Home > Bike Types > Cyclocross

SOC15: Ridea introduces dual-ovalized chainrings to fit any crank, road or mountain bike

19 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

ridea-captain-america-alloy-chainring-crankset-01

Ridea was started in Taiwan, grew into Singapore and China, then Australia, and finally parts of Europe. Now, they’ve been infiltrating the U.S. for about a year and a half with their duo-oval Powerings, a unique take on ovalized chainrings that have four different levels of ovalization and options for virtually any crankset on the market.

Everything is fully CNC’d, like the Captain America inspired time trial crankset used to draw our eye to the booth. Yes, that one’s a regular round chainring, but it’s hiding another clever little part on its backside.

Here’s how it works…

ridea-dual-oval-chainrings-04

Imagine two overlapping ovals, represented by the dotted lines in this graphic, and you get the idea. Where Rotor is a regular oval and O-Symmetric is a double cam, they use a dual ovalized design to clock different effective gearing based on where your different muscle groups are strongest.

The goal is to maximize the use of your strong quads and glutes (and help make them strong) and minimize reliance on weaker muscles. Whether or not that exacerbates the imbalances cyclists are already prone to remains to be seen, but they do say it’ll make you faster. (Cross training is never a bad idea anyway, don’tcha know)

Ridea Duo-Oval Powering ovalized chainring

Ridea akes four different levels of ovalization, using the W1, W2, W3 and W4 designations to describe the effective increase in tooth count during the power phase. For example, the W4 52-tooth ring has an effective spread of eight teeth –  the power stroke would be equivalent to a 56, and a 48 on your dead spot. In other words, a W4 has a +/- 4 tooth count effective range.

ridea-dual-oval-chainrings-02

Different bolt patterns for most common cranks are available, and they’re working on versions for the newest Campy and FSA. They already have the new SRAM 22 and Shimano asymmetric 4-bolt cranks.

In fact, they came out with the four-arm cranks at almost exactly the same time as Shimano, and that let them offer W3 and W4 versions of their double chainrings. With the 5-bolt chainrings, they couldn’t get the combo to work with a tooth difference greater than their W2 offerings.

Power output is claimed to improve by 7%, 10%, 15% and 20% as you climb the tooth offset ladder, and the higher offset models are recommended for more experienced, stronger riders.

Ridea Duo-Oval Powering ovalized chainring with narrow wide tooth profiles for 1x mountain bike

For MTB, they have it for all common BCDs for their 1x chainrings: 76, 80, 88, 94, 104, 120 as well as the asymmetric SRAM and Shimano MTB cranks. There are also double and triple chainring groups.

Ridea Duo-Oval Powering ovalized chainring with narrow wide tooth profiles for 1x mountain bike

Their narrow/wide design uses a unique short/tall tooth profile, too, to further enhance the chain retention.

Retail is $125 for MTB, $230 to $325 for the road doubles. Those plain round chainrings are just $100. As eye catching as the red and red/white/blue rings are, the black chainrings are ceramic grade hard anodized, which means they’re both smoother and tougher…those are the ones you want. Everything’s tested with their pro riders first, then released to the market.

ridea-3DCB-rim-brake-caliper-03

Ridea also makes brake calipers and a few other items like front derailleur mount spacers to ensure proper cage clearance with the higher offset chainrings…and some exquisitely machined pulley wheels.

ridea-3DCB-rim-brake-caliper-01

The dual pivot design adds power to the lightweight package. Unfortunately, I didn’t get more info on these at the show and they’re not listed on their website yet.

ridea-knurled-chainring-bolt-01

Few parts on the bike can be as annoying to install or remove as the nuts on the back of chainring bolts. Even with the right tools, they’re sometimes finicky or it’s hard to hold the crankarm steady while also holding a small tool in each hand. Ridea’s solution is a nut with a knurled backside that bites into the ring slightly as it’s hand tightened, allowing you to snug the bolt with just the allen wrench from the front without the nut slipping and spinning. Brilliant!

RideaBikes.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

19 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jack the junior
Jack the junior
8 years ago

the knurled chainring bolt isn’t exactly a new concept, sugino knurled bolts are almost standard on track

brattercakes
brattercakes
8 years ago

S’pretty.

Ripnshread
Ripnshread
8 years ago

nice bolts

Jami
Jami
8 years ago

What, you don’t like ‘Murica?

KL
KL
8 years ago

I’ve always thought Ridead had something to do with Rotor.

boom
boom
8 years ago

I legitimately want that Captain America crank for the bar bike. Do you know what model it is or where I can find it?

