It was Greg Minnaar's legendary Honda downhill bike that inspired Guy Cavalerie to build his own Effigear transmission for mountain bikes. In 2003, the wiry Frenchman drew the first sketches for a revolutionary gearbox during a sleepless night and applied for the first patents in the same year. The development to market maturity took over ten years, but the result is impressive. The Effigear gearbox is not only lightweight, but is also the only gearbox known to us that can shift into heavier gears under full load. With Pinion gearboxes, for example, you have to take a lot of pressure off the crank to be able to shift gears.
During a short test ride at the Ziener BIKE Festival in Willingen, the gearbox was convincing. The Effigear gearbox also requires you to take pressure off the pedal to change to easier gears, but you can pre-select the right gear under load. The gearbox has new gears and a range of 440 per cent. Shifting is done with a conventional Sram gear lever, either as a trigger or twist shifter. Coulangi Benoti came ninth at the Downhill World Cup in Lourdes - on a bike with an Effigear gearbox.
Effigear gearbox currently only on Cavalerie bikes
If you want to enjoy the new gearbox, you currently have to buy a bike from Cavalerie. Nicolai launched a small series of downhill bikes in 2013, but quickly discontinued production. Since then, Guy Cavalerie has been offering his own enduro MTB, a freerider and a downhill bike. The design of the frames produced in France is functional. On the Cavalerie website equipment and colour can be individually configured. We are looking forward to a first detailed test.
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