WheelNut profile

Great perspective and super thoughtful comments Saneesh. Thank you for taking to time to share your experiences, thoughts and opinions. 

Here's to hoping you bring all that composite knowledge to the bike industry one day!

Looks like someone needs to start a new CO-OP that sells the things we need to use in the mountains. I'll bet there is a bit of market space opening up soon...

I really enjoyed this article! Nice to see the cost comparison at the end. I used to do some drifting back in the day just with janky cars and tires sourced from the local tire shop's discard bin in the dead of night. It was still expensive with such junk cars. Biking has an amazing cost to adrenaline ratio.

That is exactly what I was thinking too. Then I remembered that Unno is part of Cero Design. http://www.wearecero.com/ 

Even still, how in the world could the bicycle side of the operation be profitable at 50 frames per year? The employees there must only spend a small fraction of their time working on Unno products. The suspension development costs alone would outstrip the profits from 50 frames. It is a mysterious world...

You should use an abrasive hacksaw blade (or an angle grinder with cutting disk) when cutting through carbon rather than a toothed blade. It gives a much smoother cut and won't tear the fibers out. Also, wear respiratory protection as carbon dust is supposedly very bad for your lungs.

Absolutely. It is a very niche thing. Anyone who built such a drivetrain would have to be able to make a profit while moving a small number of units.

Absolutely. It is a very niche thing. Anyone who built such a drivetrain would have to be able to make a profit while moving a small number of units.

Its definitely true that changing a cassette is one of the easier tasks in the hierarchy of bike mechanic'ing. It's still an extra thing to do though. Some people won't mind. It just depends on your propensity to enjoy wrenching on your bike. The thing is that the more you dig into life with 8 speed rather than 12 speed more and more people are eliminated from the ideal candidate for 8 speed column and the ideal spectrum for using 8 speed becomes a pretty niche group. Nothing wrong with a niche group of people though! Maybe a small manufacturer like Ingrid could release a nice high quality low cog count drivetrain to satisfy those who want that extra simplicity. More choice=more better.

Sure the data makes sense, but for the MAJORITY of riders buying something with inherently broad capabilities is a better value. It's like with electric cars where battery range (corollary to gear range) is a huge selling feature because people want the capability whether they need it or not. Sure the 80km battery range of the Chevy Volt is statistically fine, but it doesn't matter because WHAT IF. People feel totally comfortable buying a 400km range Tesla. Sure a 120km range Tesla would be cheaper, handle better, have lower battery replacement costs, etc. The thing is that people feel totally comfortable buying a 500% 1x bike, but not a 300% gear range 1x bike.

Also, swapping cassettes is a pain in the ass.

One other interesting thing was the recent Cycling Tips chain test in which they found that the SRAM XX1 Eagle 12 speed chain was BY FAR the longest wearing chain out of the many chains in their test. It beat out 10 and 11 speed Dura-Ace chains by a wide margin. Keep the dang thing clean and lubricated though! That'll make that expensive cassette last way longer.

Mountain bikes are not designed with front derailleurs in mind anymore. There are way to many compromises in design when you have to accommodate an FD, so you're not going to find a FD compatible frame anywhere these days (not a new bike anyway).