Q ring upgrade - Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh......

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
I have a 52 big ring. Is there any reason not to go with a 52 Q?
For some reason I thought you got the 34T Qring. in theory 34T-50T works better. If it's 36T then the 52T works perfect. You can make the 34/52 work it's finicky, not technically supported by most Derailleurs, but I've done it. The wide gap also leads to a ton of excess chain.

Given your riding goals as documented elsewhere the 50T would also seem to give a dynamic big ring range that is more inline with your goals, and speeds.
 

LarryOz

Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
I have an incredibly big 54t Q ring.
That is one sweet looking Q-ring - and nice big 54 tooth.
Looks like it almost came out of a sawmill, cutting trees down! Now is just cuts DF's down! :p
Mine is only a 52, and QXL is a 53.
 

ReklinedRider

Zen MBB Master
off topic. sorry :cool:

looking at David's big yellow boom and chain stay in the pic above compels me to say that while i love my Black Vendetta, and realize the V20 incorporates significant improvements over V1.0 and V1.5, i am still of the firm opinion that for sheer good looks, Old Yeller simply cannot be beat!

this brief off topic diatribe is now concluded. carry on.
 

JOSEPHWEISSERT

Zen MBB Master
Nope. Got the Q 36T. I feel confident to get the 52T and put them to work. Currently I can't imagine using the highest gear except down hill with a tailwind.
Doing some quick calculations: with a 52-tooth chainring, an 11-tooth cog, a 25mm-wide tire, 2105mm rollout, and 90 RPM cadence, you would be traveling at about 33.4 mph.
 

hoyden

Well-Known Member
Doing some quick calculations: with a 52-tooth chainring, an 11-tooth cog, a 25mm-wide tire, 2105mm rollout, and 90 RPM cadence, you would be traveling at about 33.4 mph.
Hmm...I don't think my 63 year old body will ever use that combination. Maybe I could dial back the big ring to 50T.

How does one figure out what works/what doesn't work? My Silvio has 165 cranks, 52/36 rings, and an 11-36 cassette. I can do the math for the delta change but that won't answer the compatibility.
 

castlerobber

Zen MBB Master
My Silvio has 165 cranks, 52/36 rings, and an 11-36 cassette.
Mine has 165 cranks, 50/34 Q-rings, and a 12-36 cassette. I occasionally find myself wanting one gear higher then the 50-12 for those "downhill in a tailwind" occasions, but other than that, the range is just what I need. So a 50T Q-ring with your 11T cog may be enough of a top end.

When I Google Rotor Q-ring sets, I see 50/36 listed as an option in a few places, along with 50/34 and 52/36.
 

hoyden

Well-Known Member
When I Google Rotor Q-ring sets, I see 50/36 listed as an option in a few places, along with 50/34 and 52/36.
Ah-ha, so Google can answer the compatibility question. Thanks! It's nice to know if I get the Q 50T it will play nice with my 11-36. Those Q rings are quite spendy and I would be less than pleased to learn I chose wrong.
 

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
The 50T paired with the 36T and the 11-36 will work very nice. It will give you a more efficient gear range in the Big Ring because of less cross chaining. It's a very reasonable setup for you. Basically in the simplest form it will let you use a lower gear more effectively while staying in the big ring, less need to shift to the 36T. The sacrifice is the high speed that simply wont use.
 

castlerobber

Zen MBB Master
This is from rotorbikeusa.com:
upload_2016-6-10_14-56-24.png

ETA: Posting only to show the existence of 50/36 sets from Rotor, demonstrating compatibility.
 
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ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Little update ....

Thanks to Etap and Di2 I have lots and lots of shift data from the last two years. PluckyBlond have been riding QRing Aero 52 and Qring QXL 38 and the 11-28T SRAM this spring/summer and Aero52/Standard Q36 with 11-32T di2 last year. It's very interesting to look at two years of shifting data and tendancies

With the ETAP the gearing is a little tall when you live at the top of a 9% hill especially when getting home from 100+ mile rides. But we've been limited by what Etap can do... But still the obvious conclusion was that we are riding far too often at the top of the cassette; and spend a bit too much time in little ring.... Turns out we both like the way the 38 QXL pedals so when GI was equal we'd use the QXL.

