warnette

Is there such thing as a cheap chainring that is not to far off round? Im still fooling around with ratios and im not looking to drop a ton of money. Please soothe the inconsolable rage with your experiences and suggestions.

Edit for 2/16/11 summation:
-Blackspire agreed by multiple online persons to be a sure fire bet for best quality for least cost.
-Origin 8 older thicker model chainrings are cheep and steezy for the least cash, but allegations of cheaper and thinner new models.
-Rocket rings are claimed to be hideous when mounted 130 but cheap and round.
-Higher cost rings sugino,miche, etc provide reliable quality.

Paraphrased words of wisdom from M_S:Swallowing your pride and not running a super tight chainline will be more forgiving to minor variances with little cost in performance and wear to average users.

Also be sure to rotate your chainrings: https://www.pvdwiki.com/index.php?tit...ing_Chainrings

rustybrown

Second-hand Dura Ace is affordable and generally round.

Leukybear 

How common is the occurrence of non - round cheap chainrings? I would not know as I've fortunately never owned a pair of bargain cranksets/ rings....

rustybrown

Working on a trash bike with the riveted three ring setup. Gahhh...Nightmare. Still, just off enough for a little chain slack/tense wobble.

LesterOfPuppets

My rocket Ring's pretty round. Even the ring on the BMX bike I found in the trash is pretty round.

Squirrelli

Blackspire chainrings are round out of the box.

LesterOfPuppets

Yeah many of those riveted triples have flimsy chainrings. Probably a good chance of not too round too.

I Have a Bike

My LBS has origin-8 chainrings for like 20 bucks. They have served me well. I don't know about buying online, but the ones I've bought in person have all been okay.

rustybrown

Biopace predecessor?

warnette

priggishness is never cool

bleedingapple

my surly SS ring was way off round. was pissed since my origin8 ring was more round and cheaper...

evilcryalotmore

I have a light weight chain ring. From a oem chinese company from the road bike section. My thing is not round at all...

Squirrelli

I find Origin8 chainrings are hit and miss, sometimes you get lucky and get the better end of the patch.

Leukybear 

+1 I was thinking this exactly when I saw it.

M_S

I've learned to swallow my pride and run a relatively slack chain... at least by some people's standards. It runs so much smoother.

I guess that was unsolicited. Um, two different 130 BCD Suginos I've bought have been nice and round. 46 and 42. Hope that helps. I also have a 44 rocket ring that isn't perfect, but it's not bad. I gave it to my roommate because it was ugly as sin using the 130 BCD bolt hols, with the 110s just kind of hanging into space. Way hideous. Like this:



Heinous.

warnette

Standard or the messenger line?

M_S

Standard.

That said, Ned Overend I think was using an elliptical rotor q ring on his singlespeed mountain bike. I would imagine his mechanics wouldn't do such a thing if it made a difference. So you can get away with a lot if you don't insist on running a super taught chain.

zigmin

Just got an origin8 46t 110/130 bcd ring and was pleasantly surprised at how round it was.

stryper

my miche advanced primato ring was perfectly round. it's not cheap though

vw addict

Sugino messenger is perfectly round, and strong under peddaling force, which is another important note.

Scrodzilla

The air of unbridled priggishness set forth by certain members of this forum leave me feeling absolutely queasy.

inmemoryofpluto

i've owned 2 origin 8 chainrings, they're great as long as you don't get the newer ones that are thin.

Xgecko

the roundest rings I have found are Sugino BMX rings, I have a Origin8 Beck that is pretty close to round....

Scrodzilla

A friend of mine has a Beck that isn't round at all. I have a feeling that companies like Origin 8 are hit or miss, as Vix said.

Xgecko

It's entirely likely that I got lucky....I wish I could have found a Sugino BMX ring when I was looking