converting to a 48/38/28 oval tech SR Sakae

Question

I am a 72 year old, male rider, 5’11” used to touring with a 52/42/30 triple chainring and 170mm crankarm. Would converting with a 48/38/28 ovaltech SR Sakae help with climbing the grades without costing too much power because of the ratio difference?

Answer 1

Oval rings may or may not help you. But that is a separate question from power and gear ratios. You produce the power and for a given slope that means either you spin faster while pushing the pedals more softly, or you spin slower while pushing the pedals harder. That's what gearing controls.

Answer 2

You would obviously lose some top end speed at any given RPM. For a 48/11 versus 52/11 chainring/cassette cog combo with 700x28 tires pedalling at 90 rpm, the difference is 2.6 mph. See photo. This is generated at bikecalc.com.

Regarding what I presume to be elliptical chainrings on the proposed crankset (Ovaltech?), I very much enjoy my oval 1x chainrings on my mountain bike. I've used Wolftooth, Absolute Black, and OneUp brands. They all claim vast amounts of R&D going into their oval chainring technology. I cannot "feel" the ovality but I can report more consistent clearing of difficult climbs when I use elliptical chainrings versus round.

Is it in my head? Could be, but I don't think so. I had recently gone to a different crankset with a round direct mount chainring. Riding a few local trails I became frustrated because I wasn't clearing some technical climbs normally. I was wondering about my age, physical shape, need for rest, etc when it occured to me that I'd been riding a round chainring lately. I switched cranksets going from 32 round to 32 oval and improved on the technical climbs. While I was conscious of and curious about how I'd do after the last change which could affect my performance, I was completely oblivious of the fact I was on a round ring when I struggled.

Anyway, your proposed chainring combo should improve your climbing prowess by virtue of the more favorable ratios as well as the ovality, if present and of the modern elliptical standards (longer part of chainring coincides with greatest power part of pedal stroke and/or is not a copy of the failed Shimano "Biopace" system of a few decades ago).