All

There’s been a motor/gearbox unit from Pinion for almost 3 years now. Nicolai offers in in the S16 MGU

To conclude the gearbox talk from me, I think it's very likely ebikes will have some sort of gearbox in the future, but I doubt that will happen for pedal bikes. I think 1x11 and for sure 1x12 drivetrains were the nails in the coffin of gearboxes. Traditional drivetrains work too well and don't have the negatives (drag and weight) the gearboxes have. Furthermore, ebikes with the current crop of powerful motors need a gearbox due to the power getting out of control. Plus SL bikes are going away so emtb is becoming a different sport to regular pedal bikes...

Effigear had or has the option of a nonconcentric output. Cavaliere bikes used it in the past. As for two cassettes in a box, you actually need like two 11-25 cassettes to get 516% of range if you run them "back to front" like in the shimano patent. Two 10-50 cassettes, besides definitely not fitting, would give you 2500 % of range. That's a bit much.

Maybe this isn't an accurate point of view, but I feel like pedal MTBs and e-bikes aren't really trying to solve the same problems. I think a pretty massive effort goes into the design of pedal MTBs so that they can be comfortably and efficiently pedaled, at least outside of DH-specific bikes. Even enduro bikes, especially those that are raced, need to pedal decently. For an e-bike, pedal performance is probably pretty far down on the list of design goals. I've watched a handful of folks with dead batteries or faulty electronics try to pedal their 50-lb beasts out of...

The later. I haven't spent enough time looking at how Pinion and others layout the internals, but I suspect that the requirement to have the input and output shafts concentric creates some challenging design constraints. A GB that replaced the second chain on dual chain bikes might free up some of these. on the other hand, it would freeze up the BB-to-pivot radius, so perhaps it would be far too restrictive for frame designers - kind of a one-off thing. Probably some people here will call this blasphemous, but I wonder if it might be too soon to know if...

The original Effigear was actually spot on with this, and it used a trigger shifter … and yes, it’s a development cycle that will come back around to enduro and park bikes first… I agree with your points on the challenges.

I do remember a couple of high pivot DH bikes that used an internally geared hub at the pivot ..

There are some pretty tough engineering challenges that need to be overcome before gearboxes can find their way into mainstream pedal MTBs. They pretty much have to be fully enclosed, as lubricated gears at BB height would never survive otherwise. That's a lot of material to form that enclosure. Perhaps some use of really tough fiber-filled thermo-plastics could offset some of this weight, but the GB is also the bash guard, and there are a lot of internal stresses that the shell has to handle. Due to material properties of even the most exotic metals, the gears really can't get...

FWIW regarding upcoming gearbox ebikes and trickledown to classic bikes, it's a big no. The way these gearbox concepts from Avinox and Gobao work requires an electric motor, so it's a no go for a non electric bicycle. As for shifters, Pinion has electric shifting via triggers and Effigear always supported trigger shifting, but brings it's own problems in regards to shifting with it. Regardless if the benefits it's quite likely the current crop of gearboxes would indeed be a no go for the average rider based on the limitations they bring with them.

Will second that, but it's going to be called the Team DH, not the Arum.

May have been brought up before, but heard Norco Aurum release planned for Whistler World Cup weekend.

nah that's when Shimano Saint was released

No Lycra here. All XC and downcountry all the time since I'm in the midwest of the US. Pedaling matters 100% of the time to me. It doesn't matter to you and that's cool. Most people on mountain bikes (not ebikes) do some amount of pedaling where they'd find themselves less happy if their experience pedaling were noticeable made worse. Remember, Vital's forum is where the most enthusiastic of the enthusiasts hang out. The MOST obsessed enthusiasts who are often pushing themselves and their gear to greater and greater heights in the pursuit of mountain bike progression and achievement are...

I think calling what that guy did a garage bodge job is insulting to both that user's ingenuity and craftsmanship and as well as garage bodgers everywhere, who would view that as far too sophisticated.

Shimano provided the cranks. I remember when Jackson mentioned he got them.

Question for the peanut gallery, inspired by this Nick Bentley pic from the other site- it seems like every Shimano team is running an Ochain on the old Saint M820/825 cranks, despite the fact that those cranks come from the factory with a very permanently installed 104 BCD spider. How do we think they're doing this? Do you think Shimano corporate is modifying the cranks for the teams, or are all the teams doing a garage bodge job like this?

There's the Priority team running them this season and Hattie Harnden already won a womens EWS round on a Nicolai gearbox bike last season.

We are live with the 'better than a spreadsheet' live updates at Gravity Lab https://gravitylab.live/live.html?session=we-q1&event=20260703_mtb

More fairings showing up

“ Also: if you’re gonna be the guy who signs the decree banning jr women from hitting a jump, I’m gonna need to see footage of you jumping it.” 👆🏻