Bottom Bracket Gears?

[mercalia]

While at the ALveston YHA ( Stratford-upon-avon ) met a guy riding a Thorn Raven with Rohloff gears who had travelled quite extensively on it. Any way he claimed he had met a guy in Germany who had a bike with the gears built into the bottom bracket. Any one know anything about this? He said it was quite a recent thing, in the last 5 years. was a commercial items not some special

[malcolmlauder]

Sounds complicated!

[thirdcrank]

Schlumpf Mountain Drive

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/schlumpf.html

[rualexander]

Pinion gearbox probably.
https://pinion.eu/en/

[NUKe]

http://shop.flevobike.nl/en/flevobike-greenmachine.html
This is not quite what you mean but it use a rolhof as gearbox in the centre of the bike, rather than in the wheel,

[Elizabethsdad]

Schlumpf drives have been around for a lot longer than five years. The Pinion box is more recent. I am waiting on delivery of an Efneo three speed unit which I got on pre-order as part of a crowd funding campaign.

[[XAP]Bob]

There are a few sets of gears that could be described as bottom bracket - but I suspect they mean the pinion as mentioned above. The Schlumpf and relations are more crank than BB...

Reminds me, must have another go at getting the RH crank off my Schlumpf this evening - having removed the preload from the bearings it's much happier now...

[ChrisF]

.....he claimed he had met a guy in Germany who had a bike with the gears built into the bottom bracket. Any one know anything about this?

Three weeks ago I travelled to a town south of Munich and collected my new touring bike with Pinion gears and Gates belt drive. It's Pinion C12 with a 600% range, so wider range than a Rohloff. I toured for ten days, about 1000 km, and then flew home with it.
Very pleased with it so far; if anyone's got any questions I'd be happy to help. I'm also interested in setting up (or belonging to?) a UK Pinion 'users group' if possible, so we can exchange advice etc. I only know of one other Pinion user in the UK, but I did see several in Germany and Austria over those 10 days.

[Mick F]

600% eh?
Is that all?

Try my Moulton TSR90 with 740%.
16" to 134"

[Elizabethsdad]

Just fitted an Efneo GTRO 3sp crank gear box to my Bafiets long john in order to extend the range of the Nuvinci N360 hub gear. It was running a 38t chain ring the GTRO gives it the equivalent of 28-40-50t - I don't have any gear inches worked out for that but lowest gear is hardly quicker than walking pace, and top gear is still usable on the flat but possibly not with a load. Previously I was spinning out quite quickly on even a gentle decent. Might replace the rear sprocket - I think it is a 21 0r 22t I have an 18t around that I can put in it's place. Happy with it so far.

[elduderino]

Hi ChrisF

if anyone's got any questions I'd be happy to help. I'm also interested in setting up (or belonging to?) a UK Pinion 'users group' if possible, so we can exchange advice etc.

You know another Pinion user now. I took delivery of mine a week ago.

http://www.kalkhoff-bikes.com/en/bikes/2017/bike/trekking/endeavour-p18.html

I would imagine you have The Pinion C1.12 gear box, which is a lot lighter than the P18.

Love the bike. It will mainly be used for cycle rides in the Peak district, & west coast Scottish highlands.
Like you, i could do with sharing/receiving info with other users.

I got a lot of info here

https://www.bicycle-junkies.com/review-pinion-p1-18-gearbox-with-gates-cdx-belt/

& here

http://www.cyclingabout.com/new-pinion-gearbox-for-2017-the-lightweight-pinion-c-line/

Do you know of any German Pinion forums that are English language friendly?
Most of the info i have got so far has been through the tech support at Pinion, & Gates, which can take ages due to the response time.
You say you did about a 1000 Km, have you noticed any wear on the belt yet?

Cheers

[mercalia]

wow 1800 euro for just the drive thats a lot of money: why did you get that rather than a Rohlof?

[ChrisF]

You know another Pinion user now. I took delivery of mine a week ago.
I would imagine you have The Pinion C1.12 gear box, which is a lot lighter than the P18.
Love the bike. It will mainly be used for cycle rides in the Peak district, & west coast Scottish highlands.
Like you, i could do with sharing/receiving info with other users.

Yes, mine's a C12. I originally planned for a P18 but decided it wasn't worth the extra weight & cost. Glad you like yours! Mine is from Maxx http://www.maxx.de/en/bikes/trekking28/bikes.php?name=CROSSMAXX_28_PINION&id=144

Do you know of any German Pinion forums that are English language friendly?
Most of the info i have got so far has been through the tech support at Pinion, & Gates, which can take ages due to the response time.
You say you did about a 1000 Km, have you noticed any wear on the belt yet?

I don't know of any forums but I'll ask Pinion, I'm in correspondence with them. As for the belt, I haven't noticed any wear and hope not to for at least 10,000 km! I used their app to measure the tension; it was a bit high (70Hz) on the first day but is now around 60Hz so has slackened a little.

I'll be using mine only for touring (i.e. laden with panniers), it handles much better than my other bike(s) under load. Most of my tours are in Europe rather than the UK.

[ChrisF]

wow 1800 euro for just the drive thats a lot of money: why did you get that rather than a Rohlof?

For the complete bike it wasn't much more than a comparable Rohloff machine. It also has a wider range, and the Rohloff couldn't give me both the high & low gears I wanted. As mentioned above, originally I planned for the P18 which is 630% think, so even greater range, but it costs more and weighs more.
Apart from that I think the Rohloff arrangements of gear-changing mechanism just looks messy!

[BarryP]

Did anyone set up a forum for Pinion users ? I've just taken delivery of a Gilbertson Inferno 29er MTB with a C12 gearbox and Gates belt drive. Initial impression is that these are a game changer in the same way that 29er, tubeless tyres and disc brakes have been. Shifting is very smooth, especially when accelerating, coming down the gears as you climb requires a bit more timing to get the shift as your pedal goes through the top of the stroke so there isn't as much load on the gearbox. What was especially enjoyable was cleaning the bike afterwards, quick blast with the hosepipe and done !