The myth of Biopace... Let's discuss

[trickylad]

My first proper MTB was a Dawes Rocky Trail. hilariously 3 inches too big for me, Reynolds 501 tubing, Exage Trail groupset and Black Araya rims.

The chainset was the first I'd ever had with the fabled Biopace rings. Better pedalling dynamics if I can recall the blurb. Felt like I was riding a bike designed by NASA in comparison with my mates' boringly round rings.

As I risked my gonads on every ride with my overstretched gait, I'd wait for every opportunity to go past the fellas on the hills, pulling every last inch of torque out of those elliptical rings.

Then they disappeared cos everyone said they knackered your knees. Some sympathetic tea-leaf took the bike out of my dad's shed (hope he was 6'4" for his own safety) and I never thought about Biopace again.

Well, until last week.

So, did they 'work'?
If so, how would you describe 'work'?
Did they knacker your knees?
When did they disappear?
Do you have a 22" Dawes rocky trail in green and yellow, bought from a guy with a limp somewhere in manchester?

(If the answer to the last one is yes, please don't get in touch. My life is better without that bike.)

TL

 

[lewis1641]

i have a biopace chainset if you want to rediscover it!

it is said that there is good theory to oval rings but shimano put the ovalisation in the wrong place.

you can rotate them slightly to help

i think grahamjohnwallace is a supporter of oval rings, i am sure if you pm him he will give you the details of how to do it right

 

[shogun700]

I like mine. I'm a long-legged pedal masher-I know it's better to have a smooth cadence, but I like to stand up and hammer down, and the Biopace seem to suit that.

 

[trickylad]

Hehehe

I should qualify this post. This is NOT a 'I'm going to get back involved in Biopace' things. It's just a theoretical debate on whether they were total nonesense or not.

Love to hear some more opinions.

Maybe then I'll put this niggle to rest.

 

[merckx]

the look of them bobbing up and down and in and out when pedaling wasn't for me. did not feel like they heled to any discernable degree, and i was more than happy to be back on round rings as soon as i could

there must be something in the ellipse though. wiggins and millar and many other cervelo and sky riders use them...and yes, the high and low points are in a different place to where shimano located them on biopace.

 

[tintin40]

Rubbish idea.

 

[Carlos]

Someone I know has them on a posh newish Yeti - super lightweight chainset, although I can't remember who by.
He's running something like a 36t ring - it looks so weird, it makes the bigger 4*tooth rings look normal!
But he's a damn good racer, and along with the pros these days, that has to mean there's something in it.

 

[Rich34]

I always thought this was just a matter of personal taste. Never understood how Biopace was meant to knacker your knees but I'd be interested to hear how this is the case if anyone has any genuine information - people suffer from sore joints using round chainrings too.

Part of me suspects that if elliptical chainrings were such a good idea they'd have been invented by some bloke in a shed in Yorkshire in 1923, not suddenly thought up by the Japanese in the 1980s.

 

[Featch]

Part of me suspects that if elliptical chainrings were such a good idea they'd have been invented by some bloke in a shed in Yorkshire in 1923.

They were! Well Williams in Birmingham produced them I believe. I had some in the 60's. They were a sort of angular ellipse ish.

Chris Bell and his Egg Rings were way better than Shimano's offering.

Personally I'm not a fan.

 

[MADJEZ]

Just inheritted a Peugeot Glacier with Biopace so about to discover what the fuss is about.