Pinion Gearbox Thoughts & Opinions

so this is opinion gearbox and I thought I would share with you my thoughts and opinions I wanted to do a video specifically on the pinion gear box it was on a demo bike zero to Tony part I did not want to do a review on zerode and obsess about the gear box the whole time so I thought it would get the gear box out of the way so I can do a review on the zero just on the bike and how it performs not necessarily all in the gear box so what is it on the gear box is a new bicycle drivetrain technology that originated from motorsport yes it's another way to shift through years but it's how the bike operates as a whole that makes this bike revolutionary and this kind of system revolutionary so how does it work from the exterior it may look like a single-speed because it only uses one drive ring and one cog but the real magic happens inside the gearbox itself the internal transmission is made up of twelve gears in a sealed housing that is centrally located around the bottom bracket the transmission is very similar to that of an automobile or motorcycle transmission it consists of an input shaft sub transition planetary gears and an output shaft giving off an impressive six hundred percent range so now you know how the system works I'd like to share with you some pros and cons of the system because nothing is perfect so the real benefit you get from the system using a gearbox is a significant improvement in suspension performance because of all the unfriendly having no cassette no derailleur you have a lot less weight so the benefit of having less armstrong weight is when you hit that bump there's less weight to move out of the way for every single bump you hit so your suspension can be a lot more active it was actually crazy the first time I rode the system I went down a hill and walking Miller Park and I honestly felt like I couldn't feel anything like I had no contact with the ground the suspension was so good I was getting the zero feedback from the bike so I couldn't really control the bike properly because I really could not feel anything so it was one of those things if you get used to but I was just so surprised how good the suspension actually works with just a little bit of less we also it is a super-wide hearing so that's six hundred percent and they even make it 18 feet gearbox to think has even like eight hundred seven percent but basically a super wide range six hundred percent is gnarly so SRAM Eagle is like five hundred percent and that's kind of how much a double like to buy ten used to have in the past so you get a range that's almost so large that you don't need the easiest gear and you don't even need the hardest gear it's just that big of a range so basically you have a gear for whatever you'll get yourself into also the weight is really centralized so actually you wouldn't really believe this but when you jump the nose of them pitched forward and the nose isn't pitched back it actually jumps really predictably and then it just feels really stable down the trail like it almost feels like your reach is longer than it really is you get the same kind of stability feeling out of that say like my Firebird has a 20 mil longer reach than the zero die Road but I kind of got the same feeling of stability from both bikes because the weight was so low and centralized it kind of gave me that extra stability another advantage is a stronger rear wheel because of the spoke bracing angles if you're only running one cog on the rear of the bike you can actually run equal spoke bracing angles on the rear so you get a stiffer wheel and stronger and you don't even need boots you don't need one forty eight you can just run a wheel with one forty two and that can be narrower so you're less likely to hit on rocks and stuff when you go through tight pinches that being said it's also more crash resistant because you don't have that derailleur hanging off the edge of your bike to get caught up on things and why all of you would really like this bike is because there's absolutely no maintenance I guess not absolutely but every two to three years you have to change the oil on the system basically the pinion system is guaranteed for the life of your bicycle so that's going to be like six seven years you're not going to have any problems with wearing out replacing parts you'll be good for six or seven years with like two oil changes also without low maintenance that chains the last seasons so you can probably get like one two years out of the chain so basically when you want to do that or change you want the chain because the chain has no shifting along the back along a cassette you're not wearing out any bushings and the chain really doesn't stretch that badly and also one of the main points opinion likes to say is you can ship without pedaling and it's instantaneous so with that grip shifter you can be coasting down the hill and shift from your easiest gear all the way to your heart is geared seamlessly and the next time you get on your pedals you'll be in that hard gear it doesn't take any shifting load to kind of reset it into a different gear and also it's instantaneous so the second you touch it it's in that gear so you I don't know it's instead of shifting and then going down the trail throwing like a pedal stroke to shift the gear it's there right when you need it so the pinning gear box allows you to build an optimized chain line so you can put your suspension pivot right at the top of your chain ring so basically you have no influence from your chain on the suspension that's also why the suspension feels so supple you're not combating the forces of the chain every time I bump it the rear axle and because the chain line is optimized it tilt uphill really well with almost no Bob so that was a lot of pros but it can't be without the con as well so unfortunately it does have a weight penalty so you're looking at about 800 grams over a typical derailleur system like X x1 or so so that's almost 2 pounds that's a considerable amount of weight but you got to understand where the weight is you took it off the rear axle and you put it essentially in the bike and you are getting that stability because of that weight also you can't really shift under power so when you're mashing Valley yeah you can't really get a gear out which became a problem when I was racing I raced a California enduro series game on my route and unfortunately when I was pedaling really hard and needed that extra gear I had to let up to shift so that's kind of annoying in a race situation but if you're just riding I honestly never noticed it once also a problem I had was drag and not drag two skeezy