Morning all. I’m upgrading my drivetrain to 1×10 and just ordered a Wolftooth chainring. I found a few older threads on here, folks generally very pleased with them.

Those that were pleased with them before, how are they wearing?

Thanks.

Had mine on now for about 4 months with no chain retention at all but with a type 2 rear mech. Not sure of the milage I’ve clocked up, but with the good weather we’ve had this summer I’ve been hammering the bike managing a consistent two to three rides a week. So far so good, it has been completely effective for the type of riding I do which takes in some pretty fast and rocky descents on a 140mm Am bike – so not full down hill duties, but not you’re typical man-made smooth trails.

So far its wearing fine too, with the CNC machined features of the thicker teeth not wearing out so I have confidence they’ll last.

Great, thanks for the info. Be interesting to see how they last through a nice British winter! I see the company are based in Minnesota so I’d imagine they’re used to some crappy weather, unlike their Californian cousins 🙂

I’m going to hit the button on a clutched rear mech (and 10x shifter) too so looking forward to seeing how smooth it all feels. I actually ordered 2 rings – a 34T and a 36T (for when I get a bit stronger) and was going to go for an 11-36T cassette.

Anyone have recommendations on cassette? I was probably going to go SRAM PG1070 with a KMC chain.

Why not go for a Works Components instead…UK made, same alloy and cheaper.

Didn’t know about the works ones (just looked them up) otherwise I probably would have, buy British and all that. Too late now though as I don’t think it’s very fair to just cancel my order for no reason.

My Wolftooth has been superb over the last few month. Not one chain drop. I’m using a shimano clutch mech with mine. (On two bikes now)

The lead times seem much better on the Works rings too.

How much in £s did the Wolf end up at?

Does anyone make this type of chainring in a 5 bolt pattern?

raceface narrow wide ring is the same thing too, i’ve had no chain drops at all with mine.

Hi Tony,

I am already a bit late to the thread as you have put your order in but I would just say be prepared for them to not work 100% perfectly in mud.

I couldn’t find a single negative comment about the various narrow/ wide chainrings online and everyone seems to be over the moon with them but it has only taken me 200km to repeatedly drop the chain.

The worst was during a very muddy, very wet 60km ride where there was gritty mud building up around the wide teeth on the chainring which stops the chain from sitting low down on the teeth like it should. The shape of the wide teeth does not allow the mud to be pushed down and off the tooth as it does on the narrow/ normal teeth. Several times during the ride I noticed the chain sitting high on the teeth then eventually clunk down and locate properly (or fall off).

I can’t help feeling a better design when wanting to use without a chain guide is probably a more normal single speed chain ring tooth profile with very long, hooked teeth. FSA are soon to be releasing the Megatooth ring which does exactly that and aims to avoid the narrow/ wide approach which seems to be prone to issues in thick, gritty mud… at least in my limited experience.

I noticed yesterday that Absolute Black (another narrow/ wide chainring manufacturer) have added a sentence to the website to essentially say they may not work well in mud… shame there wasn’t any mention of issues like that when I bought them 🙁

Not a real grumble, but it is nice to be aware of the possible limitations of wide/ narrow because no other manufacturers have so much as mentioned it…. not sure it is the best British Winter set up 😐

My personal cynical opinion is that the new mechs do most of the work and although some chain gripping effect is demonstrable hanging things off a narrow/ wide, in the real world use the chain ring grip effect seems limited. I am going to try and find a long tooth single speed ring (non-narrow/ wide) and see if that performs any better, especially in mud. Perhaps more pertinently, does it perform any worse…

Just in case it looks like it is just me being a bit “special” setting everything up, I have since noticed Nino Schurter now rides a chain guide set up on his otherwise XX1 drivetrain for racing…

It seems funny that these kind of problems are just starting to crop up when a few months ago you couldn’t find a bad word said about any ring of this design from any manufacturer. Perhaps releasing them at the start of Summer helped 🙂

I considered Works too in order to buy British and avoid import duty, but I went for the Wolftooth in the end as i run a bash ring and they have holes for a bash ring and the Works one didn’t.

I considered Works too in order to buy British and avoid import duty, but I went for the Wolftooth in the end as i run a bash ring and they have holes for a bash ring and the Works one didn’t.

My understanding of bash ring fitment was that it was chain set dependant.

Both the Wolf and Works appear to have standard bolt holes…

Thanks Dan, that’s good info and always useful to hear the negatives, particularly as winter draws in. You don’t say specifically but you’re using the Wolftooth? I understand your comments are possibly true for all narrow/wide rings.

Also interesting about the bash wobbliscott as I’ll be putting it on a standard (triple) Middleburn spider which is currently set up as double and bash. For now I’ll leave the bash on and just ignore the lugs for granny, and eventually look at perhaps a duo spider.

patriotpro: I should have been more specific, I got the SRAM spiderless ring, not the 104 BCD ring. The 104 BCD ring does have the holes for a bashing, but the SRAM spiderless ones don’t appear to. They’re also still not in stock, so would have been a long wait..

