No component on a mountain bike has changed as fundamentally over the last 15 years as the gears. First the number of sprockets on the cassette increased, then the number of chainrings on the cranks shrank. The 3x8 became 1x12. At the end of this evolutionary process, US shifting giant Sram declared the front derailleur on the crank dead. There are still current 2x drivetrains from Shimano, but most modern mountain bikes do without a mounting option for a front derailleur. Critics of this trend came mainly from Germany and ultimately had to bow to the market power of Shimano and Sram. Gear hubs such as the Rohloff derailleur, the Pinion gearsticks or smaller manufacturers such as Effigear or Kinderay tend to lead a niche existence on mountain bikes. However, this could change with the Classified gear system.
Classified gearstick with 24 gears and 530 % range
Now the previously unknown Belgian manufacturers Classified is a gear hub that combines the advantages of a double drivetrain with the design of a single drivetrain. For the time being, the Classified hub is only available exclusively on Ridley gravel bikes, but the company is already working on a 148 millimetre wide version with MTB gearing. The concept combines a conventional 1x11 or 1x12 derailleur with a gear hub with two gears. This results in 22 or gears and a maximum gear range of 530 per cent. The mechanism inside the hub changes from a 1:1 ratio to a 0.7:1 ratio following a shift command transmitted by radio. If the system is theoretically combined with a current MTB twelve-speed cassette, this results in a range of 730 per cent. The additional weight of the system is approximately 250 grams. A detailed Read the riding impression of the Classified hub on the Ridley Kanzo gravel bike from our colleagues at TOUR Magazine.
Soon an exciting shifting alternative for the MT?
During a brief practical test of the Classified drivetrain on a Ridley gravel bike, no significant frictional forces were felt. In addition, the gear change in the hub worked atypically even under full load. Our opinion on the potential for the future: The Classified gearbox is an exciting product with a lot of potential as soon as the gears are also available for mountain bikes. But the Belgian developers are already working on this, as they revealed to us.
