ABSOLUTE BLACK Archive

Round chainrings are standard because, well, they’re standard, but they don’t actually match the changing power output of your legs through a pedal stroke. Absolute Black’s SRAM Oval Direct Mount Traction Chainring’s oblong shape makes pedaling easier in hard spots and steadier in easy spots, so you can keep a constant and smooth cadence without having to deal with dead up-strokes and leg-crushing down-strokes. This makes it easier to nail down the highly efficient circular pedaling motion that’s we’re all after, and improves traction by eliminating the wheel slip that happens during hard down-strokes on loose terrain. If you’re going to make a killer chainring, you might as well pull out all the stops, so Absolute Black also machined this aluminum-alloy beauty with a narrow-wide tooth profile and 3D design that improves chain retention, sheds mud, and reduces wear and noise. It also engineered the Oval to mount directly to almost all SRAM cranksets, so you can eliminate the extra weight of a spider, which will be a boon to your quads when you’re hammering up steep dirt and across fast sections of rolling singletrack. Run the 0mm offset models with a short spindle BB30 cranks and the 6mm offset with the standard BB30 spindle. The easiest way to identify which spindle you have is by checking the width of the spacer between the chainring and the bottom bracket shell. the short spindle has a 9mm spacer while the long or standard spindle has a 15mm spacer.

Designed to pair with your Shimano XT or XTR crankset, the Shimano Oval Traction Chainring brings claims of improved rear wheel traction resulting from a more consistent pedal stroke. Absolute Black claims that this oval profile maximizes power transfer and smooths the rotation by reducing dead spots and capitalizing on the sweet spots compared to standard round rings. Each chainring size features its own unique oval profile, but the mud-clearing and chain-retaining narrow-wide tooth profile is universal across sizes.

Absolute Black claims that the Oval Traction Chainring improves rear wheel traction as a result of more consistency throughout the pedal stroke. Each chainring size features its own unique oval profile, which Absolute Black claims maximizes power transfer and smooths the rotation by reducing dead spots and capitalizing on the sweet spots.

Absolute Black is one of the leaders in the oval ring market because it leaves no stone–or crank, in this case–unturned. The Race Face Oval Cinch Boost Direct Mount Traction Chainring’s very specialized application proves this assertion: its offset and direct-mount design work with a Cinch crank mounted on a Boost frame. This makes installation comically easy and lets you get straight to the chainring’s raison d’etre, which is reducing the dead spot in your pedal stroke to reanimate lost watts. By reducing that dead spot, Oval Traction Chainrings boost traction by essentially spreading the power input load more evenly across the pedal stroke. Keeping power constant lets your tire exert a steady force on the trail, so there are fewer instances of slipping out in wet or mucky conditions. The ring shape also spreads the work your body is doing more evenly across the different muscle groups involved, which means less strain on your biological machine, too.