pedaling not drag that you would normally notice on a standard ride but if you're putting the power down if you're printing you definitely feel like the drag exponentially grows the more power you put out so maybe your standard drag would be about two percent if you're just cruising down the road so you barely even feel it especially because the chain line is so straight it's probably identical to a standard transmission but when you start actually cranking out the pedals you can feel like a considerable amount of drag not enough where it's ridiculous but it's something that I feel like could be improved in the future also comes with a grip shifter yes you can look at the grip shifter and be like yeah it's on a target bike it actually worked really well but my only issue was in racing I had to move my hand over to the side to shift a little bit which is a very awkward motion to do I'm sure you could get used to it but I don't think that's the most efficient way to do it so I really don't prefer the grip shifter but unfortunately that's the only way you can do it right now because the grip shifter actually has no indexing in it the indexing is in the system itself in the other gearbox so you need a shifter that you can push pull a cable and twist it another con I felt was there was pretty low engagement on the bottom bracket itself so the bottom bracket as well as the rear hub have a ratchet system so the rear was 120 point engagement in the front had to be like 10 point it was very excessive and I could I couldn't feel it on the trail to be honest but when you're doing like those parking lot tricks and having fun and so you definitely feel it and it makes like wheelies and chopping stuff a little bit harder and like ratcheting over logs the last con I dealt was that uh there are 12 gears and you do have a 600% range so you have to have a little bit more spacing between the gears to get that range so it actually is 17.7% spacing which is quite a bit more than tram or Shimano and that's another thing I really never felt until I was racing and I was climbing up this hill mid race run on an enduro race I found out I was in between gears so shifting between the gears I was having to let up between the gears so I lost like five seconds on that hill just trying to find the right gear letting up getting into a different gear it's definitely something you could prevent by anticipating the hill and maybe going a little harder before the hill so you can carry a little more speed so it's definitely just takes getting used to the drivetrain but I feel like they could have had less excessive spacing but the real question is do I see this as the future of mountain biking so I have to say yes I feel like the shifting we have on today's bikes is actually kind of ancient technology it's been 100 200 years since we've changed it up obviously it's a improved from then but it's still the same basic need I feel like now when I ride my pivot Firebird was like a Shimano drivetrain so every time I shift I feel like the change is going to snap right there actually a scary feeling to shift now it does not feel very good and I definitely think this gearbox technology is the future of mountain biking but it does need a few improvements to surpass the standard drivetrain so in my opinion I don't know why they don't have a history of hub if you think about it you don't need that secondary rationing system if you already have it around the bottom bracket shell so there should definitely be a fixture hub and that would also help with weight savings imagine a hollow hub instead of a hub with all this system inside of it and then if you have that zero engagement rear hub because it's fixed you would definitely want a little more engagement up at the crank side so if they had like an onyx style clutch system for instant engagement on the ratcheting system on the crank set I think that would be a huge improvement so that brings back like the rationing over logs and instant engagement is a good thing also to get rid of the grip shift if they want di 2 or e tab style like electronic shifting that would actually give you the ability to shift under power the only reason this system can't shift under power is because you can't pull the grip shift your hard enough so if you think about a motorcycle transition you can actually shift without the clutch yes it's harsh on the drivetrain but you can actually shift just by banging through the gears because you have enough leverage so if there's an electronic system that will fix the shifting of the power and then that would make it perfect for a racing application another thing they can do is lighten the crank arms or just make the system lighter in general two pounds is quite a considerable amount of weight I know they put the weight in it but I do think they could get lighter if there's any way to reduce drag that would always be a benefit so those are the pros cons what I think about the future of the product but you really have to get on one the suspension performance is second to none I've never felt a bike that's so stable and so active on the ground it really sticks to the trail and I really do think it's the future of mountain biking so hopefully in the next five to ten years we'll see it on every major mountain biking brand and everyone's life will be easier with less maintenance so I hope you thought this video was interesting in comment below if you have any thoughts you'd like to share on this product I think the gearbox is really interesting and there's definitely going to be some naysayers but I just want to hear what you guys have to think that being said I'm sure you'll have a great time riding your standard bike as it is and I hope to see you guys out on the trails Cheers [Music] you

Channel: Alex Chamberlin

Views: 279,144

Rating: 4.8394518 out of 5

Keywords: pinion, gearbox, alex chamberlin, zerode, taniwha, bkxc

Id: -eIuDiNczwo

Length: 12min 3sec (723 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/tuctrohs]

"This system" is the Pinion brand planetary geared bottom bracket with 600% range. This is a review of that system for mtb riding.

[u/Glutenfreeyourmind]

Oddly enough using gears inside the bottom bracket to change the speed of a bicycle is older than the derailleur. Dana sold one in the 70's that was a 3 speed and retrofit into the bottom bracket of a standard frame. Bicycle technology is cyclical.

[u/willvotetrumpagain]

Terrible title, but good video.

[u/Hinloopen]

I’ve tried it out. Works fine. Kinda feels like city bike hub gears as we tend to have in NL. It’s fun to shift through them when accelerating, feels like you’re on a motorbike then.