http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Prototype-SRAM-BlackBox-Derailleur-and-BoXXer-Damper.html
At least on a bike...
Seriously though, they've taken the ultra-narrow 11 speed XX1 and neutered it down to seven gears, and this is an improvement? Could anybody explain to me how this is better? The only logical explanation I can come up with is that with narrower spacing, shifts might be faster...but I've never heard of that being a problem on wider drivetrains, just that you can't get the range you can with more cogs.
So now we have:
Narrower hubs, not taking full advantage of the shorter cassette and the dead space left by running less gears
Narrower spacing, requiring finer tuning and less season-long robustness
Single-block machining, extremely expensive
Requires a special chain and shifter
but the pros:
Shorter throw for the derailleur?
At least on a bike...
Seriously though, they've taken the ultra-narrow 11 speed XX1 and neutered it down to seven gears, and this is an improvement? Could anybody explain to me how this is better? The only logical explanation I can come up with is that with narrower spacing, shifts might be faster...but I've never heard of that being a problem on wider drivetrains, just that you can't get the range you can with more cogs.
So now we have:
Narrower hubs, not taking full advantage of the shorter cassette and the dead space left by running less gears
Narrower spacing, requiring finer tuning and less season-long robustness
Single-block machining, extremely expensive
Requires a special chain and shifter
but the pros:
Shorter throw for the derailleur?