SRAM has today announced the launch of a full range of oval chainrings designed to work with its 12spd Eagle groupsets.
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SRAM decided to produce the aftermarket chainrings because it wanted to have an oval option as “some riders’ pedaling styles benefit from oval chainrings.”
The chainrings are optimised to work with the brand's 12-speed Eagle drivetrains — which of course have recently become a little more affordable with the introduction of GX Eagle — and are available in 32, 34, 36 and 38t sizes. Those without Eagle needn't necessarily miss out either, as these new rings are backwards compatible with all 11 speed SRAM drivetrains.
There’s no word on quite ‘how oval’ the rings are as of yet, but we’ll update this story once we have more details. The rings are only available in SRAM’s GXP direct-mount fitment standard.
The chainrings come in at £107 / $119 / €126 and are available to order now. Australian pricing was not available at the time of writing.
While this is quite a bit of cash for a mere chainring, we suspect that SRAM will likely release a simpler steel version of its oval rings in the future, as it did for its 11-speed groupsets.
And before anyone dares shout “but look at how rubbish Biopace was!” in the comments, please don’t — oval rings are well past that era now and besides, we’ve made the joke about a zillion million times and it’s definitely not funny anymore.
