Stone or Pass Quest Chainrings - AliExpress

[Vipassana]

I have worn out another Absolute Black oval chainring (my second).  I don't think they are wearing out prematurely as I seem to get 2000-2500 miles out of them, but I'm not keen on paying $70-80 to replace it again.  I found a coupe of alternatives on AliExpress that look promising.  Does anyone have experience with these?

Stone Oval Ring:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32959858218.html

Pass Quest Oval Ring:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000899565983.html

Thoughts?

I might order the Stone today and take a chance in the name of science and for the benefit of all of you.

[carbonazza]

They even copied the AB CNC look 

Don't you think a zero offset will cause some trouble?
For the chain line and wear. And especially when back pedalling around the bigger cogs.
Generally happening after putting a foot down on a steep climb 

Did you check Garbaruk?

[Vipassana]

They even copied the AB CNC look 

Don't you think a zero offset will cause some trouble?
For the chain line and wear. And especially when back pedalling around the bigger cogs.
Generally happening after putting a foot down on a steep climb 

Did you check Garbaruk?

Zero offset is what I am running now and have never noticed an issue...BB30 short spindle.  It does seem Stone offers 3mm and 6mm offset as well.  Originally I just copied the zero offset of the stock SRAM one that came with the X01 crank when I bought it new in 2014.  But maybe there are improvements to the chainline to be had with some offset.

I have not looked at Garbaruk… because I'd never heard of them before today.  I'll look now.

I'm inclined to try the Stone just to add to our collective knowledge on this forum about all things bicycle from China.

[RDY]

2000-2500 miles isn't exactly hard wearing.... that seems like pretty low endurance and would certainly put me off from buying absolute black.

[Vipassana]

2000-2500 miles isn't exactly hard wearing.... that seems like pretty low endurance and would certainly put me off from buying absolute black.

I don't know what to expect for lifespan.  The OEM one was about on par with that. And I'm judging wear by the starting of faint creaking under load. You can almost feel it before you can hear it.  I tried everything the first time around trying to eliminate the feeling/noise before recognizing it was the chain ring.  Instantly resolved upon replacement.

Perhaps it's the dust out here where I ride? Or maybe the dry lube I use?  Either way, I need a new ring.

[ryapad]

Sorry I can't offer specific experience but I've been very happy with my Chinese chainrings in the sub $10 range. The paint on the teeth wears off after about 4 miles but other than that they seem to just plug along. I had one at about 800 miles before I lost a couple bolts and seriously warped it, but I can't imagine any ring would survive that.

[cst_jpr]

Faint creaking doesn't seem like a chainring issue, unless its the bolts itself. Never had that problem. Can you post a photo of the actual teeth? You can tell from the profile if its worn.

I just bought a Pass Quest oval 42T but it won't get here for a while. Have two Deckas narrow-wides 48T and 52T, one has 2,500km and not really significantly worn (first photo below), should easily get to 5-10k km.
If we are talking about high end rings, also used Praxis with well over 7,000km on it. You can see the teeth profile its curved on one side, so starting to wear out. Those are normal thin teeth as well, narrow-wide should actually last longer with the extra metal in that area.

Sorry I can't offer specific experience but I've been very happy with my Chinese chainrings in the sub $10 range. The paint on the teeth wears off after about 4 miles but other than that they seem to just plug along. I had one at about 800 miles before I lost a couple bolts and seriously warped it, but I can't imagine any ring would survive that.

Yep, the anodizing maybe isn't as good, or is more obvious that its worn, but other than that they are good. $10 is super cheap.

[Vipassana]

Unfortunately, I do not have any photos (that I can find easily) of the AB oval ring wear, but I did find photos of my SRAM ring when it started to groan.  Same noise under load and wear pattern that I've observed on the AB units as well.  And the noise is semi-apparent.  A lot of it can be felt in the pedal.  Hard to explain.

Worn SRAM ring below and fairly new AB ring above in the attached image.

On the bottom (old) ring you can see the undercut, for lack of a better term, on the side of the tooth.  You can see how much thinner the old tooth is than the new one.  This is where I think the 'groan' comes from.  Under load, the chain starts loading the top of the tooth and then slips down into this depression on the tooth as it goes.  This is my theory at least.  It's hard to load the chain on the stand to observe it happening.  Lube will quiet it down and smooth it out a bit, but its always there and comes back later.  A new ring stops the 'groaning'.

