# The BioPace Thread...Love it or Hate it.



## eastcoaststeve (Sep 19, 2007)

I see quite a few mentions in other threads about how awful BioPace was...thought it would be fun to see what the guys who rode it really think.

Personally I rode BioPace rings for years and never gave it a second thought. They felt natural, and my knees never gave me any problems.

Can't remember if I saw any pics of Pros bikes with them. I'm guessing somebody was getting paid to ride them though. Anyone have pics?


I know shimano wasn't the only one on the elliptical bandwagon, I remember some wild BullsEye stuff, and some SR's that had a pretty pronounced oval.


Thoughts? Memories? General nonsense?



Steve


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## Guitar Ted (Jan 14, 2004)

*Don't try this at home!*

I decided to experiment with Bio-Pace. So I dredged up a 46T ring at the shop where I wrench at and utilized it on this 10 speed drive train which is on this Salsa Cycles Vaya.









I've used it on gravel road rides mostly. I think there is something to the design, although I clocked my ring to more reflect what a Rotor ring would be like and not how Shimano indicates you should do this. One of my co-workers is also using old Bio-Pace rings on his commuter and loves them.

Please excuse the non-vintage, non-mtb nature of my rig, but this was a question about Bio-Pace, so.......


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## bigyin (Jan 25, 2015)

I can remember that the wee yellow biopace sticker made the chainring look cool that's about it


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## chefmiguel (Dec 22, 2007)

Had a Stumpjumper Team with Bio Pace, it wasn't night and day different but I could tell a difference in the pedal stroke.


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## Uncle Grumpy (Oct 20, 2005)

I recall a few engineers saying that the elliptical concept was sound, but Shimano got the ellipse wrong.

Later incarnations of the "not round: chainrings have gotten closer to right than Shimano did.

Other than that, I've never used it but I do have a set of NOS 600 road rings in biopace and one day I'll give it a go for laffs.

Grumps


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## MendonCycleSmith (Feb 10, 2005)

Funny thing about them is, if you ride beside someone using them, man can you see it, very strange looking pedal stroke. 

I didn't like the feel personally. The head wrench at the first shop I worked at back in the 80's had a concept that I actually liked though. 

He put round middle and big rings on, and left the granny as Biopace. It was nice on the steep climbs, kinda pushed your foot up and over that dead spot near the top of the stroke, made it feel easier to climb....


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## pinguwin (Aug 20, 2004)

I think, but don't quote me if you're on Jeopardy, but the Bullseye rings predate Biopace. I've also heard credible people back what Mendon says about only using a Biopace granny.

Had them on one bike bike but as I got better at spinning, then I didn't like them so much.


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## laffeaux (Jan 4, 2004)

I put quite a few miles on an old MB-1 with bio-pace rings (seen below). I've also don a handful of miles on other bikes with bio-pace. I was never offended by the rings, and but didn't think they were better either. After about 5 minutes of pedaling they felt like any other "round" ring set up.

On a mountain bike the pedal cadence is generally not that high. On a road bike I'm not sure I'd feel the same, but for off-road use I was pretty indifferent on having them on my bike.


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## Konasun (Jan 6, 2014)

Biopace has made it possible for me to ride just about every day, without sore knees. I mix rides in on my other non-Biopace bikes, but my 1988 Stumpjumper is my main training bike. If I hammer out a hilly 2 hour ride on one of my bikes w/o Biopace, my knees get sore. Do it two days in a row and they are sore for a few days. I can definitely push a higher gear with BP with absolutely no pain after the ride. I should mention, One of my knees has a loose ACL ligament so I'm kind of a mess to begin with. I just wish I could find them for my Specialized Tarmac road bike. I know others make oval rings but whatever formula BP used for their shape really works for me.


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## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

MendonCycleSmith said:


> Funny thing about them is, if you ride beside someone using them, man can you see it, very strange looking pedal stroke.
> 
> I didn't like the feel personally. The head wrench at the first shop I worked at back in the 80's had a concept that I actually liked though.
> 
> He put round middle and big rings on, and left the granny as Biopace. It was nice on the steep climbs, kinda pushed your foot up and over that dead spot near the top of the stroke, made it feel easier to climb....


Oddly enough, Biopace elongated the deadspot and quickened the power phase of the stroke... Opposite of what all the latest stuff does. Shimano's orientation doesn't seem intuitive. I used it back in the day and once you're used to it it's just fine...


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## yakkoTDI (May 4, 2011)

I had both road and mountain bikes with Bio Pace back when I first got into cycling. I can't say that they helped but they didn't hurt.


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## tductape (Mar 31, 2008)

When I am restoring a bike, I look at the rings proper for the era. If the era was Biopace and the nicest set I have is, I don't mind putting them on at all. Had two bikes that came with Biopace BITD. Never cared either way, but I am a masher. I also have a current set of Rotor cranks with modern elliptical rings.


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## KDXdog (Mar 15, 2007)

Bio came with my first Mt bike, a Scott Sawtooth. I recently found an old 24 tooth aluminum Bio Granny gear in my old parts box, so I must have geared it down at some point. 

For all the crap the press gave bio pace, i was surprised to see the “new” wave of Rotors.


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## -Anomie- (Jan 16, 2005)

As others have said above, elliptical chainrings aren't a bad idea, Shimano just got the orientation wrong. If you turn them so that the "high spot" is at about 2 o'clock when the crank arm is straight up they work more like Rotor Q Rings, which I've used on all my modern bikes for years.


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## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

KDXdog said:


> Bio came with my first Mt bike, a Scott Sawtooth. I recently found an old 24 tooth aluminum Bio Granny gear in my old parts box, so I must have geared it down at some point.
> 
> For all the crap the press gave bio pace, i was surprised to see the "new" wave of Rotors.


