THE DRIVETRAIN DILEMMA Companies Committed to Making True Touring Bikes Operate in a Niche Largely Ignored by the Big Two Component Manufacturers by Dan D’Ambrosio
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THE DRIVETRAIN DILEMMA Companies committed to making true touring bikes operate in a niche largely ignored by the Big Two component manufacturers by Dan D’Ambrosio et’s say you’re the lead bike designer road bike components. future I think you will continue to see for Novara, the bike line offered That means Shimano’s long-cage wider gear ranges being added to our by REI for 32 years – every one of mountain bike derailers, with their road line up and more options for Di2,” them including a dedicated touring ability to handle the big cogs Co- said Shimano American Road Product bike — and you’ve just sat down at Motion wants to use to get at least a Manager Dave Lawrence. Lyour computer to start working on next 20-inch low gear on their touring bikes, Shimano is still making the 9-speed year’s specs. no longer work with Shimano’s road XT rear derailer, even though it quit You will soon be dealing with a bike shifters. making the rest of the group, because familiar frustration — finding the Stehley explained that Shimano there are still companies like Co- components you want for your new used to have a 1-to-1 actuation ratio Motion ordering a lot of them. Indeed touring bike, particularly where the with both types of components, road the 2015 Novara Radonee also uses an drivetrain and gearing are concerned. and mountain, meaning the shifters XT rear derailleur. “Over the years, it has been a bit of pulled the same amount of cable at the “For flat-handlebar-touring cyclists, struggle as the two major component derailer, making them compatible. No Shimano still offers triple chainring manufacturers for the North American more. configurations with wide-ratio cassettes market haven’t put an emphasis on “Now you can’t use a road shifter for incredible range. In Europe, for touring in their product development,” to shift a mountain bike rear derailer,” instance, most touring cyclists use said Greg Golding, lead bike designer Stehley said. “That went away when hardtail or rigid mountain bikes for for Novara. “I won’t name names, but they brought out the 10-speed touring. With that in mind, Shimano both start with an ‘s.’” mountain bike groups in 2010 and 2011. continues to support this segment,” Golding is talking, of course, about They have their reasons. The mountain Lawrence said. Shimano and SRAM, the two dominant bike cassette is shaped differently.” Novara’s Golding has found another component manufacturers. Neither has In Co-Motion’s world, touring way around Shimano’s incompatibility put an emphasis on touring because bikes — including all 10 of the Eugene, issues. The Shimano bar-con shifters the touring market is a niche of a niche, Oregon-based company’s models — Golding wants to use with the XT a concept very familiar to Adventure have drop handlebars. That means road rear derailer on the Randonee are Cycling members. shifters, and that means Stehley had to incompatible, but a small Taiwanese Ian Schmitt, a product manager at find a way around Shimano’s change of company has come up with a solution. Kona bikes, home of the Sutra touring heart. “A company by the name of bike, said it’s hard to make an argument “What we do on our touring bikes Microshift is making bar-con shifters to Shimano or SRAM for an expanded is use an older 9-speed mountain that are compatible with Shimano’s commitment to touring components bike rear derailer with 10-speed road rear mountain bike derailers,” Golding when those companies are looking at shifters,” Stehley said. “The older said. “It’s an interesting little company. the totality of the bike market. 9-speed rear cassette still has the older They found a niche where the big “Drivetrains for touring-specific pull ratio. As long as you’re pulling the players aren’t putting a lot of focus and bikes is an incredibly niche thing,” same amount of cable, it works great.” went after it. We’re using their product Schmitt said. “The market isn’t One option for drop-bar riders who for model year 2015 for a couple of requesting it in enough volume to want a low-geared Shimano drivetrain dedicated touring/adventure bikes.” legitimize drivetrain companies is to ditch the cables and a chunk of Golding said he met representatives listening to those consumers.” money from their wallets and use the from Microshift at a trade show about Zach Stehley, purchasing manager company’s Di2 electronic shifting 18 months ago and ordered some of for Co-Motion bicycles, says that not system to pair road shifters with an their shifters to put them through