So – While I had received the narrow/wide last Saturday, I had to wait for Tuesday night to install the thing on the bike. My type 2 X9 RD & X7 trigger shifter, as well as the 11-36 cassette had already been fitted the night before I went up to Durbs. It went on without a hassle, and as I kept the bash guide on, there was no problem with the fasteners being too long / short. I removed my chain guide at the same time, so there was no additional chain keeping devices on the bike. I even removed my McGuyvered chain keeper, as I didn’t deem it necessary anymore. In an attempt to test the new setup, I took her out to Tokai for a bit of a play session. In terms of shifting – just as crisp as my old Redwin Red X0 setup with gripshifts, and in fact I think it’s a teeny bit crisper thanks to the clutch mechanism. Still a bit early to tell though. Getting the wheel in and out with the aid of the locking pin on the X9’s cage is an exercise in simplicity. It’s amazing the difference that a little pin makes, and it transforms a simple process into something that even Julius Malema could do, given just a single demonstration. As for the ride – silent for the first few km, but then a bit of noise crept up when I started shifting through the range of gears. That was to be expected as the cables and RD bed in, so that wasn’t an issue – just need to fine tune the RD settings and it’ll be fine. The difference between the 32 / 11-34 setup and the 34 / 11-36 setup is minimal on the climbs, but the wider range really shows itself on the downs where there’s a 6.25% difference in top end gearing, as well as a better range of gears to find “the right one” On the way down, however, things got interesting. I rode like an absolute pillock yesterday, hitting every rock and root in my path thanks to both a bout of laryngitis giving me a bit of a tight chest (wheeze city) and choosing the worst lines imaginable. I rode Mamba, DH2, Vasbyt and My Roots on the way down, in order to get a large range of terrain so that the setup could be judged properly. Suffice to say that the chain did not come off ONCE. Anyone who’s ridden DH2 will know what a bump-fest that trail is, and even riding like a complete cretin, it stayed on perfectly. I had drive out of every corner, and the chain slap was almost non-existent. Down Mamba, it was predictable – there are only really 2 places that the chain could have come off on, and they didn’t challenge the setup at all. Going into Vasbyt, there was a bit of chatter down the first section of root step downs, but again – I was riding like a plonker and really making the bike work hard to make up for my ineptitude. Down the trail itself, nary but a whisper from the chain. It was remarkable refreshing, and a welcome change from the chatter that I was used to with the old setup. The teeth on the narrow/wide ring are long, of that there is no doubt. They extended to the top of each link, and hugged the chain links as if they were soul mates. I reckon the only difference between this and a Wolf Tooth would be the upper profile of the teeth themselves, which I can’t see making that much of a difference given that the links open up at that point, and the tooth chamfers down anyway – so there won’t be much enhanced contact at that point – certainly not worth the additional cost over the Narrow/Wide, that is. As a package – wonderful. It does what it says on the box, and does it well. Whether it works with a normal, non-clutch RD is to be discovered, but I will do that investigation on my hardtail, when she is built up again. I can certainly recommend the Raceface ring to anyone looking to capitalize on the narrow/wide revolution, and the Raceface ring presents a good value proposition over other available rings.
