current thinking as well. With the chainrings, my current position is that they're placebo-effect rings. That, and they will certainly do one thing... making shifting on the front derailleur potentially worse.

Even if the odd shape of the ring somehow gave you a smidge of extra power at one point in the crank rotation, won't that advantage be negated as the ring turns past the flat spot? So kind of a "+ power, - power, + power, - power" scenario that just cancels each other out and just cries for using round rings, to begin with.


----------



## DaveG (Feb 4, 2004)

With Froome's chainrings and the best ceramic bearings money can buy, I will be unstoppable!


----------



## xxl (Mar 19, 2002)

Pretty sure those chainrings were simply left out in the sun too long, and they're starting to drip. One can see the seat stays and the derailleur cage are also doing this.

Frankly, I'm surprised that, being carbon fiber, they haven't assploded yet.


----------



## jkc (Jun 23, 2014)

Maybe it help with the asthma


----------



## DaveG (Feb 4, 2004)

jkc said:


> Maybe it help with the asthma


I personalty think its brave that Froome and so many other cyclists are able to soldier on with their terrible asthma (with the help of salbutamol)


----------



## duriel (Oct 10, 2013)

He literally is pedaling squares out of the box.


----------



## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

PoorInRichfield said:


> That's my current thinking as well. With the chain rings, my current position is that they're placebo-effect rings. That, and they will certainly do one thing... making shifting on the front derailleur potentially worse.


Actually they do another thing: help the sales department make their numbers this quarter. "Business physics" powers many a marketing campaign.


----------



## PoorInRichfield (Nov 30, 2013)

This just in... spy photo of Chris Froome training for 2020 Tour de France on his secret bike!


----------



## velodog (Sep 26, 2007)

why stop at chainwheels?


----------



## duriel (Oct 10, 2013)

It's good his suspension is tuned with no bump/rebound, must be only a spring setup.


----------



## nova_rider (Sep 23, 2005)

Clear example of biomechanic engineers attempt to extract every milliwatts of power out of a rider. The shape maximizes power while provide optimal recovery. I had Biopace on my 600 SIS and liked it. But now, using this for anything other than top-tier racing will just look dumb. Simply losing some weight will improve my specific output far more than any chainring ever will.

Technically, this is an oval, not a square.


----------



## Retro Grouch (Apr 30, 2002)

The square chainring topic is the cicada of cycling threads.


----------



## SPlKE (Sep 10, 2007)

My 1986 Shogun Prairie Breaker Pro came with those idiotic knee-wrecking BioPace chainrings, which had a sticker claiming that they were Designed by a Computer.

Pretty dumb computer if you ask me.


----------



## nova_rider (Sep 23, 2005)

SPlKE said:


> My 1986 Shogun Prairie Breaker Pro came with those idiotic knee-wrecking BioPace chainrings, which had a sticker claiming that they were Designed by a Computer.
> 
> Pretty dumb computer if you ask me.


But isn't all computers dumb?


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

I rode a ROTOR Q-Ring for a while. I can't say it necessarily made me any faster (I've never been fast) but I did notice that the shape gave me a better sense of the rotation of the ring. The feedback it gave let me feel my cadence. 

I ended up trading the ring and the crankset for a bike on CL... and I'm back to round rings.


----------



## exracer (Jun 6, 2005)

SPlKE said:


> My 1986 Shogun Prairie Breaker Pro came with those idiotic knee-wrecking BioPace chainrings, which had a sticker claiming that they were Designed by a Computer.
> 
> Pretty dumb computer if you ask me.


Well, garbage in.....garbage out


----------



## PoorInRichfield (Nov 30, 2013)

Opus51569 said:


> The feedback it gave let me feel my cadence.


Is that a good thing? I would think that if one wanted to be able to spin, like > 100 RPM if needed, _smooth_ cadence would be preferred which is what a round ring would provide. (I'm just asking... I've never used the new oval rings and noticed no difference with Biopace when I had them 1,000 years ago.)


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

PoorInRichfield said:


> Is that a good thing? I would think that if one wanted to be able to spin, like > 100 RPM if needed, _smooth_ cadence would be preferred which is what a round ring would provide. (I'm just asking... I've never used the new oval rings and noticed no difference with Biopace when I had them 1,000 years ago.)


I'm not really sure if it was good or bad... just odd. Round rings certainly feel smoother when you spin, but I never got the sense the feedback from oval ring hindered me. I wouldn't take them off a bike that had them, but I wouldn't buy them to put on a bike either.


----------



## SauronHimself (Nov 21, 2012)

velodog said:


> why stop at chainwheels?


I want to see him climb stairs with those.


----------



## JetSpeed (Nov 18, 2002)

Retro Grouch said:


> The square chainring topic is the cicada of cycling threads.


-THIS-

It's back again?


----------



## mfdemicco (Nov 8, 2002)

exracer said:


> Well, garbage in.....garbage out


Like those COVID models.


----------



## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

nova_rider said:


> I had Biopace on my 600 SIS and liked it.


You're a relatively rare bird. These things failed massively in the marketplace. I can remember laughing out loud when Shimano introduced BioPace HP (HP = high performance). The change? The HP rings were MORE ROUND. Sheesh!


----------

