ABZ MTB Race Team
16 February · Edited ·
REVIEW - Absolute Black Oval Chainring
A couple of months ago those lovely people over at Absolute Black sent us one of their rather funky looking oval chainring's to test out. Yesterday we finally got round to bolting it on to our test rigs and taking it for a spin!
So what are they all about? In a word "Traction". The theory is; that because a rider does not produce power evenly through the pedal stroke, an oval chainring can even out the power transfer from the rear tyre to the ground.
So, does it work? Well some roadies seem to quite enjoy them on their TT bikes, and we can see how the benefits could transfer over to an XC bike. But can it work on an All-Mountain style rig? During our test there was a noticeable "pulsing" feeling through the pedals, but this quickly disappeared as our tester became used to it. There did seem to be some improved traction on the short steep punts and the quads did seem to take less of a beating than normal, however, how much of this was real and how much was just perceived is difficult to tell. Positive feedback is that there was no dropped chains and no shifting problems during the test.
The verdict? Our test was carried out on unfamiliar trails so we'll need to give it a go at some of our usual stomping grounds to get a real feel for it. However initial thoughts are that there is definitely some traction in the idea (pun totally intended). We love to see small companies pushing new ideas and turning out high quality components, so next time you are due a new chainring, why not check out what Absolute Black have on offer...
