Hey guys!
Surprise, surprise, I'm building a new bike,
a new Norco 29er this time,
and one of the first things to install is the bottom bracket and cranks,
so I'm picking parts for it.
But before I get to the cranks I needed a chainring,
and this time I picked the Wolf Tooth components oval,
and in the next couple minutes
we'll take a look at the others that I've used in the past
and see how they compare.
It does come in a bag, and all the information worth mentioning
is here on the back,
where you will find that this is made in the USA,
the type is oval, SRAM direct mount, 32 tooth,
and that's the type of aluminum used,
made in the Minneapolis Minnesota,
follow us online, on social.
If you like stickers
there is one in the bag over here.
And here is chairing.
Almost all the information found online it's printed here on the chain ring.
Company name, that is the crank rotation,
I assume to install it properly.
You move over here where they talk about DROP-STOP,
which refers to the tooth profile, a narrow- wide tooth profile,
PowerTrack Elliptical is what they call their ovals,
short for it is PTE,
and finally here, you're gonna find the same info that was on the label.
SRAM Direct Mount, 32 tooth, made in USA.
On the back of their chainring
you only have a serial number and 32 tooth stamped over there.
Claimed weight on the website is 74 grams,
you can see 65g on my scale.
Also on their website
you're going to see some more details about their PowerTrack Elliptical concept.
And that is 10 percent oval for more natural pedal stroke,
and 112 degree timing for quicker engagement.
In the last few years I looked at quite a few oval chainrings,
you see an absoluteBlack, that's an OneUp,
also using a SRAM Eagle oval on my Yeti,
and all these are built with 12 percent oval,
and also they engage at 115 degrees.
Compared to these, the Wolf Tooth
is supposed to be 10 percent oval, and 112 degrees engagement.
However, when I put this Wolf Tooth on top of the OneUp,
you'll see that, I don't know, they match tooth for tooth,
dimensions are identical.
Having it on top of the absoluteBlack chainring,
again, very very similar, but on this one
I think I see a tiny bit that 2% difference in the oval,
but again any difference that exists between these ovals must be minimal.
The tooth profile of these chainrings,
absoluteBlack and Wolf Tooth seem to be machined very similarly,
with OneUp looking quite different and having the tallest teeth of them all.
However, they all have some sort of chamfer here to clear up mud and debris,
and they are all compatible with 9, 10, 11 and 12 speed drivetrains.
Next to an SRAM Eagle chainring, that I'm actually replacing on my crankset,
you can see the tooth profile of the Eagle that is quite different than any others,
and this is supposed to minimize wear, and the drivetrain noise.
Chainring installation is very simple in my case
I have an eagle XX1 crank,
and I just need the three bolts,
here, there and there.
These are T25 Torx screws,
I put a bit of Loctite on them
and I'm going to torque them to 5 to 7 Nm.
I've used the chain ring with a couple of drive trains,
with Eagle GX chains,
you can see it right now with the Shimano XTR drivetrain.
What can I tell you? It's a chainring,
it works just fine. Most importantly,
it doesn't seem to make a lot of noise.
You can see the chain now on the smallest cog of the cassette
and the chainring doesn't complain much.
So that's a good sign that there isn't a lot of friction in it.
So a good alternative
to the more expensive chainrings out there,
definitely the more expensive SRAM chainring ovals.
So for me it's a keeper.
What about you guys?
Have you ever used Wolf Tooth components chainrings?
I would love to hear from you.
If you have any questions,
let me know in the comments below.
As usual, don't forget to Like and Subscribe,
and until next time,
I will see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys,
Cheers!