I want to change the outer ring on my 50:34 cross chainset and the Hope 44t ring looks like it’ll fit the bill.

I know they’re meant for 1X set ups but I can’t see any reason why they won’t work on a double?

It won’t, a standard ring is ramped to facilitate shifting, narrow wide rings obviously aren’t, they aren’t meant to shift, hence ‘retainer’.

You’d also only have a 50% chance of the chain meshing with the ring properly, if it you did by some miracle manage to shift the chain up there tidily. The width of the teeth corresponds to the width of the two different types of chain links.

A properly set up front mech should stop the chain dropping off the front rings to some degree, just get a clutch mech out back to aid with chain tension, that’s the best you can hope for probably.

Bah, but cheers for the info Core.

Looks like a mail order TA ‘road’ ring will be in the offing