masi61

Just curious if folks who have replaced chain rings on their 9000/9100/9200 Dura Ace cranks know if there are any cross compatibility issues or does each iteration have proprietary chainrings?

I know that Absolute Black makes both round and oval rings for these cranks that are 110 bcd but notice that one of the 4 protuberances has a little curve on it which rules out symmetrical 4 bolt 110 chainrings (not sure if such a thing exists, I’m probably thinking of the 110 5 bolt standard).

Anyway, the reason I’m asking is because I purchased some 9200 172.5 Dura Ace crankarms without rings but I have some 9000 ones in a 38/52 combo that I was going to try to use. I have no idea how critical the fit is or if the finish of the 9000 rings will clash with the gloss black of the 9200 cranks.

BTW: My buddy ran an absolute black chainring on his BB30 Cannondale synapse hat has a Hollowgram crank using the 110 spider and he wore the chainring out in just one year. He’s not a huge mileage guy either, I mean he might have ridden 3,000 miles last year. I would have thought a premium chainring like the Absolute Black would me milled from a higher spec aluminum that is more durable…

masi61

I guess my 9200 crankarms got delivered today. I've got no chainrings to use but the 9000 ones in 52/38 combo. I will try these and report back ... but I still am holding out hope to hear what others run with when the stock chainrings wear out: do you purchase the exact Shimano replacement part, the Absolute Black ones or some other company's?

Bah Humbug

I think you can cross-use a bunch of the different-numbered Shimano chainrings, but the sculpting won't match. I rode that way for a long time and never cared

masi61

I found a couple of YouTube videos where the 9200 chainrings were compared with the 9100 chainrings. Apparently the 9200 chainrings are optimized for 12 speed chain which is to be expected and they are like 1 or 2 mm closer together. They talked about parts that are backward and forward compatible. They said that the 9000 chainrings would not be forward compatible to 9200 crankarms. So now I have these lovely new 9200 crankarms that need the proper 9200 rings to both look right and function at their best. When I looked online for 9200 rings the format seems the same everywhere I look - these are not in stock but can be pre-ordered. I have no plans on running a full 9200 group set or even running Di2 for that matter so for me I might add these 9200 arms to the display case with the NOS Suntour Superbe Pro cranks, and my NOS Mavic Starfish cranks.