only have Shimano and SRAM paid XTR Di2 mountain bike drivetrain, rigorous testing before using them little attention to the touring market, which could include a triple crankset. on the Randonee and other Novara but Shimano has also made things “Today, we wish that we could make models. worse by doing away with cross- products for every category of rider, Touring bikes are important to REI, compatibility between its mountain and but unfortunately we can’t. In the Golding said, because they represent • cyclists’ travel guide 2015 a unique opportunity for the giant useless rings. The little one is on the would be an 11-38 rear cassette with a outdoor retailer. big side. The middle one is too small double crank in front sporting a 22, 24 “Touring is the one bicycling activity to be a good driving gear all the time. or 26-tooth small ring and a 40-tooth where we really are able to outfit our The big ring — honestly if you’re on big ring. customer from top to bottom,” he said. a tour with 40 pounds of gear, which “With that you start bleeding into “The bike, the clothing, the bag, the I think is a pretty good base line for the mountain bike side of things,” tent, the sleeping bags, and clothes. week-long trips, the 48-11 is a huge gear, Schmitt said. “It’s always about striking We’re the one-stop shop for touring.” completely useless.” a balance.” Schmitt is dumbfounded when he The 2015 Kona Sutra has a Shimano A six-pound maul sees so-called “touring” bikes offered drivetrain with a 28-36-48 triple Ian Schmitt of Kona has a pet peeve with a 50-tooth big ring in front, or crankset in front and an 11-32 9-speed where touring bike components are even a 52-tooth or 53-tooth ring. freewheel, using bar-con shifters. concerned: triple cranks. The default “It’s like the product manager doesn’t “Right now, from our perspective, setup for touring bikes, he said, is a 26- actually want to go touring,” Schmitt that’s the best spec for the drivetrain 36-48 triple crank paired with an 11-32, said. “It’s a longstanding frustration with while maintaining the price point we 11-34 or 12-36 cassette. None of those me, the lack of availability of gearing think is requested for the marketplace,” combinations work particularly well, in that we find to be functional. It doesn’t Schmitt said. his opinion. just extend to touring bikes, or just my The Sutra lists for $1,499. Schmitt “I feel the triple crank is pretty models. It’s an industry-wide problem.” says it does very well for Kona and is useless,” Schmitt said. “It has three Schmitt’s dream set-up for touring the most visited page on the company’s PINION: A gearbox transmission for your bike Christoph Lerman and Michael percent compared to Rohloff’s That puts the price of a Pinion — Pinion gearboxes will no Schmitz, co-CEOs of Pinion, met 525 percent. Suffice it to say the which officially has no retail price doubt make their way into as engineering trainees at the P1.18 offers a range of gears to since it is strictly an OEM product the American market as the Porsche research center in Weis- suit any touring rider and coupled — at nearly $2,200. German-engineered alternative sach, Germany. The two young with a Gates belt drive, offers The Pinion is not currently to the Rohloff hub, which has engineers found they were on a quiet, reliable, enclosed drive available in the U.S. Lerman virtually taken over on high-end the same page on many topics, train that requires only an annual said he has had many requests touring bikes like the Co-Motion. including bikes. Why, they won- oil change. from companies that want to “The Rohloff guys have done dered, is there a transmission in Last year, Pinion debuted start selling the a great job in the past years a car and in a motorcycle, but not three new gearboxes, a 12-speed gearbox and Pinion on a bike? set-up for touring and two is currently looking “In a bicycle, there is this 9-speed versions with different for a qualified crappy derailer with exposed gear ratios covering every kind of shifting components which can cycling from mountain bikes to easily be damaged and chain city bikes. These hand-assem- suck and all that stuff,” Lerman bled, precision-made said. “So our idea was to develop a gearbox which is in the middle of the bicycle near the gravity point and which combines the advantages of derailer and inter- gearboxes do not come nal-hub gears.” cheap, with the P1.18 adding By 2010, Lerman and Schmitz about $560 to the price of a were ready to present their first bike with a Rohloff hub, which prototype, an 18-speed gearbox, itself is an option that adds at the Eurobike tradeshow, about $1,600 to the price receiving, Lerman said, an “enor- of a traditionally geared mous response.” Co-Motion Americano.