These narrow wide / thick thin tooth rings have changed the way people will be running bikes for sure..

Still not lost a chain on my Works one either, expected it to be funny in the mud maybe but no…. £35.00 for a more quiet, reliable drive-train = win! :-)

Best thing for keeping the chain on:

http://www.workscomponents.co.uk/works-components-104bcd-thick–thin-chainring-alternating-thickness-extended-tooth-design-270-p.asp

Or Raceface, from the usual sources (same, little more expensive, but in stock right away)

My Works one is still awesome after a few months riding :-)

Apart from most braze-ons, lugs, fork crowns, seat collars and dropouts?

Aaah, you meant ‘vintage’ bikes ;-) (apart from fork crowns, I will give you that…)

I’ve been experimenting with it, trying printed stainless steel for custom braze-ons and the like. The potential as I see it is not to replace casting, but for items which it’s not economic to cast.

Very few bicycle parts are cast though – forged yes and you wont ever replace a forged part with a 3d printed one in terms of its mechanical properties…

It is great for prototyping and having a bit of fun if that’s your thing though :-)

I can see at time when the local currys just prints replacement parts when your widget handle breaks away from your latest dyson hoover etc… no more stock inventory or waiting for parts for weeks, sounds good to me.

So if, for example, I wanted to experiment with the shock linkages on my Nomad I could melt down some knackered alloy wheels and cast linkages that I had designed myself. And if they didn’t work I could melt them down and try again.

Home casting would be hit and miss at best unless you have a lot of previous experience, you would likely create a porous mess, especially for something complicated like a linkage. Even if it did look OK I wouldn’t want to ride it! – Just get it machined if you want to mess around with a linkage…

Additive manufacturing, 3d printing, sls, etc etc all similar ways to do things but very different in application as mentioned above.

Your £300.00 0.2mm accuracy plastic 3d printer wont make sintered titanium parts, that’s more like a 500k machine, but I bet you can have a lot of fun with it!

I am properly excited for the future of this type of manufacturing though! Cant wait for things to develop further though Jamie speaks a lot of truth in his post…

Is it a case of too much too soon for Superstar?

They are showing off cnc machines and building huge amounts of wheels when in reality they need to slow down and concentrate on improved service before further increasing turnover.

I have been happy with their pads, cant comment on customer service but we have to remember the bike industry is very small, can we expect the kind of service we get from large companies?

the RF one is £45 and the Works one are never in stock lol

Someone is knocking the RF ones out for £40 I think… and yes Works don’t ever seem to have any unless you want to get into pre-ordering and waiting…..

Give the RF one a chance though – if its not broken don’t fix it!

Yeah £17.50 for me aswell,

Unless you are buying from WT because Raceface or Works don’t have the model you need, paying that ontop of delivery and the higher price of the WT ring does not make sense.

I could buy 2 Works rings or 1.5 Raceface rings for the cost of a WT.

Plus – there is no reports on longevity or performance yet as none of them have been out for long enough – You would be going off how the ring looks which may not work out?

Why import from the USA when you can buy from Wiggle etc or directly from Works? Edit – Goldtec have one available now too, but theirs is a bit funky looking…. UK again though – keep that money in the country!

You have earned a profit, you pay tax on profit.

You save for 3 years, you pay tax on 3 years profit.

You invest 3 years savings in a property and then claim for capital allowances on the properties purchase price reducing taxable profit for that year or however many years you choose to depreciate the asset by (not sure how that works in case of a deposit on property)

It adds up to be exactly the same, you just have to wait until you have all of the money in place.

Your analogy of purchasing the aston is no different to if you could purchase the property in one year or if you saved for the aston over 3 years.

Mathematically it is exactly the same.

I have not had the fastest e-mail response from Works in the past, but always from ‘Rick’ so assume this is a very small outfit and must be a case of too much work too little time… I suppose.

Good product in the end though ;-) chuffed with my ring, one things for sure they are not crooks so I would think your stuff is on its was as soon as they have it, I admit it is nice to know when that is though!

Good to see Goldtec getting in on the act too..

I have a Works version and its been awesome so far.

Easily available fromt he UK:

Works Components
Raceface
Goldtec

Thoughts – Goldtec one looks naff and more expensive than both but will be well made, RF one available in pretty colours, looks good. Works one is cheapest and looks good but a weeks wait for one… take your choice!

