(whooshing)
- We're here at the Rotor HQ and factory in Madrid
to find out how Q Rings are made,
the science behind them, and then to go for a ride on them.
And I'm really excited, some of my best results
were in Q Rings
and it's been a while since I last used them
and I can't wait to find out more
about the changes that have been made in those recent years.
Rotor are famed for their manufacturing
of aluminum components.
They are also known for their production
of elliptically shaped chain rings, known as Q Rings.
The theory behind Q rings is pedaling efficiency.
The idea is to reduce your gearing
whilst in the dead spot of your pedal revolution
to help accelerate you through this point.
The gearing then increases at the point within each stroke
where you can produce the maximum force on the pedals.
The idea is to create a more effective
and efficient power output.
So Pablo, these have been years in the making.
It's not happened overnight.
Could you talk me through the theory
that goes into a Rotor Q Ring?
- [Pablo] The idea was you push with one leg going slower
and the other one, in the pulling phase, was going faster
trying to imitate the arms of a swimmer.
Then it was really good for the knees
but the biomechanics, let's say in the pushing phase,
was similar to this.
Then we stopped this concept in 2005
and then getting the most of that product,
talking about biomechanics, we put everything
in our single oval ring which at the end is just a ring.
Of course at the very beginning, to adjust
the gyrator was a bit tricky but at the end
weight was not compromised, price was not compromised,
and then was much more easy to succeed.
- How long does a ring last?
How many kilometers do you think?
- Much.
- Yeah (laughs)
- When I go to, imagine Carlos Sastre Grandfondo.
- Yeah.
- And then I go there in Avilla,
and now you realize
how many people are using 2008, 9, 10 rings
and still they use the same.
As if it's not possible to keep on selling.
- So something that strikes me as key to your success
with development of the Q Rings is how closely
you work with some of the top pros over the years.
World time trial champions, Tour de France champions,
well the list goes on. Olympics.
You've won everything basically.
How has that helped with development of the rings?
- I think we put a lot of effort and a lot of love
in following the riders to convince them
we are going to support them as much as possible.
Making tests, tests with the (mumbles),
at that time it was like
(mumbles) with these kind of tools.
But as we're all following them in the car, making shifts
the same day, different bikes, different OCP's
trying to adjust the ovalisation,
looking for what to use for the time trail,
what to use for the climbing, as well, eve, for example
Manila vosch, at the very beginning was,
she was using different orientation for the ice,
for the very frozen races in the cycle close.
And then, being so close to the riders,
we realized the success was coming.
We had really, really good results.
(dramatic piano music)
- Before we get access to the factory,
Rotor, and the Rotorians,
insisted we join them on their lunch ride.
A key event of daily life at Rotor.
(brooding music)
Though I do have a hunch
this isn't their daily route,
you can argue that it does offer
stunning scenery.
I've interrupted the Rotor lunch group ride
to bring you a bit of a rundown of the bike
they've built up especially for me.
Now, it isn't my own Canyon Aeroad,
but it is very similar.
It's the same size frame,
but it's in this monochrome color
which I think really sets off
against the ROTOR 1x13 Groupset.
So, with that groupset,
I have a 39-10 cassette that back,
with a 46 tooth Q Ring,
which I'm now running in position three.
I've got my 170 mil, two in one power cranks on there,
which is really cool, because I get to see the balance.
I'm running my own pedals, of course,
and he groupset comes complete with Rotor's own
R-45 wheels, with our GP 5000 tires on top of them.
And then Rotor teamed up with Magura
to create their disc brakes.
All in all, it's the first time
I've ever ridden a hydraulic groupset.
And look at the views.
What a place to test it out.
(rhythmic music)
So, the Rotorians,
as they are affectionately know by Rotor,
have been explaining why midday ride
is so important to them.
It's not just the chance to out of their
office work environment,
but, it's a great time to product test.
So something that they've created that morning,
can literally be tested that afternoon.
But also, it's great for creative freedom of thought.
The guys say they go back to work
with a renewed enthusiasm every afternoon.
And the afternoon passes by much faster,
and they get a lot more work done because of it.
The ride culminated with lunch,
before we headed to the factory.
And I was particularly interested
to follow the journey of a Q Ring.
From sheet metal, through to final product.
(upbeat music)
You can probably tell,
I am now inside of the first part of the factory
here at Rotor.
And I've stood next to a giant sheet of 7075 aluminum,
which will form all of their chain rings.
