Have got a very new 1×10 setup on my fs. New sram GX 10 speed rear mech and shifter. New sunrace 11-42 cassette and sram pc1051 chain. At the front I’ve got a 32 tooth oval superstar components chain ring.

The last few rides it’s been great – no losing of the chain and slick shifts.

It was fine this morning at FOD but in the afternoon I couldn’t keep the chain on for long. Wouldn’t work properly until I washed it clean at the bike wash. It gathered a fair amount of mud and the chain wouldn’t slip down and engage on the teeth properly.

Have people found this is a narrow wide chainring issue – or might the oval part be an issue? Or is it being a cheap chainring to blame?

Wondering whether to try a 32 tooth round NW ring on there with a top chain guide?

Not had any problem with an Absolute Black oval chainring in some pretty muddy conditions

I’ve had mud issues with narrow / wide round rings.

Lube choice made a difference to the problem.

I was running that Pure veg(?) oil based eco oil – wet version. It is quite sticky in texture and it made super claggy emulsion out of any mud or moisture and gave the symptoms you described.

Swapped it for muc-off wet and it seems much better.

I think the lube I had on the chain is muc off wax or dry lube or something like that. Hadn’t even given that much thought….wonder if that could be the issue.

I should say the muc-off wet still goops up in some conditions but its way better than the previous stuff and it’s the only thing i changed.

The machined profile makes a difference- some basically have a little shelf for mud to gather on, and if that combines with tight clearances, the wrong sort of mud (or mud/lube mix) can mean the chain sits on the mud and rides up off the teeth. It’s a design fault of some early narrow/wides basically, when Superstar “designed” their chainring by ordering someone else’s and tracing it, they copied the flaw.

IME Works doesn’t do it because they have a bit more clearance, Absolute Black do it a little bit but only if things are really bad. Renthal has a little mud scoop designed to prevent this but imo it’s in the wrong place, it’s their bigger clearance and smoothed edge to the “narrow” machining that fixes it.

I daresay you could relieve that section of the ring a little to fix it, never done that though, I just stuck with better chainrings.

I’ll have to look closer at he ring and compare it to my race face NW on the other bike. From memory I think the teeth are machines and then there is a step before the non machined part of the chainring- which is what I think you are referring to. Could see how that would collect mud.

When you say relieve do you mean file that smooth?

As Northwind says, it’s the tooth profile that can get packed with mud on NW rings.
The SRAM XX1 rings are, ime, amongst the best in shedding mud because the body of the ring is actually only as wide as the narrow teeth, and the wide teeth have sticking out lumps:

Whereas a lot of NW rings (and all the cheapo ones) have the ring as wide as the wide teeth, and then machine away the narrow teeth, which leaves a ledge to catch mud:

Minor details sometimes make major differences!

I’m pretty sure the Superstar ring is like the lower picture you’ve posted which would explain a lot. Wonder if I can borrow a drem from somewhere and see if I can smooth out the step a bit…if not perhaps it’ll be a new ring before next winter and hope it doesn’t rain too much before then.

The race face ring I have on the commuter also has the little shelf for mud.

I’m hoping that we’re almost out if muddy conditions for the spring / summer so won’t have to worry about it now until the autumn. Going to clean up the chain / ring / cassette etc and try different lube and see how it goes.

Hoping to change bike towards the end of summer – maybe a complete bike change, or just a frame / fork change in which case I’ll probably swap the ring out for a better one and running a top chain guide.

It’s not just the mud shelf IMO, it’s a causal effect of having the link gap/tooth having a closer fit.

The concept is fine for chain retention in clean conditions, but in the claggy mud of the Mendips it’s a bit of a problem. It mostly manifests itself as chain suck when dirty.(new transmission with correct chainline). I’ve been contemplating that new non contact MRP full chainguide and going back to conventional rings, or trying the shimano drop stop approach.

So ignore NW altogether and just use a normal ring with a full chain guide so it can’t fall off?

Seeing as the whole bike industry is going 1x this could be a bit of an issue in the U.K with mud…..