[Steve M]

I see where you're coming from, but it still seems like the hard way to do things. Planetary gears are heavy, complicated, and seemingly difficult to make without costing a fortune. Wouldn't sticking a dura ace deraileur in a can with a cassette just kind of solve all those issues?

I dunno. I just don't get it.

The hard part about derailleur in a box is that you need to move the driving chainring because the chainline is very short. You also don't get the stability of a gear interface under shock loading (ie chain tension has to be spring loaded which bounces around when you hit bumps).

 

[atrokz]

I see where you're coming from, but it still seems like the hard way to do things. Planetary gears are heavy, complicated, and seemingly difficult to make without costing a fortune. Wouldn't sticking a dura ace deraileur in a can with a cassette just kind of solve all those issues?

I dunno. I just don't get it.

It won't. it will also probably wear faster, be more unreliable, and go out of alignment a lot quicker. This system, while a tad heavier, is undoubtedly more reliable and it doesn't look *that* hard to service if you're familiar with transmissions. You'll never get 60,000k out of a dura-ace in a box with an oil change a season. And once they go down to a 6 speed, more weight gets shaved. Also, the more units sold should equal a reduction in manufacturing cost.

If anything, I'm glad they didn't go the TiN coated titanium gear route..... While a heck of a lot lighter, that would have been expensive.

Check out the resume of these two engineers behind this project. They are coming at it from the performance automotive world, and it shows.