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Its only a mathematical model
If we apply Occam's Razor instead of a mathematical model, we can easily see that oval rings don't work. How much of a gain in efficiency would be needed to ensure that a technology would be adopted by every rider in the professional peloton? An increase in power output of 1% would be worth about 15 minutes in a 80 hour Grand Tour :-)
gbj_tester-
So if that 1% was also true in real life and it was a perfect situation and no one else was using that technology, Bauke Mollema, who was in 7th place, could have won the Tour de France if he had just that. That's amazing. :-)
Tbh, never rode with oval rings and I don't think they work (sounds a bit like L shaped crank arm technology), but a 1% performance increase in a Grand Tour would be something every team wants.
Still a nice Nago though.
Arawn
There was a research paper that showed they work if the oval is larger than 1.5 :1 and at the right spot, I'll try to find a link.
edit: found it.
http://www.noncircularchainring.be/pdf/Biomechanical%20study%20chainrings%20-%20release%202.pdf
But.. Its only a mathematical model. no testing. so maybe dubious results