When is the Avinox gearbox coming to mountain bikes?

[Higgo26]

What is the expected release date of the Avinox gearbox in a mountain bike?

@Greg Watts

 

[Greg Watts]

Short version: there isn't one announced, because — as far as anything credible goes — DJI/Avinox haven't confirmed a gearbox drive unit at all.

Let me untangle what's probably behind the question, because there are a couple of things floating around that are easy to conflate:

The Avinox motor itself is not a gearbox. The current Avinox M2 (125Nm Boost / 1100W claimed peak) and the M2S (150Nm / up to 1500W) are conventional mid-drives — they drive a normal chain and cassette. No internal gearbox.

What IS coming from Avinox is a new system generation and battery options, not a gearbox. The community word here is fairly consistent:
• @TheKaiser flagged a system reveal expected in March, with a 1000Wh battery option alongside the current 800Wh and a 600Wh range-extender setup → view post.
• @entrechats and @Brawwp note updated Avinox bikes landing roughly April–May 2026, with the refreshed motor said to run "zero rattle" versus the early M1.

Integrated gearbox motors do exist — just not from DJI. If a gearbox eMTB is what you're actually after, the proven option is the Pinion MGU E1.12: a true motor-plus-12-speed-gearbox unit, 85Nm, 600% gear range, 4.1kg, shipping today on Bulls, Nicolai, Simplon, Moustache and others. Heavier than a chain-drive Avinox, but the sealed gearbox and clutchless shifting are the genuine article.

So to answer the literal question: no Avinox gearbox release date exists, because no Avinox gearbox has been announced. If a credible one surfaces I'd expect it to break around one of the spring reveal windows the lads above mentioned, but I won't put a date on something DJI haven't confirmed — that's how rumours calcify into "facts."

If you've seen a specific source claiming an Avinox gearbox — a leak, a render, a dealer tip — paste it and I'll dig into whether it's real or someone's mixed it up with the Pinion or the new battery system. Happy to chase it down.

 

[tybarn5769]

What is the expected release date of the Avinox gearbox in a mountain bike?

@Greg Watts

When it comes out. How sick would it be to have it bolt on to the new crestline 181.2 that I got. Gates belt. I'm in. Where do I give my CC info?

 

[Ndanger]

More to the point when will it be developed from a concept to production in comparison to Gobao...

Is Gobao ahead of the game (and Avinox) or not as light and advanced as Avinox, the new Gobao X1 and X1P combine the motor and electronically controlled CVT into a single housing and eliminate the derailleur, cassette, and shifter entirely. Gobao is presenting it as a production platform rather than a technology demonstrator.

By contrast, Avinox unveiled the MG drivetrain as a concept product at Eurobike 2026. The concept looks extremely advanced, with automatic shifting, sub-0.1-second gear changes, and integrated gearing, but Avinox itself is still describing it as a concept rather than a shipping system.

 

[Greg Watts]

More to the point when will it be developed from a concept to production in comparison to Gobao... Is Gobao ahead of the game (and Avinox) or not as light and advanced as Avinox, the new Gobao X1 and X1P combine the motor and electronically controlled CVT into a single housing and eliminate the dera...

Good question - and you've actually summed it up well already. Let me sharpen the comparison where I can stand behind the facts.

On the Avinox MG: it's a concept, not a product. Avinox showed the MG (Motor Gearbox) at Eurobike 2026 - no derailleur, no cassette, the headline claims being automatic shifting and very fast gear changes. But "concept" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Concepts shown at trade shows are typically 18 months to several years from anything you can put a deposit on, if they ship at all. I won't put a production date on it, because Avinox haven't, and a confident date here would just be me inventing one.

On Gobao: I have to be careful. What I can verify is the Gobao P100 - a 100Nm / ~700W (measured on ebike-lab's dyno) conventional mid-drive that's been turning up in OEM builds like Hepha. Solid thermal performance, pushes hard, but it's a normal chain-and-cassette motor.

The X1 and X1P with the integrated CVT you're describing - I can't confirm those from my verified data. I'm not going to wave them off, because new kit from Chinese drive specialists often lands before it's in any database I hold (and Gobao has a track record of shipping). But I also can't tell you it's production-ready or compare it on CVT behaviour against the Avinox MG when I can't verify either unit's real-world numbers. If you've got a link or a launch page for the X1/X1P, paste it and I'll dig in properly.

So the honest scoreboard: if Gobao is genuinely presenting the X1 as a production platform versus Avinox's concept, then on paper Gobao is further down the road to a buyable CVT unit - but "presented as production" and "shipping with a warranty and spares network" are different things, and that gap is exactly where I'd want a third-party teardown before believing the marketing. As @RustyMTB put it on the MG thread - wait for whichever YouTuber gets one and takes it apart.

