We’ve seen close to complete items from Box Components for some time now, but never so close to completion as we did in Taipei. Box’s Toby Henderson said since he started developing the drivetrain, the new clutch systems and upping the volume to 11 (speeds) by the big 2 has made it brutal trying to keep up to stay relevant.
Check out what looks to be close to production drivetrain and brakes, plus a whole bunch of pretty finalized looking items like cassettes, cranks, chainrings, and carbon wheels!
I was pretty anxious to see Box at the show, not to mention have another chat with Box President and former BMX celeb Toby Henderson, (I’ve followed him on the BMX circuit since I was 9, and when I was sure that Hutch was King). We’ve seen a lot of Box prototypes including the 11 speed pieces at last year’s Taipei show, and things now look to be quite polished up and… working! Having made some tweaks to the clutch, the $125 11-speed Box-One rear derailleur works with any brand’s wide-range cassette up to 42t and weighs in at 265g.
The shifter is a “push/push” design where you push forward like on any other shifter to climb up the cassette, and using the same lever, pushing it inward, (with thumb cradled between the two paddles), to shift it back down. This was something that seemed like it would be easy to get used to within a few minutes. The 125g 11-speed PushPush Shifter is also both SRAM & Shimano compatible and will go for just $50. Toby said they’re shooting for early June to have some working pieces out in the wild, so we’re looking forward to that!
They also had their brakes on display, which looked to be in good working and finished order, (being star-struck must have made me forget to take pics of these), and the feel seemed to be on par while just sitting there. Using a 4-piston caliper with 14mm & 17mm vented pistons in each, the brakes use mineral oil and easy to find SRAM compatible pads. There are both reach and pad-contact adjustments right at your fingertips, letting you dial everything in where you want it. The 285g brakeset, (lever, hose & caliper), will run $150/wheel, and we’re hoping to see these late summer.
Also getting close to finished is the wide-range 11-42t cassette we got a sneak peek of a couple of years ago.
New to the show were their Box crankset. Boasting a 30mm spindle, the hollow forged cranks will be available with a dual ring or a SRAM direct mount interface and will come in 170, 172.5, and 175 lengths.
They also had their narrow wide rings on hand. The 7075-T6 aluminum rings will be available in even sizes ranging from a threaded 30t up to a 38t, and will retail for $64.
Also new are the 27.5 inch tubeless-ready Box One Carbon wheels and new Boost hubs. Though part of the design, they looked good and stood out as they didn’t blend in with other carbon rims on the market.
The carbon wheels are built to be light but sturdy, so they reinforced the spoke holes rather than the entire center section to have the best of both worlds. The rims have a 26mm inner width and the complete wheelset will weigh in around 1648g.
The Box One wheels are built around their Boost Hubs and will be offered in both 110/142 & 110/148 varieties for $1,400/set.
