Classified hub - Is this the new big thing?

[ghostinthemachine]

Sure cleans up the lines of any road bike. It's funny, people are selling their soul to run cables internally for aesthetic reasons and zero real performance gains, this actually does both.

Only does performance gains if you believe the efficiency claims

[ooo]

this type of hubs existed in QR version 3speed:
shimano if-c530 (rim brake only)
sram dual drive / dd pulse (mechanical / electronic)
sturmey archer cs-rf3 (disc brake)

thru axle is a good upgrade over qr

[OnTheRivet]

Sure cleans up the lines of any road bike. It's funny, people are selling their soul to run cables internally for aesthetic reasons and zero real performance gains, this actually does both.

Only does performance gains if you believe the efficiency claims

I was talking about the better aero with no front mech.

[tomato]

They're kind of vague about the weight (emphasis mine):

"In short we can state that the weight of the replaced components (front derailleur, small chainring, traditional hub, thru axle and cassette) is approximately the same as the weight of the components offered by Classified."

[DHG01]

It seems to be the case - but for the heaviesh DT 350.

[DHG01]

I like the idea and would be willing to try. The challenge I ssee is that the front derailleur isn't much of an issue and the wheelset options, my favorite component, are very much reduced.

[pmprego]

I like the idea and would be willing to try. The challenge I ssee is that the front derailleur isn't much of an issue and the wheelset options, my favorite component, are very much reduced.

And if you need or want to swap rear wheel you're basically screwed. Or you must have their system in all the wheels (waaaay to expensive)

[ooo]

this type of hubs existed in QR version 3speed:
shimano if-c530 (rim brake only)
sram dual drive / dd pulse (mechanical / electronic)
sturmey archer cs-rf3 (disc brake)

thru axle is a good upgrade over qr

After looking at pics of classified-cycling, I think it is not a good idea to use custom freehub body.
QR cassette-internal-gear-hubs (shimano nexave intego, sram dual drive) have standard freehub body with triple speed gears
12mm thru axle has larger diameter vs QR axle, but difference is not that big to make custom freehub body

[TheRich]

Sure cleans up the lines of any road bike. It's funny, people are selling their soul to run cables internally for aesthetic reasons and zero real performance gains, this actually does both.

The benefit of full length housings is less housing compression..but most importantly, it looks good.

[aeroisnteverything]

Re-upping this thread after a GCN video the other day on the details of this. Honestly surprised this is not getting more attention as to me this is much more excising than a 12-speed Shimano Dura Ace. Even assuming a slight weight penalty (say 100g over a light-weght normal hub set up, and this is in Gen 1 product, before future refinements!), removal of FD and associated drag reduction is well worth it in pure performance terms, and everyone that reviewed this says the shifting is ridiculously good.

I would jump on this in half a minute if they (1) had a UK distributor to do the installation and (2) if the wheel selection permitted a more aero option than their 50mm deep wheels. Ideally, I'd like an option to be able to just replace your existing rear hub and re-lace any wheel you want to the Classified one without paying for the whole new wheel.

The other slight concern of course is that a proper 1x ideally needs a clutch RD, and therefore a GRX rather than DA set up, but this is perhaps of secondary importance.

[TobinHatesYou]

Agreed. It's not a new concept, but it's refined enough for me to consider. The main issue is the friction losses in the low-gear. At their claimed 99% efficiency, that's 2.5W lost at 250W. Being able to stay in a 50t chainring vs a 34t chainring is the difference of about 1W at 250W. If we're more pessimistic and assume about 97% efficiency compared to a 2x setup, then that's 7.5W lost at 250W + 1W gained back from running a larger chainring. That's a lot to give up for someone trying to compete at any level.

[aeroisnteverything]

Agreed. It's not a new concept, but it's refined enough for me to consider. The main issue is the friction losses in the low-gear. At their claimed 99% efficiency, that's 2.5W lost at 250W. Being able to stay in a 50t chainring vs a 34t chainring is the difference of about 1W at 250W. If we're more pessimistic and assume about 97% efficiency compared to a 2x setup, then that's 7.5W lost at 250W + 1W gained back from running a larger chainring. That's a lot to give up for someone trying to compete at any level.

Someone should definitely test it, now that there are bikes out with this thing. If the 99%+ efficiency claim holds up, then I think Classified would potentially win out over traditional set up because shifting is much easier/faster than with the FD (actually it seems like it's easier and better than the RD), so you would use optimal chainline more. When you take aero gains into consideration, it's almost certainly better than the usual set up.

Let's also imagine a few more marginal refinements and gains over the next 5 years in efficiency, weight, etc., and I can see this becoming a "must-have" tech for all high end bike set ups.

[pmprego]

Agreed. It's not a new concept, but it's refined enough for me to consider. The main issue is the friction losses in the low-gear. At their claimed 99% efficiency, that's 2.5W lost at 250W. Being able to stay in a 50t chainring vs a 34t chainring is the difference of about 1W at 250W. If we're more pessimistic and assume about 97% efficiency compared to a 2x setup, then that's 7.5W lost at 250W + 1W gained back from running a larger chainring. That's a lot to give up for someone trying to compete at any level.

Someone should definitely test it, now that there are bikes out with this thing. If the 99%+ efficiency claim holds up, then I think Classified would potentially win out over traditional set up because shifting is much easier/faster than with the FD (actually it seems like it's easier and better than the RD), so you would use optimal chainline more. When you take aero gains into consideration, it's almost certainly better than the usual set up.

Let's also imagine a few more marginal refinements and gains over the next 5 years in efficiency, weight, etc., and I can see this becoming a "must-have" tech for all high end bike set ups.

This is really an interesting product to me. My only question is, as you said, using my own wheels. I'd like ot have the choice. don't know how can they solve it but it's really interesting.

[bobinski]

Wheel builders, especially the smaller suppliers like Hunt and Scribe, should be beating a path to their doors offering to make compatible rear wheels.

[synchronicity]

So the ratio between the gears is set at a fixed 0.686?
What if you want a bigger or smaller jump?