Is This Bicycle Gearbox The FUTURE Of Mountain Biking? | New 2022 Effigear Mimic Transmission 

I hope you enjoyed learning all about gearboxes today! 🔥 What other bicycle topics would you like me to break down? 🚴🏼‍♂️

Let's just celebrate that this is pure mechanical thing, no electronics!!

Pinion is in production for 9 years now. I bought a bike (MTB) with the first series in 2012. Never had a problem. Its great to see the some standards appearing. Nice video.

You are the voice of gearbox technology! A “Guide,” helping riders “Deviate,”towards better bikes!!

As a French cyclist I’m excited to see this kind of video. It’s time we bring these kind of initiatives to the masses !

This channel deserves more subscribers. Thanks for the info!

Absolutely love your videos, currently in omeo having a day off whilst doing the hunt 1000 route. Would love to see a video about you're thoughts of converting an old steel mtb into a touring/bikepacking bike or a 5 to 10 year old aluminium hardtail into a rig more suited for long days in the sadle on a budget.

Sram shifter compatibility is really a huge pro for everyone who does not like the grip shifters

Great video. Have been looking at these for a while. I’ll get one on my next bike for sure.

Very nice detailed analysis and high quality video documentary of the information about bicycle gearboxes.

I have a feeling that gearboxes won't come to the mainstream mountainbike market in a very long time if ever. Simply due to the efficiency and starting price. But I can see gearboxes coming to a good amount of e-mtb cause they are already way more expensive to begin with so the added price won't be as noticeable and thanks to the added power of the electric motor won't the efficiency loss be noticeable either.

This gearbox is my dream I thank you for all your videos I hope I'm gonna get a bike with this gearbox very soon Once again thank you for your videos

Love to see another gearbox hit the market! Thanks for your as always excellent explanation. I would like to see your take on the Kindernay geared hub system............. It looks to be an exciting addition to that market. Thanks for sharing.

I've been riding single speed for over 25 years waiting for this tech.. awesome!!

The cycling about = The cycle journalist

thanks for another very interesting vid, some of those bikes looked amazing, the future is now, great stuff

Nice to have more gearbox options. Thanks for the highly detailed info.

👏👏👏👍👍probably most honest, technical review than many!😅😅🤟🤟

Great little commuter , perfect for town rides and getting groceries and sight seeing. It’s really fast. I like it !

Very good channel for everyday biking. Many RU-vidrs refer to road racers or MTBs, but not often enough with "commuter bikes" Obvious points 1: Derailleur system - 'Gear overlaps' ineffability by 1/3 to 1/2 of all gears that are useless (for 2x crankset) Gearbox System - 'Gear steps' are stupid to space evenly across the gear range from "high speed" to "hill" gears, which is unnecessary weight penalty, except for Alfine 8 or Envolio or Sturmey Archer Point 2 - That is why the well established Derailleurs have smaller gear steps at "high speed" and wider gear steps on "hills" Point 3 - How many gears do you actually use in a city? From "standstill" to some "hills" to high speed? ANS: 6 gears at most, unless you ride from rural to city, which uses 9 gears from "small up hill" to "high speed down hill" on tarmac. Point 4 - Use "traffic-light gear" on flat at standstill as a "baseline" for all other gears. This baseline are roughly 1.0x complete crank revolution to 2~2.5x Wheel turns or 1:2 ratio. Point 5 - Gear choice are highly dependent on terrain. Most gearbox in the market "gear steps" and "gear counts" are design towards MTB terrain, not everyday city commuter except for Alfine 8 (lighter bikes sensitive to gear steps) or Envolio or Sturmey Archer (heavier bikes where gear steps are not as important) Point 6 - Finding the right "gear range and step" is not an exact science and it also depends on "Tyre dia and width" Point 7 - Rear cog has a "designed recommended minimal gear tooth", too low and it may damage the gears. Point 8 - Gearbox does NOT mean you could use Carbon belt drive instead of chain drive, it depends if the rear frame has a split or not.

Thanks a lot, I was just about to start on a custom fat bike (with a Pinion / Rohloff drivetrain) project that will likely take 2 years or more to complete. My big decision WAS Pinion or Rohloff before watching this video. Thank you for doing all that you do, great job.

