Volition

The rather oddly-named G-Boxx is an interesting improvement on standard bicycle drivechain technology. Your typical bike today comes equipped with a drivetrain that has both centre and rear gears and derailleurs, with a chain transmitting power from the front to the rear. This setup has a lot of problems, however. It is high-maintenance, very prone to damage and I personally find it a general pain in the ass.

The G-Boxx replaces the front and rear gears and derailleurs with a centre-mounted, sealed, internal, 14-speed gearbox. Power is transmitted to the rear via standard bike chain which runs inside the bike frame. The rear hub has a single fixed gear. This setup is far less prone to damage, doesn't require additional chain tensioners and guards for extreme use and sounds like it will require a lot less maintenance.

Apparently, this sort of thing has been tried before, but have never really caught on. However this seems to be an attempt at an open, international standard, so one manuacturer's G-Boxx parts should be compatible with another's. This may aid uptake among manufacturers. A few bikes being produced are using the tech, the Nicolai Nucleon TFR and the Evil 2013i. Note that both are soft-tail downhill bikes. I assume this is because the system is relatively heavy, up to 20kg for a complete bike. Weight isn't much of a factor for serious downhill bikes and given the G-Boxx is much more robust, it seems well suited for them.

Interesting to see if it catches on. Story via /.