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Absolute Black Brings Narrow Wide Chainrings to 64 BCD, Chain lines Rejoice

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Absolute Black shimano sram xx1 30T

Talk about a niche that popped up over night. In less than a year, a number of manufacturers including Absolute Black have sprung up offering machined narrow-wide chainrings for your 1x needs. The sudden drive to drop the front derailleur has created a chainring BCD arms race that the smaller, more mobile ring makers seem to be winning. The latest comes from Absolute Black in the form of the 64 BCD 30t ring.

Why 64? Find out next.

After researching chain lines on a number of bikes, Marcin from Absolute black found that the 30t rings performed better and had improved chain line when mounted on on the 64 BCD position on the crank. This was especially true when the ring was mounted to the 104 BCD position on a 2x crank – something we can attest to after using that set up on our Turner Burner. It works, but the chainline is definitely not ideal which led to one drop so far during some very aggressive riding.

By mounting the ring to the inner 64 BCD position on a 3x crank, the chain line is improved to 45mm rather than a 48mm chain line on a 3x crank with something like a WTC 30t 104 BCD ring. Absolute black will initially offer the 64 BCD rings in 28, 30, and 32T configurations.

absoluteblack tune

Other big news for Absolute black is the designation of Tune as their official distributor in Germany. You can check out both if you happen to be headed to Eurobike.

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artzi
artzi
10 years ago

excellent idea so far i am very pleased with my 38t ring 104bcd no drops yet and i am running a regular rear derailleur

Justin Walsh
Justin Walsh
10 years ago

I’ve been running a single 64 x 30 Blackspire ring made for the M980 for a while now and have found it to be a great gear for my long travel 29r with 1×10.
The chainline is excellent and I stay in the middle gears of the cassette more often. Chain wear has been reduced as well, from what I can tell. It’s a nice solution for those who want to run a 1x with Shimano.
I’m glad to see that manufacturers are finally adopting the solutions riders have been making work for them.

Volsung
Volsung
10 years ago

heard any more about their ultra light platform pedals?

Argh
Argh
10 years ago

so, 30t with 10t rear will cut max speed dramatically.

Nate
Nate
10 years ago

I currently run 30t with an 11 rear on my racing hardtail and I dont really spin out until around 25-27mph. Its actually quite adequite for the trails around here.

Rivers
10 years ago

I am running a 104bcd 30t wolftooth ring with a 10s 11-36 cassette and have never had an issue on the trails with top speed…only while riding around town. This combo works great for around here, but I was just riding up in the Kootenays a few weeks ago and would put a front derailleur back on or go 1×11 if I was riding there as the long gravel roads climbs ripped my soul out with my current setup.

haywood
10 years ago

what about the 104 tabs on the crank?

ABW
ABW
10 years ago

I just wish they’d offer these in a 29 tooth option.

Brian
Brian
10 years ago

30T Wolftooth ring here on a 1X10 setup with no drops in ~300 or so miles of average triangle NC singletrack. FWIW.

djdrysdale406
djdrysdale406
10 years ago

doesnt make any sense to me, why would you run a single ring in the inner position…then you have to cross chain to use the lower 3 cogs of the cassette.

brian
brian
10 years ago

@ABW- Too Funny!

tim
tim
10 years ago

Are there any options out there for 84bcd?

Padrote
Padrote
10 years ago

haywood — it’s going to look odd. maybe put a bashring on the inside.

a
a
10 years ago

doesn’t this render harder gears useless? I don’t understand why my chain line should be rejoicing.

absoluteBLACK
10 years ago

Marcin @aB here,

pedals are still in the works:) but they will surface some day!

104tabs – these should be used for bashring (inner position would be best). I am just making the apropriate one for this occasion, but any 32T will do as well. Many people use one anyway so this is not an issue since 30T is used mostly by Enduro and trail guys.

there is no chainline issue with bottom gears on cassette. What i have noticed while riding with people and reading forums it that most guys who uses 30T on the front will use upper half of the cassette for ~70% of the time. So it make sense to make a chainline which suits your behavior.

Another words one should look what gears he uses most on the back and make a chainline to that. By doing so you extend life of your drivetrain and make it quiet.

