Some very cool drivetrain innovation (CHAINLINE!) that comes from E-Mountain Bikes?!

I know lots of folks have been asking "why not" for years re. wider steps between cogs to get a huge range out of a cassette while maintaining an awesome chainline in all the gears.

Check this out:

It's an 8-speed cassette that gets an 11-48 spread, using 11/13/15/18/24/32/40/48t tooth counts. Yeah, big jumps on the road… but offroad it could be the perfect compromise between range/shifting performance/durabilty/chainline.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Pandora's Box of E-Mountain Bikes… but if you ignore the context that this groupo has been designed into I think it would make a lot of sense for a lot of riders I know.

Link: http://www.bikerumor.com/2016/05/17/sram-ex1-brings-modern-1x-drivetrains-e-bikes-eight-speeds/#more-129606

(oh, more powerful Guide brakes too… nothing E-Specific about that).

$390USD cassette price…. SRAM what are you smoking?

$390USD cassette price…. SRAM what are you smoking?

That!

Also, likely to be heavy AF.

Heavy and expensive maybe, but it is the first iteration of something new. Give it a few generations and it could get pretty interesting. With the pain in the neck chainline is on 11 speed I could definitely see the value in this.

Kind of cool info there, for instance the choice of the Guide R lever "rather than their higher end levers, because it needed to be very robust in case the bike fell over and landed on it" is good to know when buying new brakes!

$390USD cassette price…. SRAM what are you smoking?

That!

Also, likely to be heavy AF.

Wow guys, thanks for coming out.

The name 'EX1' implies that it would be comparable in quality/price to X1. What's the SRP, i.e. not the street price, on an X1 cassette? ~$360 USD. Products often initially sell at a higher price as manufacturers attempt to recover initial tooling investments and there is also the 'E-Bke' factor I'm sure.

Also, if you look at the picture the cassette cogs are pretty heavily machined out AND it has 3 less cogs than an 11-speed cassette.

What qualifies as heavy-a-f? If the big cogs being machined from case hardened tool steel prolongs their life compared to alloy large cogs how much of a weight penalty is that worth?

Heavy and expensive maybe, but it is the first iteration of something new. Give it a few generations and it could get pretty interesting.

Yes. To be honest I didn't even look at the price. It is just one of those cases where I have heard folks talking for years about the possibilities for a wide range cassette with less cogs (bigger jumps) and the trade off in gear spacing being at least worthwhile in terms of overall drivetrain performance.

Ignoring the E-Bike factor, it could be the start of a very interesting re-think in drivetrain development at the industry level if non-E-Bike riders gravitate to it.

Personally, I rarely ever shift one gear at a time offroad so bigger jumps suits me fine.

Another shot showing how much better the chainline can be:

Some quick math show the jumps between cogs are in the 17-20% range.

Not terrible considering most cassettes are in the 15% per cog range.

I think a few % points increase in jumps could be quite digestible on the trail.