Both round and Q Rings.
Now, for that to happen,
these giant sheets
first have to be lifted into this machine here.
This is the MACH2.
It's called the MACH2 because of the speed of the water jet
that cuts the sheet.
The speed of the water is two times the speed of sound.
So it's incredibly fast,
and can cut incredibly thick material.
Now, round rings are formed out of these giant cookies.
And this is not something I've made up,
that's what Rotor call them officially,
and the Q Rings are made out of these squares.
That's to minimize wastage
when they code to form the chain ring.
It takes about two minutes
to cut one of these forms.
Which is incredibly fast.
And when you consider
that on a single piece of sheet of 7075 aluminum
you can form up to sixty different rings.
And it takes around two hours,
unmanned, this machine just gets on with it
and pumps them out.
The sand that's used to cut the material
is then drained and bagged, and reused in building material.
So there's no wastage there.
And the sheets are lifted out and recycled, as well.
(upbeat music)
Step two of the process happens
in the DMC 65 H duoBlock milling machine.
My square sheet of aluminum enters the machine here,
into a bespoke mount.
This machine manufactures two rings simultaneously.
As the rings are not symmetrical,
they produce each side individually.
First, side A,
followed by side B.
This effectively doubles the speed,
and therefore the capacity,
of the manufacturing process.
Now, I mentioned to you a second ago
about side A and B on the Q Ring.
Side A, the external face of your chain ring.
And side B.
These are processed individually,
but at the same time,
to cut down on manufacturing time.
Now, my square sheet metal
no longer looks like a piece of square sheet metal.
It now, really is, an Aeroad Q Ring.
And I find that quite exciting.
We have a brief quality control here,
to check that there are no rough edges
left on the chain ring.
And also to check that the teeth are of the correct profile,
height, depth, and width.
And then finally worth mentioning,
is the waste material that's left over.
Now, apparently, only around 20% of the total material
that comes into the factory,
is actually used in the final product.
And the rest is recycled.
There is zero waste from manufacturing a chain ring.
(upbeat music)
Now, my chain ring is fresh out of the machine
and I've brought it over to the final step
before it's sent away for anodizing,
they're sending them away in big batches every Friday.
And every Friday they come back in fully anodized.
And I find this truly fascinating,
every single Rotor chain ring ever made
is engraved by this machine, here,
with how many teeth it has on it.
(upbeat music)
Now Rotor are perhaps best known
for their anodized black products.
And it's at this point, where everything is shipped off
in the departure lounge.
The cranks will come back anodized next Friday,
after they're shipped off this Friday.
And the same for these chain rings.
And, just like magic,
here are two that came back this week.
So now I've found out how Q Rings are made,
it's time go and find out the science behind them,
and how to put that into practice on the bike.
So we're back upstairs at Rotor HQ.
I'm now on my bike,
and I'm about to be put through my paces
by Irene.
With three tests to help establish
the optimum chaining position for me.
But first, could you please talk us through what is OCP,
and what is OCA, and what tests am I about to do?
- Not every person rides in the same way.
And we all apply our maximum and minimum forces
at different angles of the pedal stroke.
So it's very important that we can orientate the oval ring,
so we find the maximum resistance
in the angle in which we are applying the maximum force,
and the minimum resistance
in the angle in which we are not able to apply,
or in which we are applying the less force.
Because of this, we developed the OCA,
the optimum chaining angle metric
that shows which is the body center of your pedal stroke.
And that is directly related to the OCP.
- And these are the same tests that you do
with your pro teams that are supply with Rotor?
- [Irene] Yes, exactly.
- And then how will we get the results from this?
- So, I'm going to record the data with the phone,
which records, not only power and cadence,
but also the OCA and OCP metrics.
OCA is the optimum chaining angle,
and it has a direct relationship with the OCP,
which are the different positions
in which we can position the oval ring
in relation to the crank ham.
- Yep, okay.
So, years ago, when I did use Q Rings,
I ran them on setting two,
and this is based on feel and advise from other team mates,
that sort of thing.
I'm quite curious to see
if that's what I should've been using or not.
(upbeat music)
- You can already look at the numbers here.
- Okay.
- This is the first interval.
And average power of 311,
and the OCP was position four.
This is the second interval.
380.
And it's again the same,
like this OCP,
OCP four.
- So it's consistent, so far.
- Yes.
And the same thing for the last one.
460 watts in average,
and OCP 4 again.
- Okay.
So what were the results of my test?
