Is it just me or are the chainring selections for 165mm crank setups unfathomably terrible, with most manufacturers seemingly content to shovel the same tired options down cyclists throats year in, year out? Can we honestly say that the current crop of compact or standard chainrings offers anything remotely resembling an optimal gearing solution for sprinters and criterium riders?
And dont even get me started on the so-called aero chainrings, which promise marginal gains at best but more often than not result in spent watts from having to compensate for inefficient chainlines and subpar shifting performance. Are the supposed benefits really worth the tradeoff in terms of increased maintenance costs and a potentially narrower useable lifespan?
Its astounding that, despite advancements in materials science and the proliferation of exotic, high-modulus carbon this and ceramic-coated that, the fundamental design of our chainrings remains stuck in a bygone era of primitive, inefficient drivetrain design. Why are we still content to run chainrings that look like they were cobbled together by testosterone-addled roadies high-fiving each other over marginal gains?