Do they really work?
If you have them in a TT bike should you also have them on your road bike?
Jonboy
What do you exactly mean by ‘work’ ? The specific reduced fatigue claims ? As always to separate the marketing from the science you need people in labs to make tests.
Nevertheless I can offer my anecdotal subjective n=1 experience: beginner cyclist, low power, low efficiency: I love them. It instantly felt more ‘round’ and more natural than circular chainrings.
adaptation was instant except climbing out of the saddle felt a bit different. Sprint ‘feels’ more powerful.
I suspect experienced cyclists will get far less out of them due to already good pedalling efficiency.
I am getting a tri bike and most definitely getting them on (with envetuelly the relevant adjustment in the qring position).
It might be pure marketing but they claim there was more demand from some athletes for a QXL shape. I can believe that.
You can also look up existing threads on the subject.
Difficult question.
So, I have them on my TT bike but not on my road bike, mostly because my road bike is a total beater and it would double the value of the bike… There are so many differences between the bikes — weight, wheels, crank length, position (!) — that it’s really difficult to tell the difference. I certainly don’t feel I miss them on my road bike, at least.
I have no idea if they are worth it, but they were small marginal cost when I was speccing the bike and I was in a vanity mood. Placebo is nice too. The aero ones look kinda badass too, hopefully it intimidates people.
The drawbacks seem to be a) cost, b) front shifts are not as good - chain catcher almost essential, and c) might limit your power meter options.
Hope that helps.
I tried then at the bike show in Birmingham a few weeks ago.
it was a bike on a turbo trainer, so not the worlds most definitive test, but one thing that was immediately obvious to me was that it didn’t “feel” hugely different, however, it did feel incredibly smooth
it wasn’t what I expected at all, its very subtle at first and then you realise how smooth and flowing it is.
Its certainly something I’m going to try next season
I’ve been using Q-rings for almost 10 years on all my bikes, road bikes and tri bikes (and TT bike when I had that as well). For me, they do make a noticeable difference. On the bike, I can keep the power more even and keep that power longer. Interestingly, the biggest difference for me has actually been running off the bike. My hip flexors are much fresher and I can get into a good rhythm much faster. The “dead legs” feeling off the bike has been eliminated for me.
I use them on my TT bike and have had no problems. Now going to a bigger Osymmetric. In terms of them ‘working’, I don’t really know how to quantify that. They’re comfy and that’s good enough for me.
Do they really work?
If you have them in a TT bike should you also have them on your road bike?
Jonboy
my power with/without Q-rings is about the same but my knees are a lot happier after hard effort with the Q-rings.
They work in the sense that I can pedal and I run them on both my bikes (road and Tri). Can’t say definitively it makes me faster but I can definitely say it doesn’t make me slower.
I run QXL rings on both my bikes actually and have them adjusted so they both shift well (the road bike setup shifts really well though compared to the Tri bike though…but I think that has more to do with a DA 7800 on my road and 7900 on my Tri). The biggest drawback of the QXL though is the cross-chain rubbing is pretty bad so I have it setup that the big/big rubs as little as possible and it rubs a little in the big/small combo as it is very little I run in this gear combo anyways. Sacrificed this to have the other combo to help avoid shifting to the small as much as possible.
Best way I’ve found to try them out is to find a reasonably priced used set in the classifieds to see if you like them. I did that and was able to make the decision to pull the trigger on the QXL rings not too long after (had to buy those new retail as those are harder to find used). Heck, look for my user name in the classifieds as I have a used set for sale that has been collecting dust for the last year since I made the switch to the QXL’s.