Rotor Q-Rings

Tradition, legend and myth permeate our sport like no other.  When do you ever see football or swimming magazines carry articles of events from fifty years past?  We cyclists look as much over our shoulder for inspiration as we look forward to times yet to come.

Well here's a blast from the recent past that could just change your cycling future...

A Brief History of Time
If ever a sport was tradition bound, then it's the glorious, gladiatorial pastime that we live and breath at every opportunity. 

Pierre Michaux invented the round pedal and crank system as far back as 1861.  In the 1980's, after 120 years of deliberating, the UCI relaxed the laws requiring chainrings to be circumferentially round.  Thereby allowing the introduction of harmonic chainrings that were initially ridden by the Francaise de Jeux team under the guise of Shimano's Biopace system.

Biopace worked on the principle of having the "flattened" section of the chainring at twelve and six o'clock, when the cranks were at three and nine. Effectively smoothing the pedal stroke and lowering the overall pedalling load at certain points of the revolution. 

This "theoretical built in micro-rest period" allowed the rider to "take a run" at the power section of the pedalling cycle which, in this instance, occurred when the pedals were in the vertical plane. 

At the time, clip-less pedals had just been introduced and many riders were suffering knee problems.  Biopace was an attempt to alleviate knee issues, rather than gain speed, efficiency and effectiveness.  We didn't talk about power in them days!

Numerous scientific studies consistently failed to prove the existence of the expected metabolic and physiological advantages.  Unfortunately the system never really caught on and was quietly dropped from the shelves, as well as the bottom brackets.

The baffling thing was, the advantages were obvious to anyone of an  engineering bent.  Newton's principles, and the known information of tangential forces placed on a lever, clearly defined that there should be theoretical benefits to such a system.  How could something with such obvious theoretical merit be so practically wrong?

As with everything in life, the devil is in the detail.  While everyone else got over the fad and moved on, Pablo Carrasco in Spain, gave it a little more thought.  Slowly but surely he perfected the system to develop it in to what we see today, the Rotor Q Ring. The same principle, but with a completely different outcome.  Here's how.

As road tested on a
Di2'd Kuota Kebel with wireless SRM

The Power Cycle
It doesn't take a genius to point out how you pedal your bike and turn circular motion in to forward propulsion.  So for now a slacker will have to do.

When you try to impress your mates by doing a track stand at the stop sign or red traffic light, your leading leg is invariably in the one to two o'clock position.  This is the position of maximum torque or turning force.  Those with their legs in the twelve o'clock position are the one's toppling over as they can't create any forward momentum against the push of the road camber.

The Q Ring, as you can see from the thirty five locating holes above, mounts in the position that's best suits you.  The system enables you to push the most leverage, when your leg dynamics are at their most powerful.  Effectively it automatically changes your gearing to suit the power cycle of your your legs.

Assuming you have a 53 chainring and can imagine a clock face; from 0 to 1 o'clock you get an effective 50.4 tooth "compact" chainring setting; from 1 to 4 it ramps up to a "time-trial" 56 tooth and drops back to 51 when you get to the 6 o'clock dead spot.  And that's the clever bit!

As you go through the dead spot the gear "disappears" and you get through the quiet zone with less effort than you would with a constant geared circular chainring, earning yourself a little rest on the way.  Then you come back in to the power zone again and the gear magically ramps up once more to make the best use of the big muscles in your other leg!  Job done.

 

The difference between now and thirty years ago is that the "ellipse" has been moved around the pedal stroke about 75 degrees and tests have proved demonstrable, repeatable and measurably positive results.  You can view them yourselves at the bottom of the page.

The Road Test
As you'll see below, cleverer people than me have, in a controlled environment, gone through the trouble of carrying out all the laborious studies and efficacy lab tests for us. 

The Rotors have not been found wanting by the intelligentsia in white coats.  So lets see what a fat scouser with white legs and a low pain threshold can find out in the real world... 

I'll be honest (would you expect anything less?), when I first jumped on them, I was sceptical.  It felt really, really, really weird!  It felt like it looked on the chainring.  It felt as though I was riding an egg.  It felt, vum, vum, vum.  If you've ever done the one legged cadence drills you'll know what I mean.  It was that strange.

Then I got out in to the maelstrom that is Jersey's traffic and other factors (white van man etc) grabbed my attention.  By the time I'd had the first row of the day and rode the 7k to the Gunsite to meet up with the flamme rouge gruppeto , I hardly noticed them.

Now I've been cycling for a long, long, long time and consider myself to have a smooth and steady pedal stroke.  So I may of been a little hypersensitive to the change.  But within an hour the sensation had all but disappeared.  Until, that is, we came to the first official climb of the day and the challenge for the unofficial, allcomers Grimpeur de Jersey Trophy.

It really was the strangest sensation. 

I've climbed some big hills in my days but at this time of year I revert to type and take on the physique of a well honed track sprinter; so anything that helps grimping is gratefully received. 

This is no scientific study by any means, it's just anecdotal.  But these rings really seemed to make climbing life just that little bit easier.

Not like I was banging out 50 more watts or anything, or was dropping everyone in my wake with a 30 bpm reduced heart rate. 

It just felt, less...

My mantra on hills to all our new riders is, "relax the shoulders, pedal in circles and heels down".  The Rotor's made the middle phrase superfluous.   I just seemed to naturally maintain a nice, steady, circular rhythm on an elliptical chairing.  How strange is that?  Very, but in a good way!

The Advantages
Q-rings are not designed to give you bags of free power, because the engineers and scientists out there know it's impossible to get more energy for less input.  Perpetual motion may be a step closer with the discovery of the Neutrino, but the Q-rings are not the Higgs Bosun we've all been hunting for. So how can they help?

