Smaller Chainring Problems

I have received Surly stainless steel 34T 110mm.

Although on Surly website it proudly displays "made in Canada", my ring was clearly made in Taiwan. Globalization in action, I hoped to support our North American neighbors. Duped again, but I am at least glad it is not made in Chiñå.

All looked good, I replaced the old chainring with the new one.

Then the problems began - although I only rode the bike for less than 100 miles, the chain and new ring would not mesh and my chain would skip terribly.

Could the chain wear out that quickly? I doubt it. Is it designed for a different kind of chain? What went wrong?

I have put back the original 46T chain ring, and went for a ride.

Update 3-18-11 evening:

I have emailed my bicycle guru (and dealer extraordinaire) Zach Kaplan, here is his response:

Interesting about the Surly chainring being shown on their website as being made in Canada but the ring you received was made in Taiwan. I agree made in Taiwan is better than made in China but their website is deceptive to people like us who try to support North American manufacturing (in my case I'm also trying to support EU manufacturing). I would recommend you contact Surly to complain. AFAIK, Surly doesn't actually make anything, they are the high end brand name of Quality Bicycle Products, a major US wholesale bike parts distributor based in Minnesota. They probably made a running supplier change from a Canadian supplier to a Taiwanese supplier. I'm only aware of 2 manufacturers of aluminium chainrings in Canada, Blackspirehttp://www.blackspire.com/qs/category/83/5948/0/0 and Race Face and I recently read Race Face suddenly announced they are going out of business and liquidating all their assets. Perhaps QBP had been getting their rings made by Race Face and were having trouble getting them so switched to a Taiwanese supplier. 

I know Vuelta chainrings are made in the US. Vuelta USA is based in Southern California. http://www.vueltausa.com/components/chainrings.html

In any case the problem isn't with the chainring. The chain is hanging up near each bolt because the inner chainring guard was designed for a 46T chainring and is of the type that is directly mounted to the chainring and curves out from the base to provide chain clearance. A 34T chainring places the chain down low next to the part of the guard that is too close to clear the chain, thus preventing the chain from properly engaging with the chainring.

Several things you could do. For now you could remove the inner guard ring. That will completely eliminate the interference problem but the chain will fall off to the inside from time to time when hitting certain types of bumps. You could install thin chainring spacers to space the inner guard ring away from the chain. Very thin spacers won't require longer bolts but you may need thick enough spacers to require longer bolts. You could also go to a different type of inner guard ring which is flat like the outer guard ring but with this type you have to use thick spacers which will definitely require going to longer chainring bolts.

I am running a 40T Q-Ring on the same model crankset with same guard rings and it works fine. Due to its elliptical shape, the 40T Q-Ring is probably like a 37 or 38T ring on its short axis so that might be the lower limit of what will work without adding spacers or using a different guard. Feel free to post this reply on your blog.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Zach Kaplan Cycles

510-522-BENT (2368)

zach@zachkaplancycles.com

http://zachkaplancycles.com

Update: 3-19-11 morning:

I emailed Surly with complain about country of origin of the ring shown on their website and the ring sold, let's see how they deal with it.

Update: 3-21-11 afternoon:

This is the reply I got from Surly:

Agnius,

Our first batch of chainrings was made by a Canadian firm, but they could never quite get what we wanted done like we wanted it. We’ve had them made in Taiwan ever since then.

I’m sorry that you feel swindled. That was not our intent. We just have never changed the photo (we are changing it now.) Feel free to take your chainring back to the bikeshop where you purchased it. We’ll take it back from them no problem.

Thanks,

Eric Sovern

Surly Bikes

877-743-3191

esovern@surlybikes.com

Surly has also updated their website with a new image - it does not say "Made in Canada" anymore. That is more likely how my received ring looks.