I have just bought a second hand bike for my wife which comes with Sram 2 x 10. I need to buy a new cassette and chain so I thought why not convert to a 1 x 10; the wife is up for it with the simplicity and weight saving. So I am going to get a Sunrace MX3 11-42 cassette and 30T (to begin with) narrow wide chainring.
Are the cheap narrow wide chainrings any good - like the older Superstar one at £19.99 or the Uberbike one at £22.99? I don't want to spend a lot in case she doesn't like 1 x 10 or the 30T size, unless these cause more chain drops which will annoy her.
I've run/bought a range of NW rings from Works Components, Superstar, On-One and Blackspire.
The Blackspire was the most expensive and also the worst - wore out really quickly and even when new dropped the chain a few times.
The Works and Superstar ones are stilling doing sterling service, bith at about 2 years old apiece. The On-One is yet to be fitted - it will replace the Superstar one when it starts to drop the chain.
Keep an eye out for deals as the SS and OO rings both cost me £10 in their respective sales.
Fit a basic chain device and keep the ring on longer?
Chainrings are cheaper than chain devices.....
I got my NW rings from eBay. I guess they come from China. They're about £14 delivered and indistinguishable from expensiv stuff in use. 🙂
Same as PeterPoddy here, just fitted a 14 quid one from ebay, not dropped a chain yet.
Longevity is still to be confirmed though.
Yes, but chain devices aren't consumables like chainrings.
Impressed with my Uberbike one.
Cheers everyone, I will buy a cheaper one and see how it goes.
I can't recommend Works Components enough.
Both the product and the customer service.
I got an oval chainring from them.
The Superstar one I had didn't last long, or at least, stopped retaining hte chain well relatively quickly- maybe half the useful life of a Works one. But it was very cheap, so that could offset it.
(I get Works ones usually, they're a good company to deal with and I think they deserve credit for being the first 3rd party to make a narrow/wide. But at the time they were sold out)
I've had a mixture:
One up - started dropping chain after 9 months. I've put one up chain guide on and it's been fine since
Raceface - had it years still going strong
Uberbike - had it about 6 months and threads have sheared (could be user error)
I have these (I paid £7 delivered):
Also one of these gxp direct mount £25:
No problemos.
I found the race Face ones write quicker than blackspire, superstar out on one- these are in order of increasing weight and longevity, in let sure the 2 are related !
Go home Kimbers, you're drunk.
Got Superstar on the CX bike and Uberbike on the fat bike. Give it a week and one or both of them will have a promo code, I usually pay about 15 quid for them.
SS have a stainless one on the way which will definitely be worth a look but I don't know when it goes on sale.
10 -15 quid seems about right for them, any more is back sky rocket scene tax.
We need steel (special hipster magic steel with stratospheric pricing) ones that last a bit longer, 7075 ain't tough enough. Could be marketed as endurance rings 😆 with all sorts of elaborate claims and magical properties beyond the realms of established metallurgy.
Superstar ones have lasted well for me.
Uberbike one had a disappointingly short lifespan.
I'm sure there were some steel SRAM ones going for peanuts (<£5) on CRC a little while back
Not sure on BCD though
Superstar FEB17 gets 20% off uk made on superstar
I've had plenty of life out of my SS ones so far with zero retention issues, worth a punt and they are pretty well made too - shed mud quite well. Have an On one ringmaster which is fine so far and was dirt cheap, holds mud a bit more though.
Didn't know a stainless SS one was on the way - like the sound of that!
35 bikes - Not as cheap, but British.
So are Superstar ones.
I've got Superstar on three bikes (two mtb, one CX) - they've been great and no signs of wear/dropped chains yet.
chestercopperpot - Member10 -15 quid seems about right for them, any more is back sky rocket scene tax
I'd say personally paying twice as much for one that lasts maybe 50% longer actually does work out not bad- you're not so much paying for lifespan, as to avoid the annoying bit at the end of the life where the chain starts falling off, so the longer you can spend in the happy place- for a relatively small amount of money- the better. If I'm out on a ride or race where teh chainring's given up, I'd pay £10 to fix it there and then so why not pay that much earlier?
Or, you could buy a cheap chainring and just replace it early but that's going to rely on guesswork pretty much.
+1 Works Components. Been using them since early days of NW and been fine and long lasting.
Retrodirect - Member
Yes, but chain devices aren't consumables like chainrings.
They were for me. Chain used to jam in them and get damaged. One got ripped apart. They're also a pain to keep crud free. Going 1x with a NW chainring has been such a relief.
Ran an on one ringmaster for ages, on two different bikes and must've clocked up over 2500km, still worked.
without getting too nerdy on materials, look out for 7075 Aluminium - it's about as good as it gets.
Having fancy coatings might mean the first 0.25 mm of the tooth takes longer to wear away, or it doesn't chainsuck as much when bedding in (or chainsucks worse), but once you've worn that off they'll all wear at much the same rate.
I'm currently using a £10 On-One - does the job. Previously has a One-Up and a Revolution Components one - which cracked as it was machined away too heavily. the on-one is comparatively heavy with less machining - but I'll never notice that extra 20g 😆
@ Northwind - I see what your saying but I've not had 50% more out of expensive ones. A bit more, scientific eh 😆 not 50% though. I reckon Steel alloy would get you closer to 50% and the minuscule additional weight of one ring would be worth it, depends on teh money though! Alu rings/sprockets are the weakest link in the DT, if like me you don't buy lightweight chains, cassettes and/or change chains regularly, oh and are not in the Geoff Capes weight category.
So go cheap I say, 9 quid I paid last time.