Pedalwise
Part

Chainring

The chainring is the toothed ring on the crank that drives the chain. A replacement must match your crank's mount, your drivetrain's speed count and, on a mid-drive, the motor.

Last edited Nov 8, 2026 by Pedalwise team Edit History Add a subpage

The Pedalwise team started this page from official manuals, support pages and repair videos. Fixed this yourself, or spotted something wrong? Help improve it.

The chainring is the toothed ring bolted to the crank that pulls the chain. It wears along with the chain, so a worn ring can make a new chain skip, and on a mid-drive e-bike it carries the motor's power as well as yours.

What it's used for

Replace a chainring with bent, broken or hooked teeth, or one that keeps dropping or skipping the chain. Check the chain first with Check and replace chain, since a stretched chain is the more common cause. A clicking or grinding crank is covered in E-bike noises.

What to look for

  • How it mounts. A bolt-on ring must match the spider's bolt circle diameter (BCD) and bolt count. A direct mount ring fits only its own crank family or needs an adapter (Competitive Cyclist, crankset and chainring compatibility).
  • Speed count. Rings are made for a given number of speeds, and a mismatched ring can hurt shifting (Competitive Cyclist).
  • Tooth count. Changing size changes your gearing, and the BCD limits how small a ring you can fit (Competitive Cyclist). A bigger ring also uses up rear derailleur capacity.
  • Narrow-wide on single-ring bikes. On a 1x drivetrain, check for a narrow-wide tooth profile, since a worn one is a listed cause of dropped chains (Competitive Cyclist drivetrain FAQ).
  • Mid-drive motors. On a mid-drive the ring fits the motor's own mount. QuietKat, for example, sells a 39 tooth ring for the Bafang BBSHD on its 2023 Apex Pro, Apex Sport, Apex and Warrior, and a 40 tooth ring for its Ultra motor bikes (QuietKat). See Bafang troubleshooting.
  • Ring and arms as one part. Some e-bike cranksets come as a unit. Ebike Supershop sells one with a 52 tooth steel ring and 170 mm arms for 6, 7 and 8 speed e-bikes (Ebike Supershop). Removing the arms needs a crank puller.
  • Bolt torque. Competitive Cyclist gives chainring bolts as typically 8 to 12 Nm and says to follow the crank maker's spec (Competitive Cyclist). Use a torque wrench.

Typical price

  • QuietKat lists its mid-drive chainring replacement at $50.00, with the BBSHD version shown in transit and the Ultra version sold out (read Nov 9, 2026) (QuietKat).
  • Ebike Supershop lists an e-bike crankset with a 52 tooth chainring at $99.00, shown as available to order (read Nov 9, 2026) (Ebike Supershop).

Where to buy

  1. Your bike maker's parts store or support team, such as QuietKat for its own bikes.
  2. For mid-drive kits, the motor maker or a service center for that motor.
  3. Independent specialists in Where to buy e-bike repair parts, such as Ebike Supershop.
  4. A local shop, through find a shop.

Guides that use it

Sources

Stuck after these checks? Find a shop near you.

Need a pro?

If these steps didn't fix it, find a shop near you in our partner network of shops that work on electric rides.

Talk

Questions, things that worked for you, or something that looks wrong on this page.

Sign in to join the conversation.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0Text by Pedalwise and contributors, shared under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Linked videos and manuals keep their own terms. How to reuse it