>>1444206It’s very reliable and most of all, efficient, something that’s been holding back transmission hubs since they’ve existed. In fact, the latest shimano patent shows their new “transmission” being basically 2 equal cassettes (and 2 freehubs) and a simplified derailleur enclosed in an oil-filled box, giving you the forward-or-backwards-or-coasting shifting advantages (not instantaneous, but who really needs to shift while completely stopped), shifting under load advantages, no freehub kickback advantages, and low maintenance advantages of transmission systems without the terrible drag of them. They’ll still be heavy, but it’s a BB-mounted transmission so it’s low, sprung weight which isn’t that bad, and the drag is way more important than the weight.
Ive owned a hammerschmidt transmission crank, and I’ve tried a nicolai pinion gearbox bike, and the one thing that instantly stuck out to me was the massive drag in the multiplied gears, a complete dealbreaker. And there’s always those pictures of pinion boxes exploding in races but we all know those are rare cases
