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Was love at first sight when I first spotted these sexy chainrings on a top-spec Dura Ace road bike. I love the almost topographical like patterns on the chainrings and aero cover. It took me a while to figure out what they were, turns out they’re made by a small company called Alugear who design and manufacture drivetrain components out of Poland.
Had to have them.
My 2022 Allez is running a Shimano 105 11-speed Shimano groupset and the only 11-speed kit they make is for Shimano Ultegra (the rest are for newer 12-speed drivetrains). Ultegra is gunmetal grey and I had to have these rings in black, so I was shit outta luck, but with a little research I found that 12-speed rings work with 11-speed chains, and so fuck it. I thought I’d do more research.
The 11-speed 105 crank spider is completely different to the 12-speed design, so to make the Alugear rings work I had to buy newer 12-speed 105 crank arms. I thought I might as well get even shorter crankarms (from 165 to 160) which will help the nasty toe-overlap I get on the Allez (I always replaced cranks to 165’s on my MTB’s in the past anyways as I like to spin a high cadence).
I spent hours figuring this all out. I really wanted to go for a 1x setup (less is more!), but that would mean having to upgrade to a much larger rear cassette if I still wanted to climb up hills. I do have a medium cage rear derailleur but the max rear cog would be a 34T which isn’t enough for climbing steeper hills (would probably need a 40T). I looked into getting a MTB or Gravel rear derailleur (GRX or XT) which would allow me to get an even bigger rear cassette and I also thought about running a much smaller front chainring (44T), but end of the day a small front chainring would look weak, and a huge rear cassette would not only add weight, it would look stupid on a road bike too.
As much as I wanted to rip the front derailleur off and go for a single 50T chainring up front logic kicked in. I don’t want to have to walk up steep hills with click clacky shoes on! I had to admit defeat in the end.
Even then, there were more options (mania? Yup I’ve got it!). I had an option to upgrade to Shimano Dura Ace cranks (as they’re also black) as Alugear make a kit for Dura Ace, but they were pretty damn expensive at $680, and they would defeat the purpose of going 105 in the first place. Turns out replacement 105 crank arms (without rings) at 160mm length aren’t in stock anywhere in the country (plenty on AliExpress but rather than risk getting fake shit) so I ended up buying a full 105 12-speed crankset (with rings) as they were only $200, and instead of going for a 1x drivetrain I settled for a 2x Alugear AERO kit for 105 12-speed.
End of the day I still get the look I was after, save a little weight and I still retain the small front chainring for climbing steep hills, and if I ever do man up to go 1x I’d already have the new cranks and AERO cover so I’d only have to order a 1x Alugear chainring.
A fixie with brakes. Too afraid to go 1x because of hills. FFS I’m getting soft in my old age.