Been loving my Works Components one so far and its cheaper than the RF one but looks like you will wait over a week to get one at the moment so if you are in a hurry the RF looks the part…

http://www.workscomponents.co.uk/works-components-104bcd-chainring-alternating-thickness-extended-tooth-design-270-p.asp

Sram did state they are looking for licensing partners….

Link here – Bike Europe[/url]

Why stop other people making them when you can get them to pay you while they help to take market share from shimano. The patent is to stop Shimano from tagging on, they must be losing top end marked share by the bucket load since XX1 has been around!

One thing that is strange, Raceface and E13 are both big players and wouldnt be dumb enough to take SRAM on in a legal sense, either they plan to license or the patent is fudge?

Either way, would Wolf Tooth and Works even attempt to fight it, they would roll over and stop selling i expect, david v goliath but here the small man wouldnt win!

haha, who would spend money persuing such a thing!!

Having a quick look at that patent sram have filed: https://www.google.com/patents/EP2602176A1?cl=en&dq=sram+chainring&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RP3SUbWvOoSgtAbAoIDoAg&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ

It looks like Wolf Tooth have the most worry about as they have all of the fancy chamfers and the cross shaped teeth…

Thing is, this to me is a real step forward in drivetrain, will be a pita if SRAM keep it to themselves, i quite like shimano bits too.

https://www.google.com/patents/EP2602176A1?cl=en&dq=sram+chainring&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RP3SUbWvOoSgtAbAoIDoAg&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ

had a quick look – patent wording makes no sense to me… i am sure it does to lawyers though ;-)

No, not once it’s in the public domain.

Thats what someone told me about some machine function they attempted to patent at work… I wonder what SRAM are upto then, i am sure we will find out – they got Dirt to remove that article for a reason.

I suppose they used it for bikes first – bound to want to protect it a bit. I bet they dont care about RF, Works, Wolf etc but dont want to see that type of ring on mr Shimano’s gear….

I already have one, will have to get another quickly if everyone is going to be told to stop making them, dont fancy a £80 ring!!

Anyone into patent stuff? – Can you patent something that is already released etc?

Lost the chain three times with my new Absolute Black. Giving it the benefit of the doubt and trying a different chain, before I succumb to the inevitable and buy a Wolf

He was offering a refund on pinkbike to a potential customer if the ring didn’t keep the chain on, may be worth a moan if it doesn’t do what it should – though I know you can’t guarantee it will stay on. You using a clutch mech btw as that is pretty crucial.

On contrast, the works components, wolf tooth and SRAM thick thin ones all seem to work, mine does.

Another happy Works Components user here…. I questioned about potential customs fees before and was told not to worry. £16 makes it over £55 for a wolf tooth doesnt it?!

Worth it if you need 30t right away but i will go rf or works next time i need one. Works say they will have colours soon too but seem to be behind so i wont hold my breath……

Carboncycles as above is the place for cheap pedals.

Nukeproof, Superstar etc etc are all the same pedal, all made by HT Components

Just get them from wherever is cheapest – at the moment thats carboncycles… there was a cheap irish webshop too.

Why pay an extra £10 or more for a superstar or nukeproof logo?

I have had my nano on the bike for over a year now, bloody mint for the money!

Works Components HERE

Had one from the first per-order and has worked great, v pleased.

Tbh why bother importing from the usa and paying s premium or paying £10 more from raceface?

really difficult when you become registered after several years of not being.. explaining to customers that everything now costs 20% more to cover the VAT results in all customers commenting and either offering cash or seeking a cheaper alternative.

I know it sounds patronising, but you should have been aware of VAT from the start of trading and priced accordingly for when you had to register…

No, customers wont tolerate a 20% increase if they cannot claim the VAT themselves.

I have been there myself years ago and did not cost for it – i ended up increasing turnover in the first VAT registered year by the amount i lost in payment to HMRC – not a nice feeling working more to earn the same….

Yes, if buying new. I got a good deal on a used XO chainset with worn rings on ebay, and added a 32T XX1 ring. All cost about £40 less than the bike-discount.de price.

That’s £40.00 less than a brand new chainset though, with the potential wear / damage carbon cranks can see, plus he will need to scour ebay rather than just buy new (with warranty)

Or buy a brand new XO chainset and a thick / thin ring for £35 – £60.

SRAM XO chainset with an XX1 spider/ring.

I imagine that would cost more than a genuine XX1 setup…

Bringing an old thread back to life.

5,8″ rider looking at a Bigwig, i seem to be inbetween small and medium.

