Stoned

I’m always a bit dubious about buying cycling gear from China. The stuff you can buy on Temu, Alibaba, AliExpress etc. I’ve had some really shit stuff over the years. My own fault. However, the facts are, not all Chinese-made products are shit and when you do find something decent it’s usually great value so I’m much more careful now but it’s still always a punt. Stone Chainrings, in my opinion, fall into that category.

I can’t remember exactly how or when I stumbled across them but it was definitely while trying to source oval rings for my 105 12spd chainset, something I am still yet to find.

Stone Chainrings are available via the standard sites outlined above but they are available (and is where I bought mine) direct from djcbikes.com. It’s not the most intuitive site in the world and when I bought my rings I actually bought 1x rings by mistake. I thought shit, I’ve got to try and navigate chinese customer service now and to my surprise a chinese guy called Li messaged me straight away via WhatsApp and he sorted my mistake out. Brilliant service. (although he did keep calling me Pual which I’ll let go LOL)

Even with a bit of research it’s still a nervous purchase. Have I wasted my money on shit? and this was the same. I’ve bought rings from China before via eBay. They were ok, worked fine but wore out quite quickly.

What grabbed my attention about these rings were the milling on them and the ‘claim’ they were made from the same aluminium supplied to Boeing and Airbus. But they just look good quality.

Hmmmmm….. they weren’t as cheap as other rings I’ve seen but definitely cheaper than branded alternatives so I thought I’d give them a go.

They took just over a week to arrive and came in standard plastic packaging. Fitting them was a simple swap and the smaller outer (46T) I’d gone for meant the gap between the front mech and the teeth was a touch bigger than recommended but shifting on the stand was fine.

Out on the road shifting up and down the rings has been faultless. Really good in fact. You wouldn’t even know they were not the originals. There isn’t much to say really because all you do is change up or change down. They’ve never jumped once. The chain has engaged perfectly either way everytime. 100% perfect.

However, the real test for value for money is wear. The longer they last the better their value. I’m around 1000km in on them now I can say they have worn really well. As good as any Shimano, SRAM or Rotor I’ve ever used anyway.

So my advice is this. If you are looking at some new chainrings and want something decent but cheap, consider getting stoned 😉

I just want them to make oval versions now

Adios

Update: A 38T 1x Chainring purchased for my Dolan GXA gravel bike. Oval of course!