At this time, the chain was verified to be within acceptable limits for 'stretch' according to a Park chain measurement tool.  I'm on my second chain and soon 4th chainring.  This is always how it seems to wear the rings.  I lube before every ride, but only with a 'dry' lube; though on longer 50-100 mile rides I didn't have the option to lube mid-ride so the chain would be really dry towards the end. 

I used to clean the bike every week including the chain fully degreased and relubed.  I don't do that any more as I don't have the time.  But what you see here is certainly when I was cleaning every week.

I ordered the Stone ring and will order a new chain soon as well.

[cst_jpr]

Interesting, the wear on the sides of the teeth seems significant. The wear on the front of the tooth can definitely be seen but does not seem extreme (~1mm?).
I wonder if this is related to chainline, my chain tends to stay fairly straight, but if I had it in the top or lowest gear a lot maybe it would wear more like that? Or if its just an issue with narrow-wide in general.

One advantage of the 0mm offset is you could flip the chainring around, and that might extend the life (in some cases the chainring bolts are countersunk slightly so watch out).

[theirishrider]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000250811457.html?spm=2114.best.8.14.4892DVeXDVeXUu&scm=1007.17258.160833.0&pvid=f65dfae6-ded0-453b-8900-c705e6f01151

50G saving over the XT 12speed rings

[tripleDot]

I have been using Deckas & Stone chainrings for years now. 6 years for Deckas & 2 years for Stone. Both the round & oval variants. I have the 96 & 110 bcd. Have put thousands of kilometers on them and didn't have any issues.

[Vipassana]

I have been using Deckas & Stone chainrings for years now. 6 years for Deckas & 2 years for Stone. Both the round & oval variants. I have the 96 & 110 bcd. Have put thousands of kilometers on them and didn't have any issues.

I'm glad to hear this. I ordered mine and it should be here in a week or two.

[Vipassana]

The Stone oval ring arrived today.  My first impressions are that is is very decent for the money, though I haven't installed or ridden it yet.

Observations (compared to the Absolute Black oval ring):

• Clocking of the oval is the same as the AB ring
• Stone ring: 60g, AB ring: 57g
• Tooth profile is consistent with 'newest' Eagle narrow-wide profile
• Stone ring: $34 shipped, AB ring: $89 shipped
• It seems that there is some cost cutting by limiting machining on the back side of the Stone ring.  For example, the undercutting at the root of the wide teeth for dirt/grim shedding is present on both sides of the AB ring, but only on the face/outside of the Stone ring.
  Same can be said about the fancy CNC pattern work.  AB clearly spends a lot of time on both sides of the ring, Stone, not so much.
• The Stone unit could benefit from some deburring on the backside.
  Your finger nail can catch a very slight burr on some edges inside the teeth and inside the cutouts in the body of the ring.  They are very small, but noticable.  You see nothing of the sort on the AB ring.  Instead, the AB ring has very well defined chamfers/break-edges added to all edges. Interestingly, on the Stone ring, the burrs are only present clocked on one side of every feature; this indicates to me that they had a clean-up pass in their CNC program, but their fixturing might be a bit lose so the ring rotates a few thousandths and the machining tool doesn't hit certain edges, and probably subsequently takes a bit more of a cut opposite that area.  I don't expect these burrs to have any negative effect on anything.  The ones on the teeth will be gone immediately upon riding once.

Here are some images:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rHqmPJz8ZsrLQ3QR9

[Jwzard]

How about SNAIL chainrings, anyone tried them out? 1/2 of the price of stone for both big and small ring!
Seems too good to be true so probably is...

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/4001315113361.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.173b1be4aOTXh5&browser_id=df9a74b44deb4a86acf3285361f05ea3&aff_trace_key=5000b4179fa44439bbdef834de44e6c3-1613811711919-00542-_ePNSNV&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=rmaxghs3fxicas2h179c10fae871f8063dd6c31f76&gclid=&_imgsrc_=ae01.alicdn.com%2Fkf%2FH598b9fb0f71d4135ac32aa9ddf8b3ee5o.jpg_640x640Q90.jpg

[tripleDot]

How about SNAIL chainrings, anyone tried them out? 1/2 of the price of stone for both big and small ring!
Seems too good to be true so probably is...

I haven't seen the road specific chainrings of Snail. But I find their narrow-wide for mtb looks identical to those of Deckas. I suspect they're the same product under another name.