Cycling is a simple sport. Jump on your bike, turn the pedals and away you go. As is true with most things that are aching simple in raw form we find ways to complicate all in the name of progress and where sport is concerned; performance.

 

Over the years we’ve had bigger chain rings, smaller chain rings, a variety of crank lengths all strangely claiming to offer superior this that and the other, heck we’ve even seen bent cranks! Over the last couple of years we have however seen oval (or at least not round) chain rings reappearing and adorning the bikes of Wiggins and Froome no less. I say reappear as in reality the concept has been around a long time and like the Mohican haircut they keep coming in and out of fashion.

 

 

Now however, due to a few top cyclists swearing by them they seem here to stay and one of the biggest names in this business ‘Rotor’ are leading the way with their Q-Rings. So, having never actually tried anything other than round chain rings we were very interested to get our hands on a lovely set of sent courtesy of the guys at Rotor.

 

This review won’t go in to the science part of using the chainrings, you can find that info here; http://www.rotoruk.co.uk/qrings/ instead we’re just going to focus on our experience out on the road.

 

First things first it’s clear the Q-Rings are really well made and whilst style is a subjective thing, they certainly add a whiff of ‘pro’ once fitted. We liked them instantly. Also worth noting is that despite some horror stories we had no problems at all fitting them to our test bike with Dura Ace Di2. A few minor adjustments here and there and they’ve not slipped or struggled to change once.

 

 

Whilst our true test was to be a tough 72 mile ride in the Lakes including Whinlatter Pass, Hardknott Pass and Wrynose Pass, we did take them out of a couple of short evening rides to check all was fastened up right and changing under load etc.

 

Strangely the first thing we noticed was, well nothing at all!! Despite the obvious oval shape and being told “it will take an hour or so to get used to them” after about 10 pedal revolutions we struggled to even notice any shape difference during pedalling. Some may see this as a good thing but we were left a little disappointed if only because at around £159 they aren’t cheap and we wanted to feel different, but literally after 1 minute they felt no different at all.

 

(we appreciate in reality not noticing anything different is a very good thing).

 

Despite only planning to keep them on the bike for the few test runs and the Lakeland Loop we have in fact left these on for a good while now (mainly out of laziness to change them) so feel pretty well placed to make comment on how they have effected performance. As stated before this is not backed up by any scientific data and is purely based on our feeling and performance out on training runs.

 

Anyone who is expecting these to suddenly transform them from a Cat 4 rider in to a Cat 2 rider is probably going to be disappointed as far as we are concerned. That’s not to say we haven’t noticed benefits as in truth certain climbs have seemed to pass a little easier than previously and again on occasion it has seemed easier to hold a higher pace on the flat. In either case though it hasn’t been consistent enough to convince us they are definitely making the difference as that could be down to any number of things – but it has made us intrigued to stick with them for the time being.

 

What we are confident about saying though is that at no time have we felt they resulted in slower times or made any part of a ride harder than normal and with that in mind it brings us to the buzz word in cycling at the moment ‘marginal gains’. There have been times when we’ve felt some kind of small performance increase and it’s as likely to be the chain rings as anything else and so with even club and sportive riders now looking for every last ‘gain’ these could well be one area to look at.

 

At the end of the day they work brilliantly as chain rings, offer smooth shifting with no chain dropping (during our tests) at all and look ‘pro’ so if you’re in the market for new chain rings these reasons alone make them worth considering. The fact they might just shave a few seconds off a 10 mile TT, your next hill climb or potentially even more on a 100mile sportive should really get you interested if every second counts to you.

 

So will they turn you in to the next Bradley Wiggins? Probably not, but then neither will spending £8k on your next dream bike and yet we still see plenty of club riders doing that.

 

Our verdict – Worth looking at and giving a go as they are a very high quality product that you might just love.

 

For more information see – http://www.rotoruk.co.uk/qrings/