So after much googling reading an searching I believe we can stick a 11-30T on the Etap and make it work. Then I managed to find a Unicorn in a 50T QXL ring. So we are going to pair out the bikes at QXL 50/36 and a 11-30T cassette; should get a little more up hill bailout; only missing a little as it is now; and basically give up a little top end that is rarely used and can be compensated for by raising the RPM's on the down hill.

Comparatives (all 5 bolt 110BCD)

Old
QRing Aero 52 (major axis 54T minor 50)
QRing QXL 38 (major axis 41 minor 35)

New
QRing QXL 50 (major axis 54T minor 46) <<<---- didn't even know this creature existed
Qring QXL 36 (major axis 39 minor 33)


This years riding on the QXL 38 has told me that it climbs hill much much better than a round 34T, and better that standard Qring 36T. Here's hoping the QXL 36T has similar climbing property....

Updates to follow. Shifting should be interesting to redo...
 

ReklinedRider

Zen MBB Master
Very very interesting. Thanks for blazing new trails!
What is the story on the 'derailleur adaptation insert' the Rotor site mentions in regard to the QXL rings?
 

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
What is the story on the 'derailleur adaptation insert' the Rotor site mentions in regard to the QXL rings?

Fancy language for an "Expensive Shim" to offset the derailleur further back so it's not interfered with by the height of the ring if your braze-on mount is too low.
 

LarryOz

Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Interesting stuff Ratz - way over my head (I thought you just "pedal harder" when you get to the steep hills! (wink,wink) )
..
Kline,
I have a 53-QXL on my V20, and my FD (Di2) works fine with it.
 

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Interesting stuff Ratz - way over my head (I thought you just "pedal harder" when you get to the steep hills! (wink,wink) )
..
Kline,
I have a 53-QXL on my V20, and my FD (Di2) works fine with it.

You probably also still have you left knee cap; mine is in 4 pieces I don't like to do anything harder;..... last weekend climbing a 13% short hill at mile 105 I was telling myself; yep no more gears; you can't shift, nope no shifting; pedal harder; don't tip over; it's only 500 more yards; it will only hurt for so long..... LOL having gears in reserve I don't use is helpful mentally if nothing else...... 11-28T is the one draw back to the etap right now. 11-30T if it works will be just enough 11-32T was over kill on our terrain.... I am also really shocked at two things. (1) How much I really like the feel of pedaling the 38T QXL, much more so than the Standard 36T. We only got those 38T's to get within the capacity of the derailleur system and because I read and article that claim they'd be good climbers. That "little" has an immensely wide ridable range. I think it's going to migrate them to my custom Quests. (2) Riding the 52T Aero on the V20 I really was only using the upper half of the cassette 85% of the time according to di2stats. So now that we found the 50T QXL exists I think that will widen the range of gears where the big ring is usable. It's not that I was slow with the 52T I just wasn't get the benefit of tweaking cadence on the cassette inspit of both of use cruzing in the 20's on our 100+ mile rides. Pluckyblond was riding 68% of the time in little ring; 20mph...... so wasted capacity.

More once I get the stuff in hand. With luck the bikes will be update and tuned in time for portland and I can let Robert and Lief inspect the results. Fingers crossed it all fits.
 

ReklinedRider

Zen MBB Master
Fancy language for an "Expensive Shim" to offset the derailleur further back so it's not interfered with by the height of the ring if your braze-on mount is too low.

[QUOTE="LarryOz, post: 124849, member: 4936"
..Kline,
I have a 53-QXL on my V20, and my FD (Di2) works fine with it.[/QUOTE]

Thanks guys, filing all this away for what I hope will be next year's new drivetrain!
 
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