OK, own up. Can this be done with spacers etc to double 1X chain ring life? Who does this?

Any problems with chain dropping or spacing issues?

Some chain rings are £60 and some are £10.

Is this a step too far? Am I too pikey?

Thoughts?

I know people used to do it with old (non narrow-wide) single rings once they started looking like a shark fin. I’ve found on narrow-wide rings they seem to start dropping chains more frequently before there is an obvious wear profile on the teeth, you could use a little chain keeper or something and then turn it around, but that seems unnecessarily complex.

Surely the simplest solution is to use a steel chainring that will be very cheap and last longer than your bike?

In my experience what kills thick thin chainrings is the ‘thick’ teeth loosing too much metal and becoming thin meaning the chain falls off, well before any normal wear, so I doubt I’d find it beneficial!

In the past though I have happily reversed steel chainrings on the singlespeed to get more life out them, so perhaps a steel thick thin would work?

As above. I too reverse steel ss chainrings, but n/w are usually worn out well before they are hooked.

What they said. NW wear out more quickly as it’s the marginal additional thickness wearing off and no longer gripping the chain that’s the issue (you end up with a perfectly functional normal ring). Flipping rings extended ring life when wear was just on the leading edge of the tooth once it had started to hook, or “shark tooth”.

I’m in the buy cheap and replace often camp (superstar or Uberbike when they’re on offer for £15) but some of the premium brands claim to last longer- Renthal have machined “channels” to supposedly carry mud away.

I flipped a Superstar ring to get another few months out of it. Seemed to work well, I’ll be doing the same when my current one wears out.