Gearbox fans in North America will have reason to smile today as Pinion announces that they have partnered with Gates (the Carbon Drive people) in Denver, Colorado, to open a distribution and support facility there. Pinion North America will service the brand's OEM customers here, who up until now, were the primary source for customers who wanted to purchase or preview a Pinion transmission. Their new headquarters will service both US and Canadian customers, and their central location puts them in an accessible time zone for gear-curious mountain bikers anywhere on the continent. Here's the official release:
Pinion Gearbox to Enter the USA and Canada German gearbox specialist Pinion is officially launching its product in North America. Beginning in October 2017, the company’s bicycle gearboxes will be available in the USA and Canada. With this move Pinion is responding to the rising demand and interest of North American customers and bike manufacturers.
Pinion sees big potential for its low-maintenance bicycle gearboxes in the new markets, especially in mountain bikes, touring bikes, and gravel bikes. The Denkendorf-based gearbox specialists are hoping for similar success in the USA and Canada as they have enjoyed in Europe. Pinion believes US bicyclists want the same thing as Europeans—a low-maintenance shifting technology that is more durable than derailleurs and makes bicycling easier and less work. “Whether it´s a world traveler, mountain biker or daily commuter, our seven gearbox types are perfectly tuned for every specific usage. They are reliable, require no adjustment and are almost maintenance-free,” says Christoph Lermen, Pinion CEO.
Up to now in the USA, bicycles with Pinion gearbox technology have been available through a handful of selected brands, including Co-Motion, REEB Cycles, Ventana, Viral, Carver, Lynskey and Tout Terrain. In Europe, Pinion has partnerships with over 90 well-known OEMs such as Ghost, Stevens, Nicolai, Tout Terrain, Kalkhoff, Raleigh, Rose, MTB Cycletech, Idworx and numerous other manufacturers.
| Entering the US market has been an important topic for us for several years, Despite the different market segmentation in the USA and Canada compared to Europe, we believe that the requirements of a bicycle in North America, mainly in the USA, are generally the same as those in Europe: The customer wants a reliable bike that is fun to ride and reduces the typical maintenance and care.—Pinion CEO Christoph Lermen |
Pinion North America takes over sales and service for the USA and Canada The service processing of American OEM partners, dealers and end consumers will be handled by Pinion North America. Marc Seemann is the contact partner for sales and support. Pinion North America will be operated from Denver by Gates Corporation.
The official launch of Pinion North America is Interbike Outdoor Demo in Las Vegas from September 20–22. Pinion equipped test bikes will be available at the Pinion/Gates booth. Christoph Lermen, Pinion CEO, will be on site for the initial launch of Pinion North America. "Journalists, retailers and customers are very welcome to test ride Pinion bikes and get information about our drive technology made in Germany!”
About Pinion Pinion offers high-end gearboxes for bicycles. The two founders, Christoph Lermen and Michael Schmitz were working as budding engineers at the Porsche´s transmission development center in Germany and had the idea to create a bicycle transmission that was as intuitive to use as a sports car, with the same high precision and low wear. In simple words: Pinion builds a bicycle transmission with the heart of a sports car, as finely tuned as it would be functional. Suitable for any cycling route in the world, no matter the conditions.
Transmissions are available with 18, 12, 9 and 6 gears. Each of the gearbox types is finely tuned for a specific usage. The gearbox is integrated at a central position in the frame. Two spur gears connected in series work inside the housing box. A trademark of Pinion gearbox technology is the enormous transmission ratio of up to 636 percent. The gears are evenly graded and unlike with the derailleur gear system, there are no redundant gears. All 18, 12, 9 or 6 gears can "actually" be switched. The gears can be switched during the journey or when stationary by means of a twist grip.
Just create a separate website for gearbox news. I'm only here for ebike. Quit pandering to gearbox sponsors who only care about making money. Ebike is the essence of mountainbiking. When I turn on Strava, put on my Enduro (R) goggles and fire up the ebike, all of my worries melt into the floor as I whir into the wilderness in symbiosis with mother nature and iphone X.
-Everybody Ever
Or PinionBike
Hard access is a gateway to gapers. 160 travel ebikes will serve to ruin that. They're fine as commuters, but have NO BUSINESS on the trails!
Gearboxes are rad though. F*ck derailers!
I'm with @jaordangraves on this one.
F^&K, Still!!!! Will someone make a gearbox trigger shifter already!?
www.bikerumor.com/2017/03/15/nahbs-2017-tout-terrain-teases-belt-drive-pinion-plus-bike-cinq-prepares-drop-flat-bar-shifters-pinion-colab-carbon-forks-appear
I found it last week by chance after trying to find out about the gearbox bike being ridden by Benoit Coulanges at the World Cup this year.
