Q-rings Observation

I've been running Rotor Q-rings on my bikes for the past 10 months and like them a lot. However, today was the first time that I really, and I mean really, felt the elliptical nature of the rings. Over the past week I've been riding the Serotta with the aerobars in preparation for the SJBC 2TT Winter Series event.

Most of my riding has been in the big ring for the past week. I haven't, nor not really ever noticed, the elliptical rings, but today was different. On my recovery ride I was trying to keep my cadence pretty high. At one point I was on a very slight rise heading out to Calero reservoir and downshifted into my small ring. Immediately I could sense the non-roundness of the rings. From the 10 to 1 o'clock positions it felt like my stroke had a little turbo boost! I could really feel the crank turning over quicker as my stroke went through.

Just to make sure I wasn't crazy I repeated this a few times on the way back; big ring to small ring. Same feeling every time. Hmm, I wonder how long this will last. It's not a bad thing, just something that feels different.

So any of you Q-ring guys out there, have you experienced this?

Me & Maggy Backstedt

I always like to read up on Backstedt since he's a big powerful rider. Over on Cyclingnews they profiled some of his wind-tunnel work and in the photos I came across these chainrings. I've been using these same rings (Rotor Q-rings) for the past 9 months and have really enjoyed what they do. Once you get them dialed in, and for me that was most important on the small ring (still need to dial in the big ring), I feel like I'm flying much faster. Plus, with their shape it causes your opponents to fall into a hypnotic state as they stare at your bottom bracket. It's at this point when you throw the old hammer down to blow their legs off.