Wolf Tooth Drop-Stop Oval 30T Chainring: Rider Review

Oval Chainrings have become extremely popular in the mountain biking community but many people still question their effectiveness. Our friend Jae got himself a Wolf Tooth Drop-Stop Oval 30T Chainring and wrote up a sweet review on his thoughts. Check it out below!

Overview

What can I say about the Wolf Tooth 30t Drop Stop Oval Chainring? On my current SRAM Eagle drivetrain, I’ve had a SRAM eagle chainring, an Absolute Black oval and a Race Face oval. I never mounted the Race Face as it felt significantly heavier than the Absolute Black and the Wolf Tooth. I know we’re talking grams but given it had the exact shape as the absolute black only heavier, I never saw the point in mounting it.

Performance

As for dropping the chain, I haven’t had a problem with any of the chainrings on my eagle drivetrain. I did have the Wolf Tooth round with my Shimano XT drivetrain and dropped the chain all the time so I don’t know how much chainrings help with dropping the chain or not. The biggest thing about this chainring, when compared to the others, is the shape. There is the conventional round which comes standard on all modern bikes. Then there’s the oval that Absolute Black and RaceFace now have. I know SRAM also has one, but I'm not sure how elliptical it really is. The Wolf Tooth oval chainring is somewhere in the middle. I had the Absolute Black and if you have tried their oval chainring, you either love it or hate it. I think it might have to do with your pedal stroke. If you are a smasher, then you might like the fully elliptical as it gets stronger during the most oval portion of the stroke. I found that is fine on shorter rides but on long (1-2 hr) climbs up the mountain it seemed to wear me out faster than the round. I went back to the SRAM round for a while and confirmed this. Then this Wolf Tooth Drop-Stop Oval Chainring came out and I had to try it. I have to say, personally, I love it.

Final Thoughts

It’s really the best of both worlds in my opinion. I will say, a buddy of mine who loves his Absolute Black rode my bike and prefers the elliptical feeling of his AB chainring so I think it is really personal preference. On a side note, the SRAM chainring does seem to be a little quieter than any of the others I have tried if that’s important to you.