Out of shape

Today's MonoMonday theme is 'something you see every day'; so while I have made my green cutting mat look like a mono blueprint, this blip's theme is something you don't see every day.  At least, not since about 1990.

One of these chainrings is not like the other.  On the left, your bog standard item, and on the right, good old Shimano Biopace from the same era.  Much has been said over the years about chainrings that aren't round, Shimano's especially, and a lot it is wrong.  The late Mike Burrows called them stupid, and basically a solution in search of a problem, but he understood why some people liked them; the late Sheldon Brown further explained why they were the shape they were – somewhere between elliptical and square – and was one of those who liked them.  I like them too, even though I have them only on one bike.  The thing is, a good pedalling technique and old fashioned circular chainrings are already capable of using almost all the power our bodies can generate.

And today my body wasn't generating much.  I was still headachey, out of sorts, and I think I'm getting a cold because my tonsils hurt.