what ever happened to biopace?

Yes I do remember it.....but have not seen it in a long time....went away, it was just a fad.

'twas a set of elliptical chainrings. Probably achieved nothing in terms of improved biomechanics. I tried them in the mid 80's and didn't notice anything significant.

Biopace is still living in the backrooms of cycling shops all over the world where it was dumped by all the people who finally figured out why their knees hurt all the time!!!

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by zmanzzzz
remember that funky front chainring? it wasnt round. 😕

It wasn't round at all, and according to the marketing blurb, it wasn't elliptical either... Specifically, it was a "lobed" ellipsed that was supposed to increase efficiency in pedalling by varying the overall ratios during the full stroke according to some sort of biomechanical progression.

My first mountain bike (years and years and YEARS ago) was a Univega Alpina Pro and it had the full Deore XT with the Biopace chainrings... The only difference I noticed over round rings was that I could accelerate more quickly than a comparable weight mountain bike in the same gear, but this does not take into account a multitude of other factors, but I always attributed it at least in small part to the Biopace design...

I never developed any chronic problems from it, and in the end I think Shimano and others dropped the whole idea because the gainful return was insignificant (if anything) compared to the effort to produce...

I remember speaking to an SAE engineer who was also a bike enthusiast, and he mentioned that the idea of the "non-round" chainrings was first tested sometime in the late 30's (nope, Shimano did not invent it 🙂 ) and even then, they decided that the advantages were small to insignificant and were overshadowed by manufacturing cost and added complexity and reduced reliability...

Very small gains can actually be measured in very specific situations of a power downstroke, but on the flipside, it reduces effeciency during even less than perfect attempts at proper spinning...

Have a good one!

Feanor

It would be funny to put one on someones track bike!

fads!

reminds me of the old L-shaped cranks that were reputed to improve performance. i suspect the designer had very little understanding of the mechanics of a chainset

The idea never went away. It's still around, but much higher-tech these days. --> Rotor Cranks.

Had 'em on my '84 Nishiki Prestige back in the day. I never thought much about it, and when I switched to a diffent bike a few years later, I don't recall noticing any material change to power or spinning ability. The small ring looked really wacky!

Hey bro...I think I once owned that Nishiki. Did it have red and white chromoly tubes? Where did you buy it? I had some great rides on that Nishiki..which I purchased from a pawn shop for around 50.00. Maybe it was the very same one you once owned. Ya never know!

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Aztec
Had 'em on my '84 Nishiki Prestige back in the day. I never thought much about it, and when I switched to a diffent bike a few years later, I don't recall noticing any material change to power or spinning ability. The small ring looked really wacky!

You can still get non-round chainrings, but they're oval. Weren't the Shimano ones square? Check out http://www.argonet.co.uk/highpath/cycle_/eggs.htm
for the full blurb.

i tihnk i have bioSpace chain rings.it was a triple but bent my smallest ring.its a univega cyclocross bike

biopace were rubbish and didnt work and no ammount of blurb will change that.

apparantly u need a particular eggring shape for every gear ratio depending on ur framsize and saddle height depending o the wind direction.

nm i looked at it after my ride,it is called bio pace.i thought it was called bio space.well i bent the small chainring out of the triple crankset.where can i get the chainring?

if u cant get a normal round ring to fit, this is possible if still available, get a new nice round chainset or just ask in the shop they probably have 100s of unused biopace ring theyll give u

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by ant evans
You can still get non-round chainrings, but they're oval. Weren't the Shimano ones square? Check out http://www.argonet.co.uk/highpath/cycle_/eggs.htm
for the full blurb.

Very interesting site.... Is there anyone out there that has tried one of these "oval" cainrings? Any thoughts?

hey oneradtec, I also have an old Nishiki bike, with red and white chromoly tubing, 105 group, araya wheelset and biopace cranks. The model is Landau Tri A. A very responsive machine.

The particularity within biopace is that because of the shape, the movement is very dynamic, it is done almost by itself, once it is started, and you can turn legs very rapidly.

I thought of getting an Eggring when I was diagnosed with bone hardening under the back of the tibial condyle. In other words, too much force at the top of the stroke. Changing the gearing at that point would mean less resistance. But I found I could just change my technique. I wouldn't rule out an oval ring if a technique change doesn't work in the long term.

i loved when sugino started marketing their chainrings under the name"round-tech"
they spotted the fad a mile away....

maybe we should start a Nishiki bike thread?