I can recognize that landscape in almost every angle: You were in Oaxaca City, my hometown!! :D I have always wanted to get the Rohloff's gearbox, as it's compatible with older bicycles, like mine. Mine is so old that still uses the freewheel system (21 shifts). :(

Great video!!!! The price comparison with the other IGS was great! Thank you!

Thank you. This video is Great 👌🏼

Rohloff is a really good upgrade for mid drives in my opinion. I put a Rohloff on my GT VERB that has a BBSHD mid drive unit on it after the lower gears were pretty much worn out after about 1500km Im 6"4 and close to 150kg done over 10 000km so far with the rohloff and still going strong. Its been a lot of fun, hopefully its got atleast another 20 000km left in it.

I very much enjoy these videos.

For me it's becoming increasingly interesting to see a middrive motor combined with a gearbox like this, on an MTB chassis - with room for a rear shock and a water bottle. I hope it happens some day.

Good videos you do 👍

Awesome bro, nice content & edit. Will try to get old mate Rob Metz to watch, he's a little burnt out but great presentation of the future, the Katipo is the best bike ever, hope you have ridden one.

Im going to need one of these so much easier to adapt to my project for a tricycle camper

Thank you for the update 👍👀❤

That connected to both pedals, and an electric motor, and you've got something really special. An all in one unit. all your gears, in a box, with a motor capable of assisting, or turning a bike into a machine that'll get ya across town, almost twice as fast as a good bicycle.

Great content as always Alee! I look forward to the day when I can afford to leave all derailleurs behind for good. As of last week, all 8 of my families bikes are either 1x or single speed.

Great knowledge. Thank You.

It does make sense for bikes with rear suspension .. but for hard tails ordinary bikes the good old hub gears are good enough + you have the option for coaster brake that i very much like

Good to have a 'box that will down change under load, any load taken off the pedals on a steep climb totally kills any momentum you might have.

Lovely breakdown, Alee. These gearboxes slowly keep getting better and better. Any rumours on whether Rohloff is investigating a mid-mounted gearhub like this?

I would like a 3 or 5 speed for ebike conversation, even the new 7 speed interval gears is more than most ebike riders use.

I tried my friends Taniwha for a day and it was just incredible. For full suspension bikes I honestly think gearboxes are the future, that Taniwha is just amazing

Thank You for this Video!! Do we know what materials are used on EFFIGEAR gears? You are doing Great Videos. Keep it ^P

I feel like having a tighter range for the uphill gears makes more sense that to be able to have such fine adjustment when going fast🤔

Fasinating & great to see Effigear joining the market… would be awesome if they did a slightly wider range as per other gearbox providers… I’m considering building my own bike frame & have been looking at various ideas/options of how to have it, this gives me more to consider :-)

upshift under load that's the kind of improvements that will slowly make gearboxes a better overall solution. solid an wider hub without freewheel mechanism sounds neat too but probably hard to find

wonderful video you rocks

The reason for heavy gearboxes is not that they are so great, but that belts can’t work with derailleurs.

Great video

Any chance you could give an update for the efficiency data on the gearbox transmissions now that Rohloff and Pinion aren't the only noteworthy options?

This reminds me of a gearbox for which Shimano filed a patent about a year ago. The inner workings look very similar to me based on some drawings reported by the cycling media back then

Awesome video mate, great info! Effigear need to pick up their game when it comes to getting more info about their product out there. Would love to try it one day but don't see much chance of that happening in Oz :(

Thanks for the video. Very interesting. Effigear have told me that there are no Gates pulleys that will mount directy to the Mimic but I think I see one in your video at around 2:04 that looks like it does. Do you have any more information on the bike in this image? TIA.

It looks like gearboxes will pick up significant momentum in the coming years. The trend of building a fixed gearbox into a frame - which is a very realistic possibility when the gearbox manufacturer and the bicycle manufacturer are one and the same - will lead to new oligopolistic practices. There is a danger that these will result to premature (planned) obsolescence and expensive throwaway bicycles. A better route for most I feel would be making gearboxes that can be retrofitted to existing bicycles by adapting the crankset or simply changing the crankset to one that will mate with the gearbox. There might be some weight savings associated with this solutions as the gearbox casing will not have to be an integral part of the frame and thus, the load bearing sections will be reduced.

