The End For The Front Derailleur? | GCN Tech Show 334

Will you be ditching your front derailleur? 👀

so they brought back the good old 3-speed hub...nice. Next year: aero coaster brake

Just because the pro peloton has adopted a new technology does not mean the death of the previous tech. Look at previous examples - carbon frames, disc brakes, electronic gears, integrated cockpits - there’s still a thriving market for metal frames, rim brakes, mechanical gears and separate bars and stems for those enthusiasts who cannot afford the price tag of these new technologies.

Guess which is more efficent, : the 15 dollars front derailleur the 1000 dollars hub ?

It was used to facilitate the use 66T chainrings which lowers chain tension and improves drive train efficiency, first and foremost. Not so much aero, and theres a large weight penalty. Ineos did the calc to figure out for the flat section the gain in chain efficiency was worth the small deficit on the climb. For the 66T ring there is no small chainring option.

Yes! Got my bike in the bike vault after 3 attempts and it’s super nice! 😊

I’ll always have a front derailleur. It’s simple, works well, and gives me the ratios I need and want.

Another super expensive stuff no one really needs. Okay the pros may need this but we just want to have fun. Front derailleurs are just absolutely fine, just as mechanical shifting or rim breaks are. Edit: I just realized this is basically a fancy and advanced hub gear like my 1970s opafiets has...

That’s the beauty of 2x - you can always find and shift to the right gear without the compromise of big jumps between gears. This bike has also been my road bike in Barcelona for several months and I wouldn’t change it for that either

Have a triple on my race bike and love it for racing hilly courses, 1x is cool though, but a bit limiting especially if you like to toggle between high and low cadences

Last weekend I upgraded my Peugeot UO8 touring bike to a Stronglight triple crankset. Now it is 3x7 with the original Simplex downtube shifters. Super fun to ride and very reliable. Front derailleurs are great.

I have yet to see any independent data on the % efficiency of the Classified system. I have yet to see any real disadvantage in a properly adjusted FD

Great news…another proprietary part…will match the proprietary stem, post & bars…(in the bin with the polyurethane composite Far East rebranded frameset) when the new ‘black’ arrives…

I'm still a 3x guy, so my front derailleur is not going anywhere but over the big, middle, and tiny rings. 3x9 mechanical for my dream build, Ollie and Joachim, and you can stop that mess about front derailleur killers. 😀

I’ve been riding mtb with a single chain ring for years. And you know what, it sucks . It was easier to trail ride with a triple chain ring. With 12 X 1 it feels like I’m always under geared or over geared. Maybe triples were slightly heavier. But you didn’t have a dinner plate for a cassette.

Them new Pirelli tyres £85 😮 that's wild

Hate that all new mtbs are 1x12 and no even can fit an front derailleur. It's such a pain when u have a small uphill in the downhill and u have to shift through 8-9 gears. Just dropping the front one gear and one push to go 3 rear gears up was so much faster. Now i stallout every time ... hate it.

Greetings from my 2008 hybrid bike with a SRAM DualDrive II hub (3 internal gears) and an 1-by 8 speeds derailleur (575% ratio when using 11-34 cassette)

I'm a bit of a techno-geek and an avid cyclist so when I first learned of the Classified Hub, I was interested in the technology. I was lucky enough to do a test ride at a local bike shop and I was delighted with the experience! I was in the process of doing a custom build on a new bike so the time was right to adopt the Hub. I purchased the Hub without rims for ~$1,000 and had it laced into Zipp 353s. The frame is a Wilier Filante SLR which was fitted with a Shimano Ultegra groupset minus the front derailleur. I have a 52t 1x chainring in the front and I did install a K-Edge chain keeper to eliminate the possibility for chain drops - I've had none. My left DI2 shifter is wired into the Classified transmitter mounted in the left handlebar end (Classified provided the instructions on how to do this) and the right DI2 shifter controls my Shimano rear derailleur. I'm very happy with what I've put together, but it's certainly not for everyone. I worked with a local bike shop that specializes in custom builds and there were some bumps along the way, but we got through them.

A drop from 99.8 to 99.2% efficiency drop could be in the range of 2 watts or more? If the hub's aerodynamic gain is one watt, that 0.6% gain is not minimal if that lower gear is used much at all. So, the hub only provides a net gain in situations, like many timetrials, where the lower gear is a rarely used, but a significant advantage for the amount it is used.