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Elliptical Chainrings. Thoughts?

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bxcc:
Having never used one, I decided to put one on my plus bike. I went with an AbsoluteBlack Sram direct mount 32t ring. It is paired with an XT M771 11-36 cassette. As far as negatives go, I can't find any. I went for an 8 mile first ride on the plus bike last night and I had about a 1/4 mile of grassy road left when I thought "Crap, I never payed attention to see if I like the ring or not". Which, to me, means I didn't even notice it on the trail, and that is a good thing. But once I started paying attention to it, I really started to like it. 99% of the "rigid bike bounce" is gone! And the pedal stroke does feel quite a bit smoother. Now I can't really tell if it makes my legs more or less tired but if it isn't bouncing, it must be good. And I would think that the bouncing would be some sort of efficiency loss but I really don't know.

What is every's take on these?

RS VR6:
I've been on Q-Rings on my road bike since 2012, Ridea SXX1 on my MTB in 2014, and the Garbaruk Melon in 2015. I will not switch back to round rings. The difference the ovals made for me is the cadence. It feels like I am able to accelerate my pedal stroke easier on sections where I need to get up and over. When cruising, my pedal stroke feels much smoother. I still got a round ring on the full suspension...but I don't do much pedaling on that bike.

Carbon_Dude:
From everything I've read oval rings just don't seem like they offer a significant enough benefit for me to want to change.  I would like to try one but it's not high on my list of things I want to put on my bikes.

cmh:
A little bit after the fact but... I got an Absolute Black 32t oval for my Epic. Ranged from 30t when you're in the "dead spot" to 34t in the power stroke. Rode it for a bunch of rides. I think my spin felt a little smoother? Honestly, I really didn't notice much of anything. Didn't make me faster. Just swapped the round ring back on for a lower 30t for a trip that'll have a bunch of climbing, and took it out for a ride, and was COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY BY ... absolutely nothing at all. The pedals turned, the bike went forward. Maybe my pedal stroke wasn't as smooth. Last I checked, you don't get style points for a smooth pedal stroke.

The Absolute Black is a good chainring, no regrets in getting it, but also no real feeling that I got much beyond a nice 1x chainring.

Gotta say being able to thread standard chainring bolts directly into the ring itself makes it much easier than using chainring nuts and bolts.

Carbon_Dude:
Thanks for the update, I've been wondering about the oval rings but now I will also move on.

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