Ar ecently developed catalytic living ring opening metathesis polymerisation (ROMP) was investigated using as eries of reversible chain transfer agents (CTA) carrying either cyclopentene or cyclohexene rings,differing only in ring strain. All cyclopentene derivatives examined showed significantly faster reaction rates than the corresponding cyclohexene derivatives.This resulted in lower molecular weight dispersities and better control of the molecular weight for the cyclopentene compared to the cyclohexene CTAs.Both Grubbs second and thirdgeneration catalysts could be employed in catalytic living ROMP using cyclopentene CTAd erivatives.T he kinetics of different CTAs were studied, blockc opolymers were synthesised and residual ruthenium quantified by ICP-OES.A ll polymers were fully characterised by NMR, GPC and MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry.T he new cyclopentene CTAs are readily synthesised in af ew straightforwards teps and provide faster reaction kinetics than all previously reported reversible CTAs.