Oval Chainrings

Hi,

I had a cartilage operation kn my knee several years ago.  It still gives me issues.

I tried an oval ring on one of my bikes.  It seems to have resolved the pain I sometimes get in my left knee – the problem side.  However now my right knee is developing pain after prolonged periods with the oval chainringed bike.

If I get back on my rpund chainringed bikes it’s my left knee that starts to suffer.

Anyone else experienced this.

Is there a solution?

I’d say it’s time to get a bike fit

Oval chainrings certainly made my knee issues worse. Just a shame it took years and many thousands of miles to realise it was a contributing factor, and similar to start undoing the effects. Constantly changing resistance didn’t agree with me. Others will have different findings…

Constantly changing resistance didn’t agree with me

Does not compute. Cycling, round or oval rings, is the very definition of constantly changing ‘resistance’ (assume you mean torque). To my way of thinking oval ring attempt to dampen that variance. But they are your knees and you know best what you felt/feel.

I’d agree with above. Bike fit probably a good start. I had a hip problem for years and ovals helped. Before I knew what was wrong I’d experience knee problems. A 5mm change in saddle height would have a profound impact on pain levels after 40 odd miles.

I went to an oval to try and get away from knee pain. It didn’t help because actually, my saddle was too high and the oval was never going to fix that.

Cycling, round or oval rings, is the very definition of constantly changing ‘resistance’ (assume you mean torque).

Yes, except for me oval made that worse. Oval creates additional changes in resistance and cadence resulting in a kind of rhythmic successive knee impact/strain through the crank rotation. As the miles rack up so that begins to build into a knee issue. Once leg muscles have gotten used to the way ovals work I think any benefit is lost, even making it harder as the leg eventually weakens from not powering evenly through the top and bottom of the stroke. I imagine all of this depends on the individual rider’s pedalling style.

There have been a few threads on here over the years where people have reported oval chainrings causing knee issues or making it worse. Probably some where it’s explained better than I am doing here. Also some where the opposite is reported.

Try oval on the left and round in the right

Went supercompact absoluteblack ovals for an alps trip so my rehab knee would cope. Round chainring on my mtb.

No probs for me and have done a couple thousand miles on the road and mtb since. I find doing kneehab routines religiously is key to happy knees oval or not. YMMV….

bens

I went to an oval to try and get away from knee pain. It didn’t help because actually, my saddle was too high and the oval was never going to fix that.

Quoting my own post here because I forgot to say,

After switching to an oval, and before realising my saddle height was casing the problem, my knee pain was worse on the oval than it was on a standard ring.

Once I’d dropped my saddle, the oval was much nicer to ride than round rings ever were. Felt a bit weird at first but after about 3 minutes, it felt fine.