Well, setting 3.5.
That is very precise, yes.
And quite different to position two,
which is what I raced on years ago out on the road.
Rotor do say the indoor trainer will often
slightly misquote this outcome by up to one point
in their OCP.
So for me, that would mean reducing the position down
to position three, when out on the road.
- There is no wrong or right.
If you feel good with,
even if this says position three for you, let's say,
if you use position two, because you feel better,
that's completely fine.
So--
- Because we are talking about fractions of a degree.
- [Irene] Yeah, just a few degrees.
So--
- It's a good guide.
- [Irene] Yeah, exactly.
- Okay, right.
So whilst I'm warming down,
and I've got you here Irene,
I'd like to ask you a few questions about power meters.
So you develop Q Rings first, here,
but then you quickly develop power meters,
not long afterwards.
What was the reason for doing them together?
- We wanted to have a tool,
like a scientific tool,
that allowed us to give an advise to the rider,
which OCP position is the best for everybody.
So with the power meter, we can have that.
We can give our tool to the rider,
to know which is the best position for them
to take the most advantage of the oval rings.
And it is not only about the position,
it is also about pedaling style,
and to know better himself,
to know what his pedal stroke is like.
- Okay. So that leads me on to my next question,
which is, when elliptical chain rings first became popular,
around 10 or 12 years ago, now,
there was a lot of talk about how power meters
where unable to cope with the numbers they were producing,
because, is it the inertia of the power meter
was no longer consistent,
the crank needs power meter throughout the pedal stroke.
So how do you avoid that?
- [Irene] So, what we are doing with our power meters,
is to measure a cadence
is not once per revolution,
but more than once per revolution.
So we can compensate for those changes in speed
along the pedal rotation.
- Okay, so one big thing I've noticed over recent years,
is that power meters are much more stable
than they used to be.
They used to fluctuate with temperature much more often,
and you just had to be really strict
with doing a zero offset.
Either before every ride
or whatever.
But I've noticed in your instruction booklet,
it says actually as long as you don't change pedals,
or change the cranks from bike to bike,
you only need to do it every 30 hours.
So what's the reason for that
becoming more stable than it used to be?
- [Irene] Every power meter works different,
and like changes with temperature,
depending on how the strength gauges are positioned
in the power meter.
And it also depends on if it's an axle based power meter,
or a crank based power meter, or a spider based power meter.
Because we are measuring in the Twin Power.
For example, that you are riding now,
because we are measuring in the axle and the crank ham,
because of the way we put the strain gauges.
They are automatically compensating
those temperature changes.
And that's why we only recommend to do the zero offset
when you install the cranks in your bike,
and then after thte first 30 hours.
Because, you know, when you first install,
then everything has to get in place.
So after 30 hours you should calibrate again.
But, for example, with the spider based power meter,
the INspider that we just launched in Eurobike,
we had to do the temperature compensation.
So, we do test,
like from minus 20 degrees,
to plus 80 degrees.
And we have like an algorithm
that compensates for that temperature changes.
- So what is it about the Rotor Twin Power,
that sets it apart from your spider based power meter,
or other power meters on the market?
What's different about his one,
to those?
- For us, the very special thing of our power meters is,
first of all, they are compatible with oval rings,
not only with Rotor oval rings,
but with other oval rings in the market.
Like in terms of not over estimating power,
because they assume the average,
like the speed in the pedal rotation is constant.
The same way I said before.
So, you can use them with oval rings,
and then still have an accurate power measurement.
Then it's also very important for us to have
this recommendation of the OCP position,
on which you should use the Q Rings.
Then we have three different power meters.
And they are all different,
depending on if it's INpower,
INspider, or Twin Power.
So the INpower only measures left leg,
and then multiplies by two.
Then the INSpider sits in between,
because it measures combined power
for the two legs at the same time.
But it doesn't differentiate between left and right.
It gives a balanced number,
but it is not like a real balanced number,
it's more of an estimate.
Yes.
And the Twin Power is the most cpmplete power meter we have
because we measure left and right, independently.
It's like having two power meters in one.
You have the strength gauges,
and the axle that measures the left side,
and the strength gauges in the right crank ham
that measures the right side.
- I've had a really insightful and amazing couple of days
here with Rotor.
I've learnt a huge about from them.
Especially learning about what goes
into the process of creating their products.
If you enjoyed this video,
or you learnt something from it,
please do give it a big thumbs up.
And if you want to check out another video right now,
click just there.