Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
I'm a fan of oChain and a believer in products that dampen vibrations, so yes this is just my opinion. But to say pedal kick isn't real is a stretch IMO. It only happens in certain situations and ochain/Rimpact isn't a cure all to give you a complete magic carpet ride. It will help in some situations where pedal kick happens. Some trails you receive 0 pedal kick situations, some trails you can have 10 or 20. But a chain damping device will give you consistency to combat that where free play in hub wont give you consistency.
You can get feedback in your feet with a high or low anti-rise as well as on and off the brakes. I agree many riders might feel it most while on rear brake
Heres 2 videos where data acquisition was used and it showed pedal kick happening on trail
Both these vids show the devices to make the ride smoother and faster. Boom.
the criticisms of the second vid (pb comments https://www.pinkbike.com/news/does-pedal-kickback-actually-happen-i-use-data-acquisition-to-find-out3.html) seem to hold true for the first too. They’ve decided going in that they’re measuring pedal kickback. The e13 rider even starts his test with “normal setup, gonna feel a lot of kickback.” Not exactly scientific in approach.
The second vid is a mess, method-wise. And I dropped that second physics class in college like three times! …I think they’re measuring the chain flapping around. There’s certainly enough ammo from the Chain Gang to warrant some more eyes on the cause. If you care.
I do not think there’s any doubt that these devices improve ride and speed. That’s enough for me!
Well I finally got tired of waiting for an update, and bike park season starts here in less than 30 days so I ordered two! One for me and one for the misses. Hopefully have some feedback to share in a couple weeks
Anyone have any riding feedback comparing one of these to an ochain, especially with the trail springs?
I'm certainly not doubting the advantages of mitigating pedal kickback, but I'm too lazy to be servicing my chainring on top of everything else. No option for me to vote 🤣
We just got the trail springs in to test, and will have our complete thoughts posted soon.
Any news on that?
Nothing conclusive yet to say about the lighter springs, but I will say that I just rebuilt an Ochain and oh my goodness the Rimpact is SOOOOOO MUCH EASIER TO WORK ON. The Rimpact is built like a Sherman tank, but the Ochain is built like a Swiss watch, full of very small and very delicate parts that are easy to lose or break. I took apart the Rimpact to install the lighter springs, and after servicing the Ochain I'm super impressed with the simplicity of the Rimpact design and build.
Hey Teamrobot,
I've been down a bit of a rabbit hole and considering this for my Geometron G1 but I'm concerned about the pedalling sensation so created a profile for this very question. Any further thoughts about the trail springs? I've been in contact with Rimpact and annoyingly they don't include both sets of springs with a new kit
Thanks muchly
Trail springs absolutely remove the odd pedaling sensation that I experienced, but according to Rimpact they also decrease the chain dampers ability to absorb energy from the chain.
I'll be honest... I haven't been able to "feel" the difference between the hard springs and soft springs on the trail yet. I'd really like to do a back-to-back day with laps on the stiff springs, soft springs, with a normal chainring, and an Ochain, but I just haven't done it yet. It's been hard for me to parse out what I'm feeling without that sort of back-to-back testing.
Thanks for the update 🙂
I've seen Rimpact's claims of less pedaling sensation and changing the absorbtion to more smaller to medium hits 🤷🏻
I've reached out to someone with the same bike as me and he's a big fan so I may take the plunge
Thanks again
Nice! If you do, please post in the this forum about your thoughts
Will do 😀
Agreed on the maintenance of the ochain being a pain. I have 3 of them now, and I think i've settled on them needing a tear down and maintenance once every 1k miles. They are not fun to rebuild and there is some specificity on the grease they need. Also easy to dump all of the inside bits out while going to service them. Not a miserable experience, but not fun, and definitely a no beer type of job as it's quite fiddly. IMO it's all worth it though, the ochain is one of my favorite nice to have, but not necessary items that I've added to my bike in the last few years.
Post a reply to: Rimpact Chain Damper