I wont use a stem longer than 70mm (60 ideally) and dont want 3 feet of seat-post.

Any of you guys care to comment – Oh, and how do you like the bike?!

Works Components for the ring.

– They dont seem to have the SRAM fitment one yet though which would fill your light / stiff quota – other than that MRP bling ring / XO cranks?

Any issues with the chain coming off?

These:

From HERE

I got mine in the pre-order, had about 10 rides so far with no chain-guide (clutch mech though) and not lost the chain once, V Happy!

Doesnt look like they have them in stock now though, and i did wait a while for mine…

Thanks Z1ppy, nobody seems to use a 16″ – looking at the photo of the 18″ it looks pretty small.. i dont want to have to use a huge seatpost and long stem, i would rather use a 50-60mm stem and in-line post.

Any suggestions from any other 29er riders around 5 8″ in terms of top tube and seat tube length?

come on, you guys are usually an opinionated lot ;-)

That way you don’t risk the 10sp chain keying it self to the 9 speed transmission and not working when you go fully 10sp

That cant / wont happen.

Right:
8&9 Spd chains = Exactly the same
10 spd Chain = narrower EXTERNALLY because they had to decrease the spacing between teeth on the cassette to fit the extra gear on. – Use the 10spd chain with 8, 9 or 10 spd.

10 spd mech however = different story maybe – different cable pull ratios?
11spd chain = 0.1mm smaller internally, not sure externally. 11spd only if you are being correct.

10 spd derailleur on 8 spd setup may not work due to cable pull ratios.

Kind of. Obviously the 10 speed chain is narrower. I tried it and it wouldn’t “sit down” in the chainring properly. Less than 0.5mm. But it did skip when under a lot of pressure.
YMMV.

As above – something doesnt sound quite right there.

I would guess that even the 11 spd chain would physically work with a 9-10spd drivetrain, its only 0.1mm thinner, or 0.05mm each side of the chainring tooth – naff all.

10spd chain is no narrower internally, only externally.

Its the 11spd chain that is narrower internally but only by 0.1mm

(Been looking at botching an 11×1 drive-train…)

In short, a 10spd chain ‘should’ work fine with a 9spd setup, it is only externally smaller to deal with the 10spd cassette’s smaller spacing.

Oh and of course, the key is that the works and Rf rings are as cheap as standard rings, so what is the point in not buying them over a normal ring? Makes no sense!

I can honestly see every ring manufacturer moving to it… Any benefit is a selling point after all?

I still want x9 11spd to happen, then I will be happy!

Tehan in own product big up shocker.

Tbh rings don’t last forever anyway do they, run them with a top only guide and be happy :-)

I am sure xx1 users have been on them longer than a month with no issues?

Received my Works one too – again looks rather good and has worked fine so far :-)

I can see the other immediate player being Raceface @£40.00 and £45.00, wiggle are already discounting 10% as expected :-)

The wolf tooth is too much money and cba to order a chainring from the USA – too much hassle. E13 will no doubt be on price-point too, Works still cheapest at £35.00 and for a consubable item that wins me over.

Get one of these, from HERE for your kind of riding shouldnt need a guide at all….I will be trying mine out this weekend :-)

With everybody going nuts for 30t rings and lower its good to see a manly option there…

Really though, on a 26inch bike surely 32t is low enough for 99% of stuff?

Like the colours of the guide, but they do fit funny, cheap though i suppose.

Can get a ‘poor mans’ XX1 ring for £30 atm from Works Components too, $80 for that wolf one is waaay too expensive. Raceface will have theirs out for under £40.00 soon and i wonder when E13 will catch up?, they wont want to loose ground being one of the big players here.

http://www.workscomponents.co.uk/works-components-104bcd-chainring-alternating-thickness-extended-tooth-design-270-p.asp

They put the pre-order date back by 5 days which is rubbish as i really want to give this a go….

I just hope sram trickle the 11speed cassette tech down to x9, will be totally sorted then.

Dan on a lot of setups, especially those not using a clutch mech a top only guide isnt enough to ensure the chain will stay on – add a clutch mech and one of these rings and it should be solid.

For long travel trail and am bikes (my kind of thing) thats very welcome,I don’t like lower chain guide rollers as I hate the drag and unreliability.

For the same cost as a standard ring what’s not to like? I wouldnt pay £70 or whatever the wolf one costs no but RF E13 and the works components one I have on order make It a cheap experiment….