Last year’s premium mechanical mountain bike drivetrain was just a warmup to TRP’s big drivetrain ambitions, and now, along with Classified, they’re unveiling two wireless, electronic-shifting wide-range 1x groups for both road and gravel bikes!
Called Vistar // Powershift, the group pairs a wireles derailleur and 12-speed cassette with Classified’s two-speed internally geared hubs, they achieve a wider range of unique gears – up to 530% range with an 11-40 cassette.
That’s massive range. For perspective, Shimano’s 10-51 mountain bike cassettes have 510% range. SRAM’s 10-52 Eagle cassette has 520% range. And now you can get 530% on your gravel bike with a 10-40 cassette and simple 1x chainring. That’s really cool, but it’s the execution that makes this really something special…
Manual shifting, automatic gear selection
With just 12 cogs, Classified says you’re getting the equivalent of 15 or 16 unique gears, depending on which cassette you choose. They haven’t unveiled all of the options yet (stay tuned, they’re launching this at Eurobike and we’ll update this post with more tech details soon), but there should be gearing options that prioritize cadence and gear steps for roadies, or more range for gravel cyclists.
Because it’s all electric, and it’s all part of the same system now (as opposed to pairing a Classified hub with 3rd party derailleurs & shifters), everything can work together harmoniously, and they call this symphony of shifting QuantumShift.
With QuantumShift turned on, you can simply shift up or down and it will automatically shift the derailleur or the hub (or both) to give you the smallest gear step possible in either direction. This effectively gives you 15 to 16 individual gears.
Turn it off and you can shift through the cassette and hub manually, giving you 24 gears just like a normal 2×12 drivetrain, albeit with some duplication of gear ratios.
Eliminating the downsides
With Classified’s 2x hubs, which are widely considered a gamechanger (try one if you can), the downsides have been that you need to add a third shifter pod to your handlebar, and you need to use their proprietary modified cassettes on an otherwise SRAM, Shimano, or Campagnolo group.
Now, they have a complete system that takes advantage of TRP’s existing HyWire-style electronic shifters and proven hydraulic braking, same as what’s used with Pinion’s electronic shifting gearbox system. This gives you a familiar set of controls, with shifter paddles in all the usual places.
It also gives you the aerodynamic advantages of a 1x chainring, and lets you quickly change chainring size based on course conditions. Chainline can be better, and you can use a more efficient larger chainring up front since the hub’s easier gear acts like a small chainring.
Two cranksets are offered – the Classified aero chainset with solid chainring, or the Vistar crankset with lighter direct-mount chainrings.
You’ll still need to use their wheels, or have their hub built with your favorite rims and spokes. There are a lot of brands on board offering Classified-compatible wheelsets, though, and I imagine options will continue to expand with this announcement.
