A year ago, the brand new bicycle gearbox from the automotive city of Stuttgart made its debut in the first test bikes in TREKKINGBIKE 4/2012. The fact that the two developers of the 18-speed bottom bracket gearbox met and got to know each other as working students at the sports car manufacturer Porsche in 2006 can be seen as a good omen. Today, as founders of their own Pinion GmbH, they manage the production of the encapsulated spur gearbox with a good 15 employees. Running in an oil bath, with a total of 18 gears in regular steps of 11.5 per cent, it achieves a total gear ratio of 636 per cent - more than any other standard bicycle drive. In addition, the Pinion P1.18 brings the mass of the entire drive components to an ideal point: as low as possible, centred and central on the bottom bracket of the single-track bicycle. This creates improved riding dynamics and opens up unprecedented possibilities for bike designers in terms of chassis optimisation.
The Pinion gearbox is a pure OEM component that is sold exclusively to bicycle manufacturers. They have to develop a suitable frame to accommodate the drive. Retrofitting is not possible. Nevertheless, many manufacturers have happily taken up the offer: Because Pinion is fuelling the market. The compact gearbox is in the process of creating a new premium class of bicycles that is significantly higher in terms of price and equipment than the previous top Rohloff bike groupset. As a modern manufacturer, you naturally want to be there when the spirit of progress once again blows through the bicycle industry with an important innovation.
"The Tanami Explore with Pinion gears was my companion on an 11-day tour through Sicily. Over a good 600 kilometres, we tackled the steepest climbs on sometimes very rough paths as well as kilometres of descents on the best asphalt. The gears were fun to ride from the very first second and always offered the perfect gear ratio. The cranks turn as light as a feather and you don't have the slightest feeling of wasting power anywhere. I only had to use a little sensitivity when changing from 13th to 12th gear under load. I'm thrilled all round." TREKKINGBIKE editor-in-chief Tom Bierl
The full-length article from issue 5/2013 is available as a free PDF download.
