Review: Wolftooth Components GxP Direct Mount Chainring

Narrow Wide chain rings have landed and are becoming more popular by the day as we see more and more appearing on the trails.

Check out MoreDirt’s review of the Wolftooth Components GxP chainring and a short history behind the trials and tribulations of the Narrow Wide profile.

A potted history of the Narrow Wide chainring…

Sram’s XX1 finally made having 1 chain ring up front a viable option for everyone from XC racers to Enduro racers. This opened riders eyes to the advantages of not having a cumbersome front mech that was something else to go wrong in the heat of battle. This was impressive enough but when Sram announced it would work perfectly without even a top guide to hold the chain on… Riders and racers quite rightly had doubts creeping in.

This is achieved through an alternating tooth pattern of Narrow and then Wide. This means that you will only see this type of chainring with an even number of teeth. Etc. 32/24/36/38… Sram called this alternating tooth profile along with some fancy profiling on the tooth itself, "X-Sync" and attempted to patent it.

This is where it gets messy…

This technology hasn’t been dreamt up by someone in a Sram back office. Back in 1979 a patent was accepted that described agricultural conveyor equipment, which did exactly the same thing…

Once word got out that alternating profile chain rings were going to be the next big things to hit the trails and I mean as game changing as the dropper post, the disk brake and the clutch rear mech anyone who was everyone wanted a piece of the action… Even if they weren’t running Sram’s super expensive XX1 system.

The likes of Race Face, Works components, Absolute black and Wolftooth components got to work behind their desks to develop a viable option for riders who didn’t use the Sram system but still wanted all the benefits!

The Review...

A few months back we took delivery of the Wolftooth Components chainring for GxP cranks and Carl has been running it on his Specialized Pitch paired with a set of Sram X0 carbon cranks ever since find out what he thinks of it!

The GxP mounting is without doubt the tidies way of securing a chain ring to your cranks.

Carl was struggling with pushing a 36tooth ring upfront on his 1x10 set up but thanks to the 120bcd spacing on the chainring bolts he couldn’t go any more smaller unless he went for this spiderless type design.

Now this turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise with a pretty substantial weight saving over using the 2x10 spider and chainring that Carl had originally been using. It also finally enabled him to use a 34tooth chainring that would prove to be a little easier on the legs and lungs in the long run!

Technical findings…

The Wolftooth drop stop ring in combination with Sram GxP cranks has a 50mm chainline which didn’t cause us any problems with shifting neither straight from the off or after a few weeks use and causing some wear…

The setup looks neat clean and tidy and thus far hasn't suffered any problems.

You can save a shed load of weight with a set up similar to this as there’s no real need to keep the front bashring/chain guide. If you were that much of a weight weenie this could be a pretty valid excuse for running a narrow wide ring.

How does it work.

Now much to my frustration I’m still not actually 100% sure how the alternating teeth and profiling of the teeth actually hold the chain on.  I have spent a considerable amount of time reading into quite how it goes about working and the only thing I can find is that the slightly better meshing of the chain and actual ring on the corresponding alternating pattern would help the chain stay in place.

Understanding how it works beyond the simple fact that it does is almost unnecessary. It’s a simple product that solves a problem as old as using a chain to power a bicycle itself. If you get the GxP variety you’ll save a whole load of weight aswell!

Carl still used it with an LG1+ guide for sometime before taking the plunge and going "naked".

The GxP model costs $79 which at todays exchange rate is just a smidge under 50 quid. Not bad for an upgrade that will not only save you a load of weight and hassle with a front mech. It will change the way your drivetrain operates forever.

It’s a massive thumbs up from us at MoreDirt in almost every regard. As a narrow wide chainring its brilliant and as a way of improving on the Sram mounting set up it's even better!

Conclusion.

It doesn’t just look amazing, it does a job, saves weight and solves the problem of Sram’s 2x10 120bcd spider design. One of the best products we’ve seen a long while and it only costs about 50 quid.

In terms of outlay against return this is right up there with the best!

You can find out more about the Wolf Tooth Components chainrings here and order yours straight from Minneapolis USA!