I hate calling these things bash rings. The only bike of mine that really has a bash ring is my full on DH bike. That lands ring first on rocks. For the rest of my bikes I like to think of them as guide rings. They keep the chain from falling off the big ring and into the crank on multi-ring setups. They are nice looking, fairly light, and 100% effective. They don’t interfere with any of the drive train. K.I.S.S.
Generally, I’d use a commonly available light-bash such as the Race Face Lightweight Bash rings. They are nice but are a little on the heavy side and only cover rings up to 40t. In this case, I had a bike with a 44t chainring.
I just cut the teeth off of an existing ring. In this case, that was a bit of a challenge. 104 mm BCD rings are not very common above 42t. The only ring that I quickly found was a Dimention 48t ring. It’s useless for much as it has no ramps or pins. Basically, it’s a singlespeed ring. I cut the teeth off on the lathe for a finished look.
I was able to get just enough diameter to make things work. I would have liked a little more though.
