Picking up an oval chainring

• Standard: 47mm chainline, 6mm offset for cyclocross and road cranks
• Standard: 49mm chainline, 6mm offset for GXP and long spindle BB30  
• Boost: 52mm chainline, 3mm offset
• BB30: 49mm chainline, 0mm offset for BB30 short spindle cranks

As another mentioned, WT's website does a good job of explaining how to go about getting exactly what you need...

However, I can speak to their quality having rode ROTOR, Absolute Black, and Wolf Tooth. I like all three, but I have to say that I believe Wolf Tooth's are made the best IMO. Whatever the heat treating they use does seem to produce a stiffer ring. That said I have two Absolute Black elliptical rings on both my MTBs right now and haven't had any problems, but running a WolfTooth on my gravel bike.

I have been running oval rings for about 11 years now, and to me it feels like it smooths out the pedal stroke and I get less cramping. Both of which can be considered anecdotal evidence but I don't care....its engineering that I've seen benefit from, and I see no reason to deviate from what works.

velogeorgia wrote:Another vote for the Wolftooth! I use their oval rings on both MTB and gravel bikes. Best quality available.

radouf wrote:Can anyone confirm what the actual effect on input vs output is? Say, if I were to change my 40t round ring toward an ever so slightly smaller 38t Wolftooth oval? Is it even worth it? I have the general idea that 38 oval may feel almost like a 36 while delivering the output of a 40. Is that fantasyland?

Having gone from a 42T round to a 40T oval, the 40T feels easier as a 40T should being that its two less teeth, but it does spin over a lot easier than I thought it would, and it does spin over a lot quicker than my Absolute Black rings that I have on other bikes.

This is my first go with Wolf Tooth's "PowerTrac Elliptical" Which I guess is suppose to not be as dramatic of an oval as other brands.

I'd say that its not worth trying, or even getting the same size ring as you're currently running.

Personally, I like the oval rings, I do see a performance benefit with it over the round rings in that I don't have problems with cramping with it, as opposed to the 42T round ring I was using before, and this isn't just this time. I've had problems with cramping before that "mysteriously" disappeared when switching to an oval ring. I don't have any other substantiating evidence to support this, but it does seem to be the case, at least for me.