I don't think biopace was offered in a 24t. With the 74bcd they just couldn't pull it off. The smallest I think was 26t.


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## Erich von Cartmann (Apr 17, 2015)

In 1985 at 14 years of age, I finally saved enough money to buy a Centurian Ironman, a bike that I had been eyeing for a long time... and it had Biopace on it. For me, it worked as I was a masher! 

However, today I am not so sure I would like it... but when I rode it I never gave it a 2nd thought and I thought it was the greatest. I remember thinking how I had the most advance engineered chainring ever.


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## McGoogle McDougal (Oct 22, 2013)

My Trek Antelope from '87 came with SR Sakae Oval-Tech rings. I found they suited my slow cadence well. I don't know if Bio-Pace was the same, but the Oval-Tech's had a fairly mild oval to the big ring, an exaggerated granny, and the middle was in the middle. It made sense to me, and the granny seemed to really work for me (while the other rings were less noticeable). I would haven gotten another set if they were made still. Actually, I have thought of using the granny (never got too worn out) on another crankset.

Eamon


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## TiGeo (Jul 31, 2008)

Had it on my '91 GT. Don't remember much about it either good or bad. I know oval rings are coming back in style for whatever reason.


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## jp08865 (Aug 12, 2014)

*Then:* My experience with Biopace was pretty much like OP's. The ONLY negative thing I felt with Biopace was keeping my butt on the saddle at higher cadence (which for me as a masher wasn't much). Anyway, on my Mtb. triple I kept the Biopace rings on the Granny and Mid-ring and used a round ring for the Top Ring.
*Now:* Out of curiosity I purchased a AB Oval for a 1 X10 conversion on my current bike. First time out to try for feel, felt no difference in pedaling (nothing to get use to). After some time on the bike, absolutely love the AB NW Oval with the OneUp 42/16. The set-up has seemingly cut my shifting in half ! The Oval seems to power over things that required a downshift previously. 
*Liked the Biopace then and loving the Oval now.*


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## pauljones48 (May 10, 2015)

Mine rockhopper got it when biopace first came out. Had no problems with it. Right now looking at adding to mine jekyll oval gear to stop the bad crank at the creast of the hill.


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## tehan (Jan 22, 2007)

here you can see the difference between modern and Biopace ovals.
This is rather self explanatory of where biggest parts of the ovals are in pedal stroke. This is why Biopace went away from the market.


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## Tommybees (Dec 25, 2014)

Gave me knee problems back in '87. Was riding 300/400 miles a week on my rode bike with round campy rings plus extra miles on my new mountain bike with bio rings. Maybe i could have eventually figured it out, but wasn't worth so off they came. Both spinning and mashing were messed up for reasons noted. One thing not mentioned is fatigue. If you ride enough, your muscles respond to the change in load on the legs automatically. As a reult, it felt like i was more tired on flat smooth rides because it felt like the road was going up and down. Not as noticeable on the trails though.


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## Henry Chinaski (Feb 26, 2006)

If I remember right Grant Peterson lead the charge against them. I remember an ad for the MB2 that pronounced "Round Chainrings." 

I never used them on a bike I owned. Felt funny to me.


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## Erich von Cartmann (Apr 17, 2015)

Tommybees said:


> Gave me knee problems back in '87. Was riding 300/400 miles a week on my rode bike with round campy rings plus extra miles on my new mountain bike with bio rings. Maybe i could have eventually figured it out, but wasn't worth so off they came. Both spinning and mashing were messed up for reasons noted. One thing not mentioned is fatigue. If you ride enough, your muscles respond to the change in load on the legs automatically. As a reult, it felt like i was more tired on flat smooth rides because it felt like the road was going up and down. Not as noticeable on the trails though.


Hard for me to recall my memory all the way back from 1984, but here goes...

For me the Shimano Biopace back then felt very natural for me. Only bike I ever had before my Centurian Ironman Road Bike were fixed gear BMX bikes. Back then I never heard of "spinning" or "mashing". I called it "easy peddling" and "hard peddling"... which I guess is "spinning" and "mashing" spelled differently.

From my recollection, I was always a masher, that is because I came from BMX, where we stood and sprinted for short distances as much as we could.

When I got my road bike, same thing, if I had legs, I would try to mash down on the biggest gears possible until my lungs got tired.. then I would be spinning. In both cases, Biopace felt natural to me, and seemed to work great. I could mash easier, and at the same time, the spinning was very natural.

I would be willing to try Ovals again, but not quite just yet. I am currently happy with all my bikes setup, and I just need to ride! Maybe when I get some more miles, I will try ovals once again.


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## EBasil (Jan 30, 2004)

I had the opportunity to ride early Biopace (very egged-out) all the way up to the end of it (much less oval), and never liked any of it. It had a lumpy, jalopy-wheel spin to it and made threshold-traction climbing harder, not easier.


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## Austin Popper (Feb 2, 2014)

tehan said:


> here you can see the difference between modern and Biopace ovals.
> This is rather self explanatory of where biggest parts of the ovals are in pedal stroke. This is why Biopace went away from the market.


If you were to rotate either of those cranks 180 degrees, it would be obvious that the real difference in orientation is something on the order of 20 to 30 degrees. Still significant, but the photo makes it seem huge.

I like Biopace. Only have it on my townie now since it never came in anything but 110mm and 130mm bolt circle diameters. Been meaning to experiment with other orientations, maybe on a 1x drivetrain with a 36t or something.


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## manida (Feb 5, 2008)

just in case anyone is interested:

BioPace!....vintage Jamis mtb


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