Hopefully getting a old carrera with biopace rings soon to use as a road bike. Ive heard bad things about what the biopace rings do to yours knees though…

Can anyone shed some more light on the matter for me?

It has the old friction shifters and i dont want to replace with STI levers or whatever, so i may WTD square taper cranks 😉

There was an epidemic of knee problems and lawsuits in the late 80s after the release of biopace.

Don't even test ride it, you'll be a cripple.

and the wheel turns again

Reading up on sheldon brown he doesnt seem to mention these problems. Not that im saying they dont exist.

Im also curious as i tihnk im just being a bit thick and not seeing something obvious. If Q rings have been rotated 90 degrees compared to biopace can you not just rotate a biopace ring one or two bolts along to get effectively the same thing as a Q ring?

I feel im being thick here but alas i may aswell ask.

I was kidding and you are quite right.

When my wife irons my 501s, she says that the legs are ridiculously bow legged. They are. She blames this on the drop handlebars and biopace chainrings that helped to mould my skeleton during my formative years. She's probably right. Hunchback, bow legs and "here's my nose, my @rse is coming" physique. Is that what you want, 'cos that's what you'll get.

When my wife irons my 501s,

FAIL…

@nickc – LOL. I heard the words "Fail" ringing in my ears as I typed that……

I've got an early 90s cheapo MTB frame in the shed with the original biopace chainset still attached. It was my main bike for years and used as a pub bike and general hack up until about a year ago. I actually ran it singlespeed for a while (which worked, surprisingly enough), and my knees have so far lived to tell the tale.

When I used to ride biopace I had no problems. I still have the bike but its not used much at the moment. Bradley Wiggins still rides some kind of related design style, rather than round rings.

There's Osymmetric rings and Rotor Q-Rings above, both are rotated from Biopace so they work properly, which Biopace really didn't.

Your knees are unlikely to explode if you use it, but they may, and it won't really achieve anything!

cynic-al – Member
There was an epidemic of knee problems and lawsuits in the late 80s after the release of biopace.

Don't even test ride it, you'll be a cripple.

– complete Tosh !