Fascinating between this and Ryan Van Duzer's Pinion gearbox Priority 600x bicycles

Nikolai Bikes have been doing gearboxes for a very long time, and man, they know how to make kick ass bikes(and very expensive too).

I still can't find a pinion gearbox in the open market unless it is through a oem with a frame/gearbox combo, is nice to see another player in the market hopefully we see things spice up in the gearbox arena

Generally very interesting Gearbox and well explained video. Only two things: 1. Any hub motor won't transmit torque to the gearbox as the connection is disrupted by at least one freehub. i.e. the motor's torque will only go through the wheel. That doesn't necessarily make them a good combination but it takes the motortorque out of the equation. For higher wattage motors which are illegal in most places this might be a good fit though. 2. Instead of buying a propriteary backwheel without a hub, which would actually be more expensive, you can buy any fixie-specific hub. They are often symmetrical as well and they don't have freehubs either. Maybe there is some geometrical disadvantage but it is certainly an option to avoid having to maintain two freehubs. Thinking about the second point the cheap combo-option would be a nice feature for the future. Not every cyclist enthusiasticly following up on your channel has the financial means to take the full package, for some even small savings will make such expensive technologyjumps more likely.

What I think the bike industry really needs is a high quality, high gear range gearbox that is considerably cheaper than pinion and Rohloff. The best option i know it's the Shimano alfine 11, but the gear range isn't really enough for mountain terrain.

You were mentioning your 2022 buyers guide. Can u already say when you will release it? I am currently planing to get a bike for offroadtraveling for early 2022 :) Thaks for you great content Alee!

With the 9/18 red gearbox, how much speed is possible to do with little pedal power, how fast is it going.

Ok if GIH are gearboxes (5:50), what about the unsprung weight mentionned earlier? They are a lot heavier than a mech and cassette.

Best gear box was the three speed sturmy archers. Lived In an oil bath. No silly rubbish. They were on utility bicycles that were left outside all the time. Awesome bit of Kit.

I am normally a traditionalist, and look to 'new' as manufactures cost cutting and hoping the consumer doesn't notice. But in this case I think these could be the best thing to hit bikes since the derailleur. I live in Florida, U.S.A. and we have torrential rain during the summer months, your cassettes and chain are going to be coated in mud and muck in short order. A sealed system with a belt drive would be perfect for those soggy summers!

What if you combine this front gearbox with the Shimano alfine rear internal gear box? 😍😎 You have two internal gear box and lots of gears! Thinking about it....

I still ride my 1978 team Raleigh Sport with light steel frame and manual shifting and smile every time and yes my specialized carbon collecting dust.Point here is new tech does not mean better not when you got to pay thousands

I’d love to figure out a way to mate my CYC motor to this gear box, we can dream

interestingly, according to ritzelrechner, the lowest gear of effigear would allow for much steeper comfortable climbs than a pinion (which itself already presents an excellent performance), and not by a small difference - in my case on a 20kg bike+equipment it would be the difference between a max gradient of 13.3% vs 11.5% for the pinion. For this alone, I would very much consider using effigear on a touring bike

At this price point I can make my bike drive on it's own and charge my phone in the same time. Idea is great but price is more important!

I think any MTB manufacturer working on high pivot bikes should consider this. It could offset some of the weight and reduced power of current drivetrains/high pivots. It'll probably still be less power efficient, but then that's already a compromise high pivot bikes are making.

Thanks for posting. What prevents bike makers from building drive trains with say 700% or 800% gear ranges? Such a 50th rear 11 speed with a three chain rings up front? Is there such a thing as to much gearing?

Hi5 for the shirt bigman ;)

Sigh, makes me remember how I suffered on a single speed Raleigh whose cotter pins kept deforming, so that most of the cycle's life one pedal clunked instantly from vertical of the crank's cycle down to about 4 o'clock with a shin shivering thud. Suffered through 6 miles of that torture every day from 1968 to 1979.

So this will fit to a standard MTB wheel? If not, which bike brands will this work on?

