ZigaK, I'm not meaning to pick on you here but I've been watching people proclaim the coming of gearbox bikes since Alex Morgan stuck a Nexus hub in a home made carbon DH frame... 15 years ago now?
I know two people over all those years that have bit the bullet. One bought a GT IT1 for the price of the Fox 40 on the front and still regretted it the first time he road it. One bought a Zerode DH bike and flipped it ASAP.
Have you purchased one? When do you intend to purchase one? Is it simply a matter of outlay or are you waiting for some advancement before buying in?
That's not to say that the Pinion stuff isn't very intriguing / cool / beautifully made. It is, but without a lot of early adopters buying in to the system how long will it take to come close to matching the performance and price of a basic derailleur system?
Plus, regardless of development to work with any suspension frame worth owning a chain tensioner is still required - and dangling down in harms way, all the systems besides putting a Shimano commuter hub in your frame use a twist shifter that makes Grip Shift X-Ray feel cutting edge.
I'm willing to bet that if we do finally see the death of a derailleur dangling off the rear triangle it will be in the form of a derailleur-in-a-box system a-la Alex Morgan (again), Pete Speed and Honda. The issue there is making the system micro enough to work in existing frames while avoiding the efficiency issues of cogs with low tooth counts.
The one thing that is really cool about the potential for derailleur-in-a-box is a floating interface so chain line would also be perfect.
June 6, 2017, 6:56 p.m. - Andrew Major
ZigaK, I'm not meaning to pick on you here but I've been watching people proclaim the coming of gearbox bikes since Alex Morgan stuck a Nexus hub in a home made carbon DH frame... 15 years ago now? I know two people over all those years that have bit the bullet. One bought a GT IT1 for the price of the Fox 40 on the front and still regretted it the first time he road it. One bought a Zerode DH bike and flipped it ASAP. Have you purchased one? When do you intend to purchase one? Is it simply a matter of outlay or are you waiting for some advancement before buying in? That's not to say that the Pinion stuff isn't very intriguing / cool / beautifully made. It is, but without a lot of early adopters buying in to the system how long will it take to come close to matching the performance and price of a basic derailleur system? Plus, regardless of development to work with any suspension frame worth owning a chain tensioner is still required - and dangling down in harms way, all the systems besides putting a Shimano commuter hub in your frame use a twist shifter that makes Grip Shift X-Ray feel cutting edge. I'm willing to bet that if we do finally see the death of a derailleur dangling off the rear triangle it will be in the form of a derailleur-in-a-box system a-la Alex Morgan (again), Pete Speed and Honda. The issue there is making the system micro enough to work in existing frames while avoiding the efficiency issues of cogs with low tooth counts. The one thing that is really cool about the potential for derailleur-in-a-box is a floating interface so chain line would also be perfect.