Avinox Reveals its Motor Gearbox

[atopman]

It is ultimately still a concept, and whilst I believe it will get to production and be picked up by brands, that’s still 2028 onwards so still a couple of years at least to enjoy whatever it is people have purchased.

Early adopters always suffer though, it’s why I always wait for v2 or v3 of something, learnt that lesson decades ago.

For some, buying and owning the latest greatest thing to get the dopamine hit is the hobby, which is fair enough if pockets are matching.

Most will want it here and now then wonder why it has teething problems but that's the chance you take having the very newest thing out and has not really been tested in the real world as you say.

 

[Flog]

Well done DJI for this innovation: 2 years after their first motor.
Shimano, Bosch, Sram deserve the consequences of their lack of innovation over the last 10+ years.

Going to be so awesome to pedal out of the corner and be in the right "ratio" with no chain skipping.

Perhaps they just nicked it off Pinion.....?

 

[nickf]

I'm less enthusiastic about these gearbox bikes than most of you.

The idea is great, but it's far from new. Honda built a downhill bike with a gearbox more than 20 years ago, and it was revolutionary. They even had to hide the bikes in the pits, and to this day the Honda RN01 remains a masterpiece of engineering.

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Yes it was clever, but wasn't it just a derailleur in a box above the chainset? Not exactly new technology.

 

[DylanJM]

Yes it was clever, but wasn't it just a derailleur in a box above the chainset? Not exactly new technology.

It was, makes no sense to compare it to what Gobao/Avninox showed yesterday.

 

[Str1fe]

Yes it was clever, but wasn't it just a derailleur in a box above the chainset? Not exactly new technology.

It was, makes no sense to compare it to what Gobao/Avninox showed yesterday.

My analogy was more about the concept of an evolutionary step for mountain bike drivetrains than about the specific technology itself.

We still lack a lot of information about the Avinox system: real-world testing, pricing, weight, long-term reliability, and so on.

That said, if a gearbox system eventually proves to be a relevant and competitive solution, I'm definitely in!

 

[DylanJM]

I'm surprised at the people commenting who think this thing is going to arrive to the market assume sort of unrefined gen 1 product that won't work well. Avinox did not do that with the M1, they did all the hard work before hand and brought a very mature product to market when it launched. I am sure they will follow the same approach with this. I am sure Gobao will do the same if the rumored partnership is true.

 

[Fangs2k]

Years ago, DJI killed the drone market. They took competitors completely out (like GoPro who released their drone when DJI released their first Mavic). They will kill the emtb market too.

DJI dominate the consumer drone market, it’s true. But, not so in the enterprise space, nor military. Other Chinese comoanies like Potensic also make some fantastic drones and undercut the DJI ones.

GoPro have hardly been taken out either, they’re still here with the Mission 1 cinema cameras, aerospace and defence imaging products as well as still selling action cameras at the higher end of the market.

Will they kill the EMTB market too? Not so sure, but they’re certainly disrupting it which I say overall is a good thing. Bosch are a very diversified business, e-bike motors are a tiny part of it, so I think they’ll be ok and they’re still capable of pulling something out of the bag, spurred on by the competition.

The company that DJI/Avinox most need to fear is probably one that we haven’t heard much of yet, and it’ll likely be Chinese. Competition doesn’t stop at the Chinese border.

 

[Fangs2k]

I'm surprised at the people commenting who think this thing is going to arrive to the market assume sort of unrefined gen 1 product that won't work well. Avinox did not do that with the M1

Just to be clear, I was making the point that the early adopters of each new to market product generally suffer as they pay a premium, and v2 of the product is inevitably better, not that v1 will suck/won’t work.

I’m sure the MGU ‘1’ will work just fine, but MGU ‘2’ will be better, in fact the M1 motor you mention proves that point.

 

[CoolDown]

Are we going to end up wondering what the point of cycling is ?
The experience is increasingly based on assistance and battery size... but okay, you're going to say I'm boring.

Avinox is in the future, thankfully they're here anyway, a new motor every 6 months is very questionable though given the investment required to buy a NEW ebike.

I'm wondering about the feel of a continuously variable transmission; the riding experience will be very different from a traditional bike or a light asssit.

 

[Roughshod]

Been watching Eurobike vids and saw a side on shot of the Megamo Reborn. Quite like the marble and red paint job.

 

[TheKaiser]

I'm less enthusiastic about these gearbox bikes than most of you.

The idea is great, but it's far from new. Honda built a downhill bike with a gearbox more than 20 years ago, and it was revolutionary. They even had to hide the bikes in the pits, and to this day the Honda RN01 remains a masterpiece of engineering.

View attachment 187445
The original plan was to sell the bike to the public, but Honda eventually cancelled the project because it was far too expensive and, more importantly, too difficult for most riders to service.

Honda mechanics reportedly had to disassemble and rebuild the gearbox after every race.

Downhill racing is the Formula 1 of mountain biking, so if you want to see what's coming next, that's where you should look. Some brands are still developing gearbox-equipped DH bikes, and we may see them become more common in the future, but there are still many challenges to overcome.

For this reason, the current trend in downhill is moving more toward electronic systems, active suspension technologies, and other performance-focused innovations.

Right now, Avinox is at the top of its game, and it makes sense for them to capitalize on their success by pushing new concepts. But an eMTB with a gearbox could become a real headache for many riders when it comes to maintenance. At some point, servicing your mountain bike could end up costing more than servicing your car.

If manufacturers also release a new product every six months, it quickly makes existing products feel obsolete, which is never great for customers.

Most importantly, we should wait and see how these bikes actually come together. If they're still prototypes, there's a reason for that. From what I've heard from Commençal's chief engineer, integrating a gearbox into a modern mountain bike involves a lot of compromises and engineering constraints.

The day we get a truly reliable, efficient, and service-friendly gearbox for our MTB or eMTB, it will be fantastic. But history tends to repeat itself, and the MTB industry has shown us time and time again that gearbox projects often struggle to deliver on their promises and sometimes end up being commercial failures. Wait and see...

I agree with you on the "Wait and see" part, however this type of eCVT is wholly different from the "Derailleur in a box" that Honda was using. Plus pro DH bikes get rebuilt after every race anyway.

I'm not saying there isn't room for anything to go wrong with these eCVTs, but it should be quite possible for them to build it to be maintenance free (or at least as maintenance free as our current ebike motors are considered to be). Even if maintenance is required on a traditional gearbox, it can be very user friendly, as is seen on the Pinion units, where you just change the oil periodically like in a car, and it is far less frequent and more idiot proof than a lot of other bike maintenance.

 

[TheKaiser]

The Avinox MGU doesn’t promise to blow up just the e-bike industry, it promises to blow up the entire cycling industry or at least the mountain bike and commuter segments. Derailleurs are exposed, fragile, and inefficient.

Your assertion only holds true if the "entire cycling industry" is going to switch to e-bikes, which is basically impossible due to the cost increase associated with this tech, and many riders aversion to electronic complications. The impact of this design will absolutely be limited to "just the e-bike industry". There is no way to put an eCVT on an unpowered bike.