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the gearbox thread

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
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636
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not (yet) ready for an ebike, but when i am, pretty sure it'll have some variation of an integrated gearbox. makes so much sense (where issues of weight & frictional losses are more or less irrelevant). and the e-shifted pinion eliminates the gripshift & (allegedly) issues with shifting under load. pretty neat:

 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
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sethimus

neu bizutch
Feb 5, 2006
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not in Whistler anymore :/
not (yet) ready for an ebike, but when i am, pretty sure it'll have some variation of an integrated gearbox. makes so much sense (where issues of weight & frictional losses are more or less irrelevant). and the e-shifted pinion eliminates the gripshift & (allegedly) issues with shifting under load. pretty neat:


cavalerie working on an electrified anakin with a gearbox motor too
 

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
525
636
yeast van
reese officially on a gamux and a (looks to be) belt driven pinion atherton out in the wild! are we (finally, 20 years later) gonna see gearboxes gain some traction?


 

Muddy

ancient crusty bog dude
Jul 7, 2013
2,141
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The Other Farmington CT
Next big thing for mid-drive ebikes is gearbox, gearbox, purple monkey alligator. Gearbox.

Would have to assume drivetrain capability matching standard cassette drivetrains will emerge once powers that be make it home.

 

vivisectxi

Monkey
Jan 14, 2021
525
636
yeast van
that athy is tidy af.

been saying this for a couple decades, but these make SO much sense (esp for dh application). toss in mass dampers & electro actuated suspension & this season is looking to go hard with the tech nerding.
 

Andeh

Customer Title
Mar 3, 2020
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that athy is tidy af.

been saying this for a couple decades, but these make SO much sense (esp for dh application). toss in mass dampers & electro actuated suspension & this season is looking to go hard with the tech nerding.
I bet we see an Atherton MGU ebike within a year or 2 now also, following this. Going to be a chonky boy though, their bikes are not light even before you add a battery.
 

jonKranked

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Nov 10, 2005
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I bet we see an Atherton MGU ebike within a year or 2 now also, following this. Going to be a chonky boy though, their bikes are not light even before you add a battery.
that i wouldn't bet on, this actually just came up over on vital. aside from commuter and cargo bikes, it appears the only brands making MTBs with the MGU are nicolai, rotwild, bulls, and some company named flyer. not exactly big names.
 

Andeh

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Mar 3, 2020
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I dunno, I suspect the biggest reasons why there hasn't been wider spread adoption of it are:
*lead time between design -> molds -> production being typically in the 2-3 years range
*contractual agreements with parts suppliers (SRAM/Shimano)

Since Atherton can rapidly prototype like Nicolai, and are also selling bikes more or less ala carte like Nicolai, I could see them beating the big players to the punch. The big lift would probably be how to mount the battery, but maybe they'll just run an external battery like Starling. They don't have an ebike yet, and that's probably the only growing MTB segment right now (especially in Europe).

I remember that there was an interview last year with Pivot's Chris Cocalis when they released their first Bosch ebike, who said they had a prototype back at the time when they were designing their first one and liked it a lot, but were able to get it to market faster with the Shimano EP8, so they went that way. The EP8s haven't had a great rep for at least a couple years now, but it was only last year that we started to see releases with Bosch by the bigger names (Santa Cruz, Pivot, Norco, etc.).
 

jonKranked

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Nov 10, 2005
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Since Atherton can rapidly prototype like Nicolai, and are also selling bikes more or less ala carte like Nicolai, I could see them beating the big players to the punch. The big lift would probably be how to mount the battery, but maybe they'll just run an external battery like Starling. They don't have an ebike yet, and that's probably the only growing MTB segment right now (especially in Europe).
that's kind of a catch-22, smaller brands like atherton & nicolai are too high end / niche - aka don't have the marketshare - to really drive widespread adoption of the MGU.