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the gearbox thread

xy9ine

Turbo Monkey
Mar 22, 2004
2,940
353
vancouver eastside
yeah, the gb enthusiasm has waned somewhat over the years. i would have thought we'd have fully embraced & significantly refined the tech by now, but progress has been slow. today's conventional drivetrains are pretty damn effective and reliable, and current gb's still have nagging issues. le sigh.
 

konastab01

Turbo Monkey
Dec 7, 2004
1,262
316
yeah, the gb enthusiasm has waned somewhat over the years. i would have thought we'd have fully embraced & significantly refined the tech by now, but progress has been slow. today's conventional drivetrains are pretty damn effective and reliable, and current gb's still have nagging issues. le sigh.
Yeah its not got the thing that it once was does it.

Still love my Lahar tho.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,651
26,889
media blackout
this is rad. paul brodie tracked down his one of a kind gearbox bike (from 1998) and performed a loving restoration.

before:


after:


neat build thread:

https://www.cycleexif.com/brodie-69er-restoration

i used to race with the original owner; this bike was partially responsible for sparking my gearbox infatuation.
saw this the other day on a vintage DH FB group i'm in. rad as hell.
 

EVRAC

Monkey
Jun 21, 2004
757
19
Port Coquitlam, B.C., Canada
I designed a gearbox for high-pivot DH bikes.
I did a presentation on it for my school.
Here's a video. Sorry about the quality, it gets better a few minutes in. There's a link in the video description to the slide show for better quality images.

 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,838
4,881
Champery, Switzerland
I designed a gearbox for high-pivot DH bikes.
I did a presentation on it for my school.
Here's a video. Sorry about the quality, it gets better a few minutes in. There's a link in the video description to the slide show for better quality images.
Nice work! Are you getting a frame built around it? What’s next?
 

TrueScotsman

Monkey
Mar 20, 2002
271
2
Scotland
EVRAC- that is awesome! As a true gearbox nerd too I totally appreciate the time, thinking and effort that went into this. As someone who has owned g-boxx2 and Alfine (ZerodeG2) gearboxes I reckon this type of design is the next step. Put me on the waiting list!
 

jeremy_2640

Monkey
Oct 4, 2007
114
42
Melbourne
Effigear have been working on a new box with the pinion mounting pattern. Great for existing pinion bike owners. Anyone got any more info?

Photo source: effigear Instagram

Screenshot_20210602-072637~2.png
 

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
516
617
yeast van
holy damn, birthed this thread 18 yrs ago... was pretty sure at the time that gearboxes would have supplanted the lowly derailleur well before now. alas...
 

iRider

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2008
5,686
3,143
holy damn, birthed this thread 18 yrs ago... was pretty sure at the time that gearboxes would have supplanted the lowly derailleur well before now. alas...
They added motors to bikes before proper gearboxes. Somehow you need to generate income. All those $500 derailleurs, $350 cassettes, etc....
 

Leafy

Monkey
Sep 13, 2019
636
410
Yeah reading the beginning of this thread it seemed like gearboxes were going to be huge. But instead they're almost dead, almost because I think we now have 4 bike brands offering them unless I'm missing any.

Zerode (pinion)
Starling cycles (effigear)
Nicolai (pinion)
Cavalerie (effigear)
 

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
516
617
yeast van
derailleur drivetrains have come a ways since then as well. clutches, wide range single ring, narrow wide, more robust mechs. while current gearboxes haven't really improved much over the years. still dealing with added weight & expense, added drag, relatively poor shifting, etc. and i don't see any significant breakthroughs on the horizon - with the exception of ebike integration, where weight & drag issues (and potentially shifting with electronic integration) are somewhat nullified.

i did spend some time on a zerode; not a bad bike, but cemented my disinterest in the current state of gearbox tech.

tho i've almost got the old lahar up & running again (for nostalgic giggles).
 

sethimus

neu bizutch
Feb 5, 2006
5,317
2,414
not in Whistler anymore :/
Yeah reading the beginning of this thread it seemed like gearboxes were going to be huge. But instead they're almost dead, almost because I think we now have 4 bike brands offering them unless I'm missing any.

Zerode (pinion)
Starling cycles (effigear)
Nicolai (pinion)
Cavalerie (effigear)
williams racing products (trinity bike) working on the most interesting one:


especially combined with their 2way o-chain variant with instant engagement
 

Leafy

Monkey
Sep 13, 2019
636
410
pete speed v2 it looks like. I wonder how they're going to take up the massive difference in chain length in such a short center spacing.
 

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
516
617
yeast van
yeah, the trinity is rad. the most promising development in a while. standard cassette on a linear actuator is pretty cool.

haven't seen a mockup with a tensioner yet, but assume there's room above
 

slimshady

¡Mira, una ardilla!
i don't see any significant breakthroughs on the horizon
Seems like Bombardier is betting on the gearbox segment's grow in the near future:

 

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
516
617
yeast van
^evidently they've just released electric can-am motos; diversifying into ebikes isn't much of a stretch i guess. i've no doubt derailleur drivetrains on (high end) ebikes are gonna die out in relatively short order. too much torque through systems clearly not designed for it.
 

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
516
617
yeast van
that IS high. mine is about 360mm. possible over length shock? granted the forward shock mount brackets varied a bit. i've got both a set of the two part mounts (like the bike above) and the later water jet ones that have two mounting options (mine is set in the lower).
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,838
4,881
Champery, Switzerland
Ok, I didn’t know about the 2 position shock mount. What i2i shock are you guys running. I put a 222mm on there. I couldn’t imagine it needing a 215mm just because the leverage ratio would be so high.