M.C. Slammer
M.C. Slammer
8 years ago

DZ just found his new crankset!

Craig
Craig
8 years ago

Nice products. Having had a lot to do with oval type rings, power meters, etc, it’s great to see the options they have available. However making power output claims based on some theoretical calculations or limited practical tests just makes them look silly. In-depth studies have shown various types of irregular shaped rings to give real-world power output gains of 1-4% (keep in mind that a 4% gain is HUGE). I suspect their massive claimed power gains in the above article may be from just a sample of the crank rotation, which if so is misleading.

Why do so many brands come out with great product then slap outrageous claims on the benefits of their products? They are not fooling anyone, well, maybe a few really gullible people, but they would have so much more credibility if they stated the truth. Although, I once had a young customer who came into the shop I was at and asked to buy a certain brand of bike because it said their new aero frame saved 45 seconds over 40km. He actually thought at his next 80km race with this new bike that he would now finish 1 1/2 minutes in front of the bunch…

SamSkjord
SamSkjord
8 years ago

“Power output is claimed to improve by 7%, 10%, 15% and 20% as you climb the tooth offset ladder, and the higher offset models are recommended for more experienced, stronger riders.”

They were doing well up until that. – http://bikeblather.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/whats-up-with-those-funky-rings.html

Your power meter reading high doesn’t mean you’re producing more power.

bike shop worker
bike shop worker
8 years ago

Looks like the crankset belongs to captain America, just saying.

ah
ah
8 years ago

No photo of the oval rings on a bike, but their graphic makes it look like maybe they have biopaced themselves? You want the major diameter of the oval to be vertical when the crank arm is horizontal. Last thing we need is another 20 years of eliptical rings being expensive and hard to find because of a marketing push on having them the wrong way…

Ramones
Ramones
8 years ago

Is it doval(korea based chainring) lookalike?

taras
taras
8 years ago

@ah. The graphic doesn’t show them Biopacing themselves, although it can be easy to assume that. There is no crank orientation shown, they are just showing where the “power zone” is in a crank cycle, and showing how the double apexes of their ellipsoid shape matches the outside of those zones. It would be helpful if they superimposed/watermarked a crankset in the vertical position over their diagram to maybe eliminate some confusion.

gringo
gringo
8 years ago

The Lone Wolf needs that crank from the first pic on his Lotus.

Jose
Jose
8 years ago

One has to ask why oval or optimized oval rings (Shimano Biopace) didn’t become standard and still in use today. With that in mind I think companies now are counting on not enough riders that knew about them when they failed to be accepted 20 years ago. On paper if these companies only take into account power output and not smooth pedaling feel, for instance. There are many aspects to pedaling mechanics that any technical claims should be taken with a grain of salt. My experience over the years racing with Biopace I say don’t waste your money on this stuff.

ah
ah
8 years ago

@Jose

Biopace failed because it was orientated the wrong way. Last few TDF’s have been won on eliptical rings and I use one on my MTB and love it, would never go back now. In those tricky situations where you get stuck in the dead-spot it nearly always surprises you and pulls through. You get away with being in the wrong gear more often and I think it actually makes pedaling smoother, easier to keep the same speed through the dead spots if you are pushing an easier gear…

Papi
8 years ago

I really like this product. Can DOU-OVAL technology be applied to other round bike parts like rims and disc rotors to make them more efficient?

Jose
Jose
8 years ago

@ah,

Oriented the wrong way, you mean somewhat “the wrong way”. There are many ideas as to what the right way the high and low points need to be. One can argue as to what is more efficient forever because one thing we all agree on is that no two riders pedal the same.

And just because some racer guys won on them is no proof of their effectiveness.

Anecdotal evidence is all to common.

Will they catch on again this time? If I was a bettin man, I would say no. Surely don’t count on SRAM or Shimano doing this anytime soon either.

Even so, I need to try one again after so many years. So that said, I caution anyone to criticize something without trying it, even if one thinks long past experience is all that is needed to know.

timtak
6 years ago

Biopace were imho a training ring designed to match the rider to the bike by giving riders a harder time in the dead spot so that they develop the muscles to put out watts all the way around. If you trained on Biopace and then moved to circular or rotor then one may get the best of both worlds. I have some Biopace rotorized. There are some of these on offer for 150 USD with 110BCD and I am looking to convert my compact crank to non-compact. I wonder if I will be able to Rotorize these.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.