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TPE17: Rotor updates, expands direct-mount oval chainrings for multiple crankset brands

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You might say it’s about time, and we’d agree, but Rotor has finally upgraded their mountain bike chainrings to a direct mount design. The one-piece option will be available for their new Hawk mountain bike cranks that debuted at Eurobike 2016 (shown above), their legacy Rex cranks, plus SRAM and Race Face. Actually, they showed a first generation of these things along with the new cranks, but they’ve made a few noteworthy updates.

They say it saves about 40g over a standard four-bolt chainring and spider. Chainring size options now include 26/28/30/32/34 tooth counts, and with Hawk versions, they even found a way to mimic the positioning adjustability of their four-bolt rings…

Pricing is $79.99 Q-ring, $69.99 for NoQ round rings.

By switching to smaller teeth for the mounting splines on the Hawk’s spindle, they were able to indicate five different positions, which mimics the adjustability of their original rings. Others are fixed in position at “3”, which they say suits most riders best, but if you’ve dialed your clocking in with other Rotor rings, it’s nice to have the option here, too.

Above on left is the chainring for the Rex cranks, which have been their standard MTB crank arm for years. On the right is the SRAM-compatible chainring.

The Hawk (and base level Raptor) cranks are a modular system that allows you to use any crank arm, chainring and spindle mixed or matched to fit your bike, and let it swap among standard, Boost, fat bike, BSA and BB30 with no problem. Check out more tech details on these cranks in this post.

We saw this one-piece “spider-ring” style double chainring at Interbike.

Not shown but coming soon is a new smartphone app for their TwinPower cranks to show your power output on the phone via Bluetooth. iNpower only has ANT+, so that one’s limited to displaying on desktop for full pedal stroke analysis (regular power data will show up on any regular ANT+ cycling computer.

RotorBike.com

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Luis Raventós - Biomecanica 3D

Nice work from ROTOR!

neologisticzand
neologisticzand
7 years ago

I really do have to commend Rotor for their products. I have a set of their road cranks and absolutely love them

Teddy Z
Teddy Z
7 years ago

This is just a copy of the ABSOLUTE BLACK oval ring.

pinkolino2
pinkolino2
7 years ago
Reply to  Teddy Z

Comment of the Year!

Bryan
Bryan
7 years ago

Any word on compatibility with REX InPower cranks?

Pete
Pete
7 years ago

I really wish they would design an oval ring for a gates belt drive. It would add some efficiency to the system. It might also increase the adoption of internally geared hubs. Please Rotor! Please

Mint Zebra
Mint Zebra
6 years ago
Reply to  Pete

Pete, how do you do that? You have variable chain length with a non-round chainring.
You’d need a idler pulley.

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