So, PB, could anyone let us know what was not newsworthy about that? Why was it not given any space on the home page? Be careful of silence PB, for it breeds conspiracy theories.
Here is the link to that page BTW
www.pinkbike.com/news/effigear-gearbox--how-does-it-work.html#cid1797918
www.mtb-news.de/news/2017/09/04/eurobike-2017-pinion Here you go!
If each interaction is 99% efficient, then with two interactions on a traditional derailleur system, you have .99*.99= .98, or 98% efficiency. With a simple gearbox design like effigear, you have a spur gear that turns a selected spur gear (on an array of gears) that turns another spur gear (once again, on an array of available gears). Thats 3 interactions, or .99*.99*.99 = 97% efficiency; add the two more interactions for the belt or chain drive, and you have .99^5 = 95% efficiency. An extremely fit biker can sustain 200 watts, so with a very generous 99% efficiency for every gear/cog interaction, thats 10 watts lost. This is a bitter pill to swallow for a human-powered machine.
I wouldn't build a road bike with this system, or a light XC bike but for AM/trail riding I've been super impressed and there's way less drag than I was expecting to the point where it's pretty much imperceptible. There's just a nice mechanical whir from the box that should fade as it wears in properly. The grip shift and supposed delay is a non issue too.
I shift 10x more now than I used to and am always hitting the perfect gear lightning fast. Being in the right gear all the time has meant that I can ride longer and harder than I had before.
It's so nice knowing that your gearing will be 100% perfect every ride. Only maintenance required between rides is a wash and chain lube.
What bike do you use, if I may ask?
I'm hoping that over time they become more universal. I find it strange that frame manufacturers would build e-bikes but not offer a gearbox option. Hopefully this is a step forward in seeing them on more oem builds. It would decrease the price as well which for me is the only downside to this system right now.
Phase 2 will be new wheelset and fork.
2) If you use a chain, a single speed has much lower friction cos you don't have any extra cogs on the hanger.
i ride a bike with an effigear on...in whistler for the last 3years!
this bike is unbeatable on the way down!
Who's looking for maximum performance on the way up here in this column?
Who knows how many watts he does produce when at the best of his game??
Maintenance free, instant shifting, weight centered on the bottom bracket...Seriously>>gearbox is a game changer!
You doubt it...Try my bike anytime in whistler, and ENJOY THE RIDE!
With hardtails, and certain suspension designs, a gearbox is more sensible. That being said, with hardtails, the rohloff hub makes a bunch of sense too. I mean, there's no unsprung weight in that situation. I guess the wheel might feel a bit heavy compared to if the weight were at the hub, but Rohloff hub means no special frame needed, which is a huge win.
A handful of watts goes nowhere riding dirt with 2.5" knobby tyres, pedal bob and shit aero for a couple hours.
www.bikeradar.com/us/road/news/article/chain-or-belt-drive-which-is-faster-36074
Its a small difference, one that doesn't matter on a mountain bike, but it shouldn't be claimed that belt drives are more efficient unless you have a chain like your one buddy who leaves his bike out in the rain or on the back of his car when driving in the winter on salted roads.
I realize that this site is geared (get it?) to DH bikers, but for many of us who have graduated college and have families and careers, there is no time for shuttling and bike parks anymore. I get up at 6am and still get in 2 hour rides, or about 2600 feet of climbing/descending before work. The faster I can climb the more vertical descent I can get. That being said, the small difference in climbing speed, over an entire season, could be offset by the low maintenance in time and money of a sealed transmission.
One good thing about all this ebike tech is that the bottom bracket area is being designed with a gearbox / electric motor in mind. Agreeing on a "Universal Gearbox Mounting Standard" is a whole other minefield.
It's gonna be way stiffer and less power loss due to bb flex, etc.
Yeah the grip shift is a thing. I did use it for the front mech back when I ran that (never got why anyone would operate a front mech with a trigger shifter, it is never going to work as SRAM kindly pointed out) but I used to find it difficult to operate a grip shift on the fly. I mostly ride standing up which makes it a bit harder to shift and rotate my hand. Maybe the longer front center and reach will allow me to put more weight on the feet and less on the hands. That'd make it easier. Effigear does work with trigger shifters (or a grip shift that kind of works like a trigger in that you don't fully rotate it) but because of their belt placement it won't fit existing designs. Pinion has the belt where the chain used to be so the forces are similar to what the derailleur based frame was originally designed for. That said, there will surely be some kind of trigger option from Pinion. They just won't release it until they're fully confident it is up to it. There is a (hydraulic) trigger option for Rohloff so maybe something like that could work for Pinion too.