That's the bit that'll actually tell us who's ahead.

 

[Powerslider]

Watching this EMBN YouTube video the Avinox brand experience director says clearly their MG motor will be in bikes for sale next year.
I cue'd up the part of the video I'm talking about in the link...

 

[Greg Watts]

Watching this EMBN YouTube video the Avinox brand experience director says clearly their MG motor will be in bikes for sale next year. I cue'd up the part of the video I'm talking about in the link... BBjzy6LdUMY:604

That's a meaningful update, @Powerslider - an Avinox brand director saying "in bikes for sale next year" on camera is a different weight of statement than a trade-show concept card.

Taking that at face value: "next year" from Eurobike 2026 puts us at 2027 for MG-equipped bikes hitting retail. That's actually a plausible timeline for a system that was shown as a working concept rather than a pure render - 12 - 18 months from reveal to OEM production isn't unusual if the platform is mature enough to demo publicly.

The caveats I'd keep in mind: • "In bikes for sale" ≠ "available at your local dealer in January." First production runs from a new drive system tend to be limited, partner-brand-specific, and frequently delayed. Avinox have moved fast before (M1 to M2S was a quick cadence), but a full motor-gearbox integration is a different engineering lift.

• "Next year" could mean early or late 2027 - there's a lot of runway in that phrase.

• Still no word on which OEM partners are lined up for the MG. The conventional Avinox system has spread quickly across brands, so that side of it is probably less of a bottleneck than the unit itself.

But bottom line: if an Avinox exec said it on EMBN with a camera rolling, that's as close to a public commitment as you get without a press release. I'd mark 2027 as the working target, not just speculation.

 

[Powerslider]

That's a meaningful update, @Powerslider - an Avinox brand director saying "in bikes for sale next year" on camera is a different weight of statement than a trade-show concept card.

Taking that at face value: "next year" from Eurobike 2026 puts us at 2027 for MG-equipped bikes hitting retail. That's actually a plausible timeline for a system that was shown as a working concept rather than a pure render - 12 - 18 months from reveal to OEM production isn't unusual if the platform is mature enough to demo publicly.

The caveats I'd keep in mind: • "In bikes for sale" ≠ "available at your local dealer in January." First production runs from a new drive system tend to be limited, partner-brand-specific, and frequently delayed. Avinox have moved fast before (M1 to M2S was a quick cadence), but a full motor-gearbox integration is a different engineering lift.

• "Next year" could mean early or late 2027 - there's a lot of runway in that phrase.

• Still no word on which OEM partners are lined up for the MG. The conventional Avinox system has spread quickly across brands, so that side of it is probably less of a bottleneck than the unit itself.

But bottom line: if an Avinox exec said it on EMBN with a camera rolling, that's as close to a public commitment as you get without a press release. I'd mark 2027 as the working target, not just speculation.

The brands on display at Eurobike are obviously committed. Avinox said bike companies already have been field testing bikes with the MG power-transmission units. Commencial's chief engineer confirmed their high-end enduro eMTBs would be utilizing eCVT only from this point forward. That's a strong indication that testing is going well!

 

[Greg Watts]

The brands on display at Eurobike are obviously committed. Avinox said bike companies already have been field testing bikes with the MG power-transmission units. Commencial's chief engineer confirmed their high-end enduro eMTBs would be utilizing eCVT only from this point forward. That's a strong in...

@Powerslider - that Commencal detail is the most significant thing to land in this thread so far.

If their chief engineer has publicly committed to eCVT-only on high-end enduro eMTBs going forward, that's not a brand hedging its bets - that's a product roadmap statement. Commencal aren't a brand that tends to say things like that casually.

Combined with Avinox confirming OEM field testing is already underway, the picture is starting to look like 2027 is a genuine target rather than hopeful marketing. The gap between "concept at Eurobike" and "bikes in field testing with committed OEM partners" is actually pretty meaningful - that's not vapourware territory anymore.

The one thing I'd still want clarity on before getting too excited: "field testing" can mean anywhere from "we bolted one to a frame and rode it round a car park" to "six-month enduro race simulation in the Alps." Avinox haven't said which, and that gap matters a lot for whether 2027 means Q1 or Q4 - or slips into 2028.

On the regen question that @slickrock's post raises elsewhere in the forum - the current MG prototypes apparently don't support battery regen yet, which is worth keeping in mind given how much the eCVT marketing leans on that capability. One to watch.

Still the most credible next-gen drive story going, mind.