I don’t think the bikes ever ‘needed’ a lower chain guide pulley - at least not more than any other bike before clutch derailleurs and narrow-wide chainrings.
Even with no other changes there would be plenty of chain wrap to run a modern 1x drivetrain with no extra guide.
Of course the pulley had to float laterally - or be made of a low friction sliding surface so the chain could move across it - who was going to be climbing a 38lb+ 180mm bike with a 32x11-36 drivetrain? It’s no different to contemporaries like the Rocky Mtn Switch, Knolly V-Tach/Delrium, Norco Shore, Intense Uzzi or etc in that regard. Front derailleurs (or manual shift Grannie rings) were a necessary evil that created plenty of their own issues from extra chain retention (oh, how many BlackSpire Stingers we sold!), to noise, to kinematics. Designing bikes became a lot of simpler with the mass adoption of 1x, Clutch Derailleurs, and Narrow-Wide rings.
None of that takes away from the fact that this is the first legit HP+I ‘Enduro’ (or Freeride) bike, with low gearing and a reasonable pedaling position for climbing and it certainly isn’t getting its just due in current coverage of new HP+I bikes.
June 30, 2021, 3:38 p.m. - Andrew Major
I don’t think the bikes ever ‘needed’ a lower chain guide pulley - at least not more than any other bike before clutch derailleurs and narrow-wide chainrings. Even with no other changes there would be plenty of chain wrap to run a modern 1x drivetrain with no extra guide. Of course the pulley had to float laterally - or be made of a low friction sliding surface so the chain could move across it - who was going to be climbing a 38lb+ 180mm bike with a 32x11-36 drivetrain? It’s no different to contemporaries like the Rocky Mtn Switch, Knolly V-Tach/Delrium, Norco Shore, Intense Uzzi or etc in that regard. Front derailleurs (or manual shift Grannie rings) were a necessary evil that created plenty of their own issues from extra chain retention (oh, how many BlackSpire Stingers we sold!), to noise, to kinematics. Designing bikes became a lot of simpler with the mass adoption of 1x, Clutch Derailleurs, and Narrow-Wide rings. None of that takes away from the fact that this is the first legit HP+I ‘Enduro’ (or Freeride) bike, with low gearing and a reasonable pedaling position for climbing and it certainly isn’t getting its just due in current coverage of new HP+I bikes.