How long can you expect your gearbox to last for?
We commonly get asked how long will a gearbox actually last for?
The interesting thing to note is the more your gearbox gets ridden or essentially the older it gets, the nicer it will feel. This fact seems to confuse a lot of people as most are used to swapping out their drive train every 8 months or less. Unlike a derailleur system which is prone to failing in a short amount of time, the Pinion gearbox is built for the long haul.
You can liken your gearbox to a high quality leather wallet or bottle of top shelf whiskey, it gets better with age. The gearbox gets better and smoother due to the teeth inside polishing themselves as they get used or ridden. But how long does it last?
To be honest we don’t know exactly. We have had the odd one fail, as with any mechanical system this is inevitable. However long as you do the oil change once a year, you will get a huge life span out of the gearbox. Rob had a P.Line (same internals as C.Line) on his old prototype, Hector, for 4 and a half years and it was so so smooth. The only reason he swapped it out was for the new C.Line gearbox.
Pinion tests the gearboxes to 60,000 kilometers which is over 6 years of riding and have had gearboxes with 80,000 kilometers put through them. We estimate you would get 10 years of riding out of your gearbox before it was time to start thinking about replacing it.
Here at Zerode we don’t believe in disposable products. If we design something, we want it to last the longest time possible and we want to use products that match this. The Pinion gearbox is a perfect example of this.
You could say our bikes are built to wear in, not out.
Rob’s prototype Hector. For 4 and a half years it had the same gearbox and never skipped a beat. More about the bike here