Gotcha wobbli.

How much are the Wolftooth rings working out at after import duty, etc then and how long are they taking to be delivered?

Slightly hypocritically I bought a Raceface thick thin job last night 😳

I was lucky with the chainring and avoided the import duty. The website has the SRAM spiderless chain rings at $78, but I’m sure I didn’t pay that and am wondering if they have put their prices up since. I thought (hoping) i’d paid about $47. I ordered the bashring separately as it wasn’t in stock but got stung for about £16 on import duty if I recall correctly, which made that part relatively expensive, more expensive than the chainring in the end. So all in all not the cheapest setup by a long chalk, but cheaper than a conventional ring with retention devices, and with the spiderless setup and avoiding any chain retention I’ve shaved off a bit of weight. Looks nice too.

FWIW I’ve had my wolftooth chainring for about 2 months now, not a single dropped chain. It does make a difference, previously with the same mech/chain and a plain non-ramped ring with bash I had a few drops.

My works chainring has been good, its very crunchy in the mud, i won’t be using it this winter

It’s gonna be interesting how these fat/skinny jobbies do in the Winter by the sounds of things and how they compare to a tensioner/chain-guide setup…

I am expecting frustration in winter 😕 As with tyres thought it very much depends on the type of mud you have. Chalky, gritty mud that attaches itself to the wide teeth won’t be much fun but those riding in thinner mud/ loam might well never have any issues 😀

Interesting comments danw and it logically makes sense. When do these FSA rings come out. I have 1*10 on my hardtail which is more of a winter bike for me (so I don’t continually knacker pivots on my fs) and I’ve just bought a rf narrow-wide to deal with chain drop issues I’ve been having. If the fsa’s are soon available I might try one instead and resell the rf unused?

What are the FSA rings you mention?

Looking forward to fitting/using all this new/old fangled gear in anger tbh, the simplicity of single front, decreased weight, lower maintenance and a bike that is altogether easier on the appeals in spades. And that’s without mentioning the quieter ride and dramatic improvement in chain-retention.

Danw’s post above. Google FSA megatooth.

Did that and found an article on PB but nothing to suggest they are better than what the other brands are already knocking out.

My understanding of Dan’s point is that so far there hasn’t been enough real world use of the wide-narrow designs through a full muddy winter, but from his experience, his didn’t work well because only a little clogging of the chain can have a significant impact. As I said, it makes logical sense to me, as does the approach FSA are taking with a longer, hooked tooth profile. Hence I’d be interested in shelving my current plan to go wide-narrow and try the FSA megatooth if it’s available shortly.

Pinkbike article is all I have found so far… though I hope the rings arrive in time for winter testing.

JonV’s interpretation of what I feel about the current narrow/ wides is spot on 😀

If the wide tooth is just wide enough to hold a chain and just narrow enough to let the chain pass nicely over it as you pedal then it doesn’t take too much mud to upset this nice balance. It is made even worse by these wide teeth having a very square rather than triangular profile so it is hard for the chian to push off the mud as it would a normal tooth.

I love the clean look of the N/W set up, love the lack of areas for mud to cling and can probably live with one or two dropped chain per muddy ride… maybe 😕

Thanks for that. Personally It would piss me off if they fail in Winter conditions.

Good on FSA if they are the only company to have done a sufficient amount of testing to not only realise that basic fat/skinny rings are inherently flawed in Winter conditions but to have gotten around it and released a solution.

We shall see.

I am sure there must be some single speed chainrings out there with some big old nasty long teeth but I am yet to find one. Anyone have any ideas?

I would even settle for a narrow/ wide design where the wide rings are longer and have a more triangular cross section to help ease the mud off. Hmmm…. what I would do with a CNC machine 😀

I am sure there must be some single speed chainrings out there with some big old nasty long teeth but I am yet to find one. Anyone have any ideas?

And need to be 10 (or 11) speed width

And need to be 10 (or 11) speed width

Very true 😕

Someone like Betd/ Goldtec must have made something like this at one time or another

I’ve been using an on one singlespeed ring 1×10 (clutch mech and top guide) for getting on a year now. Teeth are taller than your average ring although I don’t know how tall you’re looking for. It’s also steel and if it lasts as long as the one on my singlespeed it’ll outlive me.

Any updates of these wide/narrow chain rings now we are in the depths of winter?

Still perfect for me. Not dropped a chain and done some jumpy bumpy descents, so a half decent test. I’m not very good at keeping it all clean and maintained and will go between rides with no cleaning and just a squirt of lube before the next ride, and wear rate is fine.

Mine hasn’t missed a beat in the gloop.

Was also outstanding on a brutal weeks riding in the Sierra Nevada’s a few weeks back.