Christoph Sauser and Specialized team to use Rotor Q-Rings

19 comments
By BikeRadar | Wednesday, Mar 18, 2009 10.33am

The Specialized Factory Racing team have announced they are to use Rotor's elliptical chainrings on their mountain bikes this year. 

The egg-shaped Q-Rings are said to offer easier climbing, faster acceleration and smoother pedalling, with reduced joint and tendon loads thanks to better muscle strain distribution.

Oval chainrings haven't been seen on mountain bikes since Shimano's ill-fated BioPace rings, which the Japanese firm stopped making in the early Nineties.

But team member and marathon world champion Christoph Sauser has already given the Q-Rings his seal of approval. As we exclusively revealed in November, he has had a set on test for several months.

Sauser said: “I immediately felt the difference in the traction and instantly knew I wanted to use them in competition. This is likely one of the most technologically advanced bicycle components I've ever tested.”

Rotor will supply the team, which also includes Rebecca Rusch, Conrad Stoltz, Lene Byberg and Todd Wells, with special edition red 2x9 Q-Rings (40-27) designed to fit Specialized's S-Works mountain bike crankset.

Specialized's Bobby Behan said: “We’re really excited to work with Rotor this year, and the feedback from all of our athletes has been nothing but positive. They all agree that Q-Rings are a real performance advantage. Between our Epic/Era Brain technology and Rotor’s Q-Ring innovation, we’re in a great position to win this year."

Spanish brand Rotor claim their Q-Rings increase your power by maximising use of the efficient zones of the pedal stroke and reducing the intensity of the “dead” zones. 

Riders using the egg-shaped rings have already earned multiple UCI World Championship titles in road, cyclo-cross and duathlon.

Q-Rings are ovalised chainrings that are said to increase your power by maximising use of the efficient zones of the pedal stroke and reducing the intensity of the “dead” zones: q-rings are ovalised chainrings that are said to increase your power by maximising use of the efficient zones of the pedal stroke and reducing the intensity of the “dead” zones

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User Comments

There are 19 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 19 of 19 comments

  • I have a 1991 28-38-48 XT Biopace chainset somewhere. If I dredge it out can I be stylish and cutting edge again?

  • what front mech would they use with that 40/27 combo?

  • what a stupid photo (the lower one). take a proper one (ie dead-on perpendicular, not all angled like that) so we can see how egg-shaped it is!

  • Now this is interesting! I used to LOVE BioPace rings, you really noticed the power surge (sometimes a little tricky keeping the front end down on the really steep stuff but hey that was fun!) it was kinda like a little turbo charger for your legs for no extra effort.

    My brother and I have often wondered why they died a death, we were beginning to think we were BioPaces only fans, until now...........

    For anyone who got into MTBin later on after the days of BioPace, don't think this is all hype, it isn't. If you get a chance ride with oval rings you won't regret it, they are the nuts!

    I'll be keeping an eye on the market to see how quickly the big boys jump back on a bandwagon that Shimano never should have let go of (IMHO). Well done Rotor and well done Specialized!

  • Where can you buy the rings to give this a bast?

  • Ha, do you remember the Ovaltec chainset at about the same time as the Biopace kit. I think I had one on my Raleigh Memphis. 1989???

  • hmm, a bike came into the shop with biopace rings on only the other week.

    funny how 'fashion' come full circle?! or even oval...

  • I threw away the biospace cranks and chainrings from an old British Eagle, I thought they were broken :(

  • My 1990 British Eagle K2 had Biopace chainrings. It has just the one now though as it single speed for the winter. Didn't think the oval chainring would singlespeed but checked out Sheldon Brown's most excellent website and Bob's your uncle.

  • I might see about giving these a try too. I assume they must be available for a standard 4-bolt shimano crankset?

    They've been around on the road too - Carlos Sastre, last year's TdF winner, uses them for one.

  • I quote ..'several studies have analyzed the effects of non circular chain rings on cycling performance compared to conventional round chain rings (cullen 1992 henderson 1977, hue 2001 neptune herzog 2000) no improvement was observed in cycling performance during exhaustive tests or long duration exercise.

    High Tech Cycling Edward R Burk PHD.

    Wonder how much Rotar are paying specialzed for this publicity.

  • AS commented above, the Rotor Q rings are different to the BioPace as they are rotated 90*, so instead of the larger section of the ring being at the top and bottom of the stroke, it is during the power down stroke. This also means it is at an easier gearing at the top and bottom helping you get over the top and into the power stoke.

    they are not cheap!

    http://www.velotechservices.co.uk/qrings.htm

  • And here I just donated my 1988 Falcon Competitor with Biopace rings still intact (but nearly toothless). I should have kept it and been ahead of the curve!

  • Oval chainrings haven't been seen on mountain bikes since Shimano's ill-fated BioPace rings, which the Japanese firm stopped making in the early Nineties.

    Where have you been since then ? locked in a dark room?

    They have been used by many pros and semi pros in the mountain bike world.

    Christoph Soukup,Sergio Mantecon just to name a few. Soukup rode Q rings in the olimpicis in China.

  • I had BioPace on my 1990 Marin Pine Mountain they did help with uphills not sure why they ever got rid of them.

  • Nooo ... I had biopace rings in the '80s, I hated them ... still got some buried in a box somewhere, every now and then I come accross them and and snigger, or curse. Time was when it was virtually impossible to buy a bike without them.

  • Rotor Q rings are very different in design to the old shimano BIOPACE

    The reduced gearing is located at the pedal stroke dead spot and increased gearing located at the pedal stroke power phase. BIOPACE did the opposite, no wonder they felt so bad... I haven't tried these yet but every one I know who has either loves them or doesn't dislike them

  • I actually tried to bring up my bios on a bike last year.

    1. not low enough gears. not now my knees are 20 years older

    2. couldn't get the bottom bracket to go with. Whatever they ran on, it is not what I had around.

    Still, they are retro-cool, and as the bike I built up is still using the same 1990 XT thumbshifters, I could go for an old-skool commuter with it

  • [quote]Wonder how much Rotar are paying specialzed for this publicity.[/quote]

    Odly, didn't Andy Pruitt suggest in his cycle show sessions that biopace didn't help....

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