@fartymarty : Yeah the cool thing about Olsen is that it really modular. It can be built single speed or with a regular derailleur based drivetrain if that's what you want, you can run the Pinion (P or C series) or you can mount a Shimano e-steps motor underneath of that's your thing. At least much better than get a dedicated e-bike for the odd trip you're going to use it. And if gearboxes really are slightly less efficient, maybe racers will prefer to mount the derailleur for races and go back to Pinion for winter training. I think the concept really is great. And I like that he's still open to have his design built out of steel.
Seriously though, I would like to try one as well. From the concept point of view Pinion makes much sense.
Point 2) being somewhat negated by the cost of your average gearbox (unless you're unlucky like WAKI is), reason 1) is what really makes the gearbox distinct. 11 speed is cute and all but it puts mass in absolutely the worst possible place on the bike.
My shit is always a little off, cassettes and chainrings get worn out, I'm replacing chains every 3 or 4 months, hangers get tweaked, the clutch gets grimy doesn't work right, jockey wheels make funny noises, the derailleur gets a little bent and occasionally brakes. Cables stretch, housing gets nasty, tons of little bits and pieces to clean and service.
Frankly it kind of sucks.
With regular maintenance I've managed to keep my XT 11sp setup running great for 2 seasons. Over a hundred recorded rides totaling 1100 miles per Strava. Same drivetrain. No BS.
@WAKIdesigns To be honest I wouldn't even know. There used to be the Rocket and Attack triggers from SRAM for Shimano rear mechs, but I don't know about any compatibility with current products. Anyway, be safe out there when exploring innovative new ways to get punched in a bike workshop.
So you're saying you sneak shifts in between pedal strokes. But you also say you shift without backing off?
Those sound like two different things.
2.) Gearbox drivetrains will always be less efficient that derailleur systems because they still use a chain. Yes you take away the inefficiency of a non-straight chain line, but you add the inefficiency of the gear box.
3.) Gearbox's tend to be less efficient at low RPMs/high torque which is exactly the case you have with mountain biking
These are physical limitations of the gearbox, and they CANNOT be over-come to any substantial degree. It is just physics, and you cannot change physics.
I owned a Rohloff hub. It had it's advantages. The shifting under load thing is a thing, and if you are not getting it, you are in fact backing off pedaling, even if it is for a short time and you get good timing the shift. But I usually do this with shirting with a derailleur system, too, because there is no need to put un-needed stress on it and wear it out more quickly. That said, if you need to bail yourself out, it is possible to shift under load, there it is not with a gearbox.
However, the 'break in' period thing, while true, doesn't result in a drivetrain as efficient as a derailleur. When I first got the Rolhoff drag was VERY noticeable, and then after a couple of months it seems to get less, and then leveled off, and I was fairly happy. But then the things I got if for started not being true (that is a bomb proof drivetrain). First, the chain tensioner required for my full suspension bike seized up and stopped tensioning (not the fault of the geared hub, but just shows that if you have to have a tensioner, it is just as capable of failing as a derailleur). Second, I started getting skips in the gears under really hard efforts (and I'm not stalking about the awkward 7 to 8 gear shift, while just pedalling hard, the gear would just disengage like the gear mesh slipped. Finally, one morning I went down into my basement to find the hub had purged all of its oil bath onto the floor; and this was after less than a year of riding. This resulting in them replacing the entire internals of the gearbox, and a long wait from the service department.
In the meantime, I bought a cheap LX drive train while waiting. And it felt like I was being shot out of a rocket on my first ride. That 'break in' period was really just mostly me getting stronger and used to the lower efficiency. I was pedaling one to 2 cogs higher equivalent on the same climbs/sections of trails and crushing it.
When I got the hub back, I tried again, and it felt like I was pedaling in mud.
I have not since looked back. Derailleur drive trains are cheap (as long as you don't fall for high-end SRAM or Shimano XTR), efficient as long as you do nominal maintenance, and you can replace any broken part easily and quickly (same day through shop, or within a couple of days through mail).
Geaboxes I think have a specific nitch; which is hardtails (or maybe concentric BB pivot suspension) that do not require a tensioner, use a belt drive, for a rider that has excess amounts of power and fitness who doesn't want to have to do any regular maintenance to their drivetrain. But that's not most of us. Gearboxes also seems to be an awesome training device (refer above to the 'short out of the cannon' effect when returning to derailleurs), but they a bit high cost for that use.
10w-30 in fork lowers, tho
(a pair of freewheels in the gearbox and another freewheel in the hub make me sad)
Great week for MTB news.