Last year, Chosen showed us their amazing frictionless hubs that spun freely in both directions…until pedaling forces were applied, at which point they snapped into gear immediately to propel you forward.
This year, the fanciful feats of engineering were external, the most interesting being a complete 12-speed upgrade kit that includes shifters, wide range cassette and rear hub. Or a new freehub design, anyway. The cassette is only slightly wider than a standard 11-speed one, so the flanges on the rear hub are inset about 1.5 to 2mm from a normal one (something easily accommodated for if used on a Boost hub). The reason for a special freehub body? Because it drops all the way down to a 9-tooth cog…
The cassette uses a mixed of machined one-piece clusters and traditional pinned cogs.
This one was a 9-40, which would provide a range of about 444%, which is a hair more than what you’d get by putting OneUp’s 44t X-Cog on an XX1 cassette.
It’s designed to work with SRAM’s XX1 (or other 1×11) rear derailleur.
To make it work, they created their own 12-speed shifters…
…and rear hub. Held side by side with a standard 11-speed hub, the spoke flanges on this one were about 1.5mm closer together. That’s step one in making the cassette fit. Step two was the freehub body, which resembles an XD Driver body, but with a wider slotted section to support the different carriers used on the cassette. The smaller diameter threaded section allows the tiny 9-tooth cog on the end.
For road, they’re working on carbon shells for their standard and straight pull designs.
Both the hubs and 12-speed parts were too new (read: still in development) to have claimed weights or prices.
Both versions use alloy sections inside the carbon to actually hold the spokes.