Here's my take on where the Q-rings can give you an advantage in the real world.  Through dynamically changing the gear ratio, muscle tension is obviously reduced in the lower, pull stroke section (where the calves are brought in to play) and maximised in the forward, push stroke section were your huge quads and glutes (that have just had a rest) are providing the drive. 

It's still the same muscle groups but now, compared to a round chainring, they perform a separate function for a differing portion of the pedal stroke.  Thus effecting a saving of something.  It's the same power effort driving the bike forward, but it's produced and used in a slightly different (more effective) way. 

Analogy Alert!  Think of eating carbs and proteins to produce energy.  Each has the same calorific content but you wouldn't want to eat just carbs or just protein.  It's the mixture of the two, at the right time, that brings sporting success.  Well, it's the same with muscles and force production. 

Using the two sets of muscles, in the right order, at the right time (and that's the difference between now and thirty years ago) to produce the same amount of energy gives clearly demonstrable, measurable efficiency advantages.

Some Sums
One of the events I've tackled in the past, is the Pyreneene Sportive. Seven hours thirty minutes, 172 kilometres, over the Cols de Aspin, Horquette D'Ancizan and the Tourmalet. 

It was a long day up some big climbs with an average cadence of 72 rpm, and believe it or not an average heart rate of 170 bpm.  Which equates to 32400 pedal revolutions and 76500 heart beats. Stick with me it'll make sense soon...

You'll see from the studies below that the Q-rings allow you to produce the same levels of power at a lower metabolic cost.  Lactate is down and heart rate (a physiological marker of effort ) is down around 2%. Not earth shatteringly life changing is it?

Well, it just might be!  On the flat valley sections, when you're in high speed cruise mode, (but not pushing, pushing, pushing) I don't see the Q-rings making a massive difference.  Although they may help you recover quicker. 

Where I see them working is in time trials (where you don't let up for a second), cyclo-cross and sustained climbing events.  Especially on multi-day climbing events.  Haute Route, Raid Alpine, Raid Pyrenean anyone?  And what about an IronMan?

The cumulative effect of a two percent saving over 21,000 metres of Haute Route climbing shouldn't be underestimated.  In fact, it equates to 420 metres. 

This doesn't mean you will be 420 metres further ahead at the end of the event, (although you might be) but it does mean your body will feel like it's climbed 420 metres less!  Taking that cumulative physiological advantage in to the last few days of any multi-day event has to be worthwhile. 

Even if you're climbing one mountain, or a set of them in an ultra endurance event or the Etape, then this could be the best investment you can make in your climbing prowess.

You can spend £2000 on a set of carbon wheels, that will help your climbing but unless you're a demon descender, or you're confident in your ability and it's not raining, you'll lose more time going down the other side than you saved climbing up!

Or spend around £140/£150 on a set of Rotor Q-rings and get a cumulative metabolic saving of 0.2 seconds with every single pedal rev you take.  I get this number from the physical time spent in the Q-ring "quiet zone" during each climbing pedal revolution compared to that of the constant push of a circular chainring.

Multiply that 0.2 second respite, by the 32400 pedal revs of a one day Grand Sportive, and you have a lot of saved energy to do with what you will.  Imagine the savings you'd take in to the run section of an IronMan event or in a week's worth of mythical climbing?

Fitting & Setup
As with all things in life, if you know the answer it's easy.  Fitting a set of chainrings isn't difficult but it can be a little fiddly.  Especially if you haven't got the little tool that holds the captive nut captive until you get proper purchase.  If you have it's a doddle.  If you haven't allow ten minutes more and a few swear words.  Or take it your local bike shop and get it done properly.

Wouldn't be a proper racing product without an acronym or two, and Rotor are no different.  There are (as you can see from all the mounting holes in the photo above) five settings for the fine-tuning of the ellipse.  This is the OCP ~ Optimal Chainring Position.

Optimal Chainring Position allows you to personalize the rings to maximise their, and your, potential.  Each set comes with a comprehensive (but easily understandable) set of instructions on how to get the best from your newly purchased product.

So, it's loosen and tighten five bolts, a tweak of the front mech (it needs to be raised a tadge to clear the ellipse), and you're away.  Spin the cranks on your work stand and watch the chain rise and fall in a rhythmic, hypnotic fashion.  It's very therapeutic.

Have a ride around the block, test the front chain throw, do your club run, and a week later just check the bolts to see if they need nipping up again.  Normally they don't but it's always better, and professional, to do a quick thirty second safety confirmation.

Adaptation, according to the bods at Rotor, takes around 500 kms, so if you're thinking of buying some, don't wait until the week before the season start!  Get them on now, adapt over the winter, then ride long and prosper.

Conclusion
Obviously, I didn't go through the full adaptation process with the Q Rings, as even I can't ride 500k in a weekend to bring you a full-on analysis of these clever additions to your cycling armoury.

However, it takes a lot to get the pro's to try something different as they have more to lose than us weekend warriors.  But the Cervelo Test Team, Garmin and others, have used Rotor Q Rings to devastating effect over the last few years. 

Rotor Q-rings have been used to win Grand Tours, World Championships, Cross Championships and the monuments with aplomb.  Trust me, if they didn't work the pro's would take them off.

Keep the power in your body, don't put it in to the road until you have to.  Like the final sprint, or the push for the last KOM point.

Here's a selection of scientific papers that support the findings of the work of Pablo Carrasco and his team...

If you drop in to Big Maggy's in St Helier, Becca here will look after you, and give you a free coffee while Mike the Mechanic (good name for a band!) fits your Rotor Q-rings to your own pride and joy.

Until next time.

The Tester
What makes me think I'm qualified to write articles and critique bikes? Click here and I'll try to explain.