When you are next time on your bike start taking notice what you use and you will figure out what you need.
thanks

ifbikes
ifbikes
10 years ago

@absoluteblack The article mentions a 28T, your website makes no mention. Will you actually be making it? I know 28T is small, but I’m on a 29er and love going up steep sh*t.

Nick
Nick
10 years ago

+1 Marcin. With my XX1 30T I probably spend 70% of my time in the lowest three gears at the back. This has caused my chainring to wear out in 1000k’s of riding. A chainline better suited to my actual cassette usage would have extended my chainring life quite a bit I think.

Mike
Mike
10 years ago

Will there be any problems with the chainrings hitting the chainstay?

Mitch
Mitch
10 years ago

Doesn’t the Raceface 104mm x 30t narrow-wide ring correct that chainline issue, while still using the outter ring position making it stiffer and lighter? Anyone riding this setup?

absoluteBLACK
10 years ago

ifbikes – yes i will do it. Just allow me some more time as last few weeks are really busy. So new products will be shown on my website soon. To follow you can visit Fb page – just type #absoluteblack in search window on fb. I usually show there new products first.

Nick – to adjust your chainline you can do different trick. Just pick bigger chainring. Let say 34T. This will force you to use middle of the cassette straight away. I wrote that somewhere before, that by making such changes you can adjust your chainline “virtually” because you will start using different cogs on the back. This also extends life of the cassette as you wear out different cogs when swapping the front ring.

Mike- 28 and 30T – in 95% of frames it will not be an issue at all. Only really oldschool frames may have a problem with 30. Every modern bike will accept that. Speaking about 32T – this is on the border for some frames. So i will make a printable chart you could print, cut and see if it will work for you. So you will make a right decision.

Mitch- RF has 2mm offset from 104bcd tabs. That gives 2mm better chainline to “regular” ring. Mine is offset by 5-5.5mm from where regular ring would be on 104bcd. This is true when speaking about triple cranks. Now, with double crankset, as we all know, rings are further out than on triple. So having a chainring on the granny position solves all the problems people have with that crank when moving to 1x. In addition you can use a bash with double crank! Normally you would not have a chance as there is no place for it on double when your ring is on the 104tabs. So it will look really clean as well.

LanceA
10 years ago

@argh,
really??? Are you all that “____” that you complain about a xx1 style setups not being geared high enough for BOTH trail riding and road riding… The whole concept behind the xx1 setup was to match the front ring to your desired speed, it wasn’t to just run one ring for everything. Put more than one ring on your bike if you’re too lazy to swap a simple chain ring (with this new ring, you could put three). It takes what 10 seconds then to move the chain form one ring to the other.
The whole reason for this new trend of high low teeth is front derailleurs SUCK, especially in real-world racing conditions with mud, sand, ice, etc. so get off you objection to 1 ring setups because “I need more gears”, what we need are more reliable setups, and these style rings are fantastic. I’ve been running a similar ring by “______” and have had zero issues in 2000 miles of off pavement riding.

Steven
Steven
10 years ago

I’ve running my 1x with a 30T Blackspire (not wide-narrow) in the granny (64bcd) position of a LX triple for over a year now. The chainline is much better than experiments I had with a 32T or even 31T Homebrewed in the middle position. The only problem is how ugly the unused 104bcd spider looks.

guy
guy
10 years ago

@Steven- use a bash to cover it.

nouseforaname
nouseforaname
10 years ago

@steven – or get out the dremel.

Millsy
Millsy
10 years ago

I’ve been running 1x for about 3 years, I use a Widgit 28 tooth on the 64 BCD, I have cut the 104 BCD tabs off my XTR 975 because they fouled the ring. I’ve just upgrade my Lapierre spicy to a Lapierre Spicy 27.5 and have purchased a 42 tooth rear conversion so am now after a 30 tooth 64bcd. You have to be honest with yourself about the riding you do, I can sprint down a fire road at 40 km/h in 28/11 on the 26 inch although i was spinning at 155 rpm. But 98% of the time speed is not a problem! climbing was. This new setup should be just perfect. I live in Tropical Queensland where the hills are short but sharp. Good work AB

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