I’ve been riding my Trek Farley 5 for a couple years. I just moved to a location that is near some of my states best mountain biking, Cuyuna Lakes trails. Been a couple times and it’s awesome.

Anyway I’ve been reading about Absolute Black oval chainrings. I’m a little intrigued but looking for real world experience if it’s worth it or not.

Who’s got 1 and what’s your thought

I have a few on my team that have the AB oval.  Overall I have heard mix reviews from them.....

Here is the main issue that I have heard and even seen while in a ride/race.  If you have a higher cadence (90 or more) many times the oval chainring just does wild stuff to your pedal stroke.

I have a high cadence (sprinter here) so I have kept with round rings.....and it is cheaper to just spin more to easy the hit on your legs/knees.

I'm mostly looking at the advantage I read about on hill climbs. On my fat tire thru the wood I tend to just go at a slow comfortable speed. My last trip my gps tracked me at 9.5 mph. Last time I had to much speed I went over the bars (3 weeks ago). Was a downhill but that's another story. And at 50 it takes a lot longer to recover.

I like oval chainrings but they're very much a marginal gain/user perception type benefit. MTB project shows one of the biggest rides in Cuyana Lakes area at 21 miles and 1k' climbing. You will not likely notice much difference with an oval chainring on a ride with relatively little elevation gain. For perspective it's very common to pick up 1k' vert within 2-3 miles of trails in the Western US.

Not to discourage you from the oval chainring but if you're having difficulty climbing I'd encourage you to look at your gearing ratios and bike setup first. Report back here with bike details and we'll provide some constructive feedback. Happy riding

Largely this. They were a thing years ago that sort of sprung up when I raced. I know of a few guys that used them but it was kind of a mixed bag. One of the best pieces of advice that I ever got when I moved up into the pro ranks was from a guy by the name of Ned Overend that raced for Specalized.

He told me to learn me to make the smallest circle possible when you pedal. The idea is to go around the spindle of the bottom bracket not the outside edge of the pedal. It takes a little getting use to but eventually you get to the point where you’re much more efficient, top out your gearing faster, use less energy, smooths out your pedal stroke and makes it much easier to spin a higher cadence. Once I mastered this I picked up a couple of miles per hour on my average.

pedal like you are scrapping the mud off the bottoms of your shoe.

My first road bike was a trek 1200 with Biopace oval rings.

I went to round in 6 months and learned to spin.

Those were a new level of bad oval rings.....was exactly the wrong way the modern oval chain rings..