Narrow Wide Chainring 180° flip?

[79stef]

I bought a cheap Narrow Wide chainring on Ebay in black, which was pictured as being nearly all black with a little bit of writing around the edge.
The one that turned up however, has garish branding over a large section of the chainring.
I am trying to keep the moving parts/ bars etc on my build 'all- black'so my question is:
Can I flip the chainring (unused) and run it so that the side without the logos on faces the outside, and the logo side faces towards the frame?
I can't see that it's machined to be driven only in one direction, but someone might know better

 

[Betsy]

If the black is anodising, you might be able to remove the white print with chemicals without damaging the ano.. try acetone (industrial strength rather than nail polish remover) on a small area with a cotton bud.. if it works without lifting the black, you might be able to simply rub the print away with acetone on a rag.. also 99.9% IPA is worth a try..

 

[79stef]

If the black is anodising, you might be able to remove the white print with chemicals without damaging the ano.. try acetone (industrial strength rather than nail polish remover) on a small area with a cotton bud.. if it works without lifting the black, you might be able to simply rub the print away with acetone on a rag.. also 99.9% IPA is worth a try..

Thanks @Betsy, that's s good idea and definitely worth a try. I will give that a go and see where I get with it.
(I'm still curious to know whether it is possible to flip them though!)

 

[Betsy]

Dunno.. i've been running narrow wide on my work bike for years.. i'd go check but the outside toilet door has swollen up with all this bad weather and i can't get it open

Wellies and snow shovel are stuck in there too...

 

[bikeworkshop]

The driving face of the tooth and the "release" face perform different functions, so in a quality ring id assume they have a slightly different profile. It's subtle, but I think I can see the rh face falling back faster.

Of course on a s/s its not that important if the chain is tight, but it might feel nasty and wear out faster.

I think you'd be safer painting it if you can't lift the white off.

 

[ishaw]

Chains are typically not built to worry about such things, they are just chains and the same whichever direction you out then on. You should be fine swapping the chainring around I think, though I think cleaning away the logo is the best option. Cover it in oil, you won't see if much after that.

 

[79stef]

The driving face of the tooth and the "release" face perform different functions, so in a quality ring id assume they have a slightly different profile. It's subtle, but I think I can see the rh face falling back faster.
View attachment 916777
Of course on a s/s its not that important if the chain is tight, but it might feel nasty and wear out faster.

I think you'd be safer painting it if you can't lift the white off.

This is what I was thinking might be the issue, but I'm not clever enough to draw the VAR-type lines that you have managed!
I'll defo try to deal with getting rid of the graphics first.

 

[79stef]

Chains are typically not built to worry about such things, they are just chains and the same whichever direction you out then on. You should be fine swapping the chainring around I think, though I think cleaning away the logo is the best option. Cover it in oil, you won't see if much after that.

It'll be covered in oil soon enough but for those few days of it being a freshly finished build, with a few pics taken to remind me why I keep throwing money at this hobby, it needs to be right!

 

[Vesatoro]

It'll be covered in oil soon enough but for those few days of it being a freshly finished build, with a few pics taken to remind me why I keep throwing money at this hobby, it needs to be right!

Just turn it around after taking the photos

 

[bikeworkshop]

Before multifreewheels and indexing, most front rings were rotatable and flippable.

If manufacturers were to go back to symmetrical teeth for single up front, they could advertise the fact of double chainring life... and print massive meaningless graphic pseudo-words on both sides!