Interesting. I would think that an ultra light bike with the main gear weight all in the middle it would make a trials or cross country bike very fun as the rear end is so light like a singles peed bmx.

Great video. Large steps between gears whether at the top or the bottom are a nightmare. Lots of gears with smaller steps are preferable 23-24% jumps are just ridiculous. I got rid of the Shimano Alfine 8spd hub because gears 5-6 was 24% totally impractical. The Rohloff has evenly spaced gears of 13.4% throughout the range and even this I find a tiny bit on the high side. Would like more gears and smaller steps as it is easier to maintain cadence, power to the pedals and speed. When I used to have derailleur gears I selected rear cassettes typically with an over all narrower range but that were closer to each other ie one tooth difference all the way up the cassette and used a triple front chainset with suitably sized chain rings so there was as little overlap between gear inches as possible. I think the best gearbox is the Pinion P1.18 as it has many more gears with steps between that aren't huge. It might be a little heavier at 2.7kg but imho that is a price worth paying. When you are knackered at the end of the day trying to make it to the summit of one more steep climb you will be very grateful. Finally I would be more inclined to rely on German engineering and manufacture. The French aren't exactly renouned for producing quality engineered products. You only have to look at their cars. Rohloff and Pinion over this French brand every time even though they are prepared to give their gearbox a 5 years warranty. In 6 years I have never had a problem with the Rohloff hubs on my bikes.

Good video.

I look forward to when gearbox technology becomes more common (read "affordable"!).

Cutting edge stuff! I hope this does not mean that I wasted my money on a Pinion P18 gearbox. Of course, I am using it daily, and I didn't need to wait until the end of the this year.

Well explained,you are a great narrator/communicator of tech information,thankyou,ps can it be installed on a hard tail also

Still having so much fun with Kindernay XIV hydraulic gears shiffting after using Rohloff this is a different game.

10:08 interesting graph that shows tha Rohloff speedhub is very efficient.

This thing is effing awesome.

I think price is the main reason gearboxes are still unfortunately niche, a sunrace 11-50 tooth cassette and a deore derailleur costs like 150 bucks at most! Can't really say no to that!

Hey buddy. Do you still have ganglion cyst after you treated with the book

there's a symmetrical 240s centrelock singlespeed freewheel hub? holy shit why didn't i know about this?!

I don't like fixed rear hubs, but this would be cool with that cause you slow down by downshifting like with a car or motorcycle.

I'm dumb founded on correct gearing...trying to get significantly slower/as comfortable pedal cadence at 30 mph mark for a ebike. Will this do the trick with its gear ratios? Don't want to move legs excessively...which effects balance of cruising. Make & weld frame to fit gear box.😉

Great….Now combine a gearbox with a mid drive e-bike all in one and I’m in!😂

this was tried many years ago. are people gonna buy in this time?

One critical point on anything to do with cycling is weight. That should be an important discussion point if a fair comparison with current systems is to be made.

About time

Is it possible that with a 9/18 red gearbox you want to go faster with less pedal power

what I've never understood is that if the gear box has a clutch (ie freewheel) why not have a fixed gear rear hub? ya know like a motorcycle?

Where can I buy it... Please suggest.

whats the other budget gear box in the works you mention at 2.29?

Can you use a less slim chain?

What is the weight difference in compared to conventional derailler system for road bike say: sram Red 22 ?

about that warranty, Pinion P-line has 5 years and the C-line has 2 year. At the cost of 89euro you can register the C-line and get a 3 year additional warranty. Any repair post warranty has a fixed price at pinion of 199,00 euro, except a housing replacement.

At last a real evolution for those who don't want to buy an e-bike (the one who changes the most ecological means of transport into a polluant one). I hope this will be soon available on a majority of MTB. It could be my next bike.

A 100 thousand kilometer mechanical service life! If that proves true, they certainly didn't build it with " Planned obsolescence in mind! " That's good 👍 to know and hear in a world of throwaway products.

I was a big fan of the previous Effigear, because the input and output were not concentric, which gave suspension designers some flexibility with pivot locations, notably higher main pivots for those square-on hits that mountain bikes are subjected to regularly.

So how much would be the price for this gearbox