OMG.

What he/she ^ said.

Looks very useful.

now thats very cool!
I would like something like that in 140/150mm guise, would be awesome!

Apparently its a prototype dh bike for the 2014 season. Hopefully it’ll trickle down to normal bikes one day…

I love the thought of a gearbox bike, have seen a few Nicolais with the pinion? gearbox and think they look really good
something like this, but maybe with the double chainwheel as above and gates drive to keep it quiet.

Apparently its a prototype dh bike for the 2014 season.

Oh dear. That’s doomed then!

DH is dead, apparently. At least according to Yeti….

When they do an “Enduro specific” version, then we’ll talk, OK?

😉

Problem with the Pinion ‘box is it doesn’t allow constant chain/belt length. (Gates say belts can’t be run through tensioners, although I’ve no idea why not as they are in industry)
The Effi ‘box has the output not inline with the BB, so there’s space for the main pivot there.

Pinion ‘box looks better in a way, but only applicable for a hardtail if using a belt.

that Ion is indeed awesome

would love to try that drivetrain out an Enduro™ bike , looks very neat and tidy

ok, just looked up the effigear box
Effigear
looks like a pretty nice piece of kit and well integrated.
Thought it was a new pinion from your pic as the integration seems to be very similar.
nice idea, hope that it make sit onto a shorter travel bike soon. weights look pretty competitive and the gear range is good as well.
will be interesting to see how they get on in the DH this year.

I’ve always said that the Effigear was my preferred option over the pinion & they are running belts through a tensioner on their in house bikes.

Comes with a trigger shifter and the whole lot costs about the same but weighs less than a Pinion.

I’ve also seen one built into a carbon 150mm prototype too but I cant access facebook at work to link to the pic.

2.64kg weight for the setup compared with 2.635 for a 2×10
(according to their website)

thats not bad

ir_bandito – did I show you my mate’s home-made CF bike with effigear? I saw it and thought it would tickle your fancy 🙂 only chain-drive though!

ooh, no Jon. You’ve got my interest there…

Me too, I’d really like to see that & hear some real life reviews that aren’t in French

Mmm… purple.

Would definitely be interested in seeing some pics of a homemade CF Effigear bike.

Whilst hunting around for more Effigear info found this little number which looks rather tidy from Cavalerie bikes, on their facebook page.
Cavaleire Facebook

Although sadly no information on their homepage, but does look rather (Enduro TM) nice.
bizarrely no dropper post tho?
Homepage

That looks lovely!

Pretty sure Nicolai ran that at WCs last year too. It’s a thing of beauty no doubt.

There is good info about the Nicolai prototype in the 2014 Nicolai catalogue jazz mag.

really want these gearbox bikes to work, but didnt the concept get generally dissmissed due to internal drag?

Nicolai has tried every gearbox out there in a frame and hasn’t settled on any ,charming the oil from a snake springs to mind

Cavalerie are Effigear’s in house brand

internal drag, less efficient etc, no one cares, this is an option, it is not enforced

While I like that they regularly bring out something ‘new’, does anyone else think that Nicolai just look like a sucessfull version of every other 90’s german bike brand? Straight round tubes, lot’s of gusseting, CNC’d linkages and chunky welds. None of it’s looked very ‘new’ for the last 10+ years!

Nicolai has tried every gearbox out there in a frame and hasn’t settled on any

There have only been 3 or 4.
That’s not many iterations for the perfect box to evolve. at least they’re willing to keep trying, and people are willing to keep developing.

Doom-mongers and naysayers.
Marmite anyone?

I think there is a lot to say for keeping the same design style year after year, developed brand styling if you will.
At least you know when you drop £2k on a frame they are not going to completely redesign it, move all the linkages, change the shape of the tubes and shock placement etc the following year, saying that their new frame is so much better than the old one.
Gives buyers a sense of security in their purchase knowing it’s not going to be obsolete next year.

re gearboxes: Nicolai used to produce their own then more & more people have come along with better designs. If they’d have stuck with the gboxx then people would be complaining that they were using outdated technology

Re frames: the whole of the mountainbike world seems obsessed that everything is going to run out or be unobtainable 6 months after its released. Its not, get over it.