Admit It: You're Never Getting Over That Log in One Piece

(Note: this information is probably useful only to me, but this blog happens to be a convenient place to store it away for future reference...)

I run the big chainring on my mountain bike into a lot of stuff - downed logs, rocks, small rodents. Maybe it's time I bought a bashguard. Bashguards are sturdy pieces of plastic or metal designed to protect the chainrings on your mountain bike cranks. Normally, they replace the largest chainring, reducing the weight of the cranks and protecting the teeth of the smaller rings. Since I hardly ever use the largest ring on my mountain bike and routinely hop over a lot of logs, a bashguard might be a good investment. Some things to keep in mind:

• Bolt pattern: Cranksets use 4- or 5-bolt patterns (i.e. the chainrings are held to the crankset via 4 or 5 bolts). Only a bashguard with the same bolt pattern will fit on your crankset.
• Bolt Center Diameter (BCD): Distance from bolt to bolt on your crankset. As with the bolt pattern, the BCD of the bashguard must match that of the crankset.
• Tooth coverage: If you replace the largest ring with a bashguard, usually you buy a bashguard to fit the middle ring. Depending on the size of that ring (usually 32, 34, or 36 teeth), you'll pick your bashguard. Even if you're currently running a 34T middle ring, if you ever plan to put a bigger 36T ring on there, you'd better buy the larger bashguard so you don't have to buy another one later.

Of course, considering all the missing and bent teeth on my large chainring now, I already have a de facto bashguard, eh?