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Ashton Effect About Time


matt_urban

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No. At least I very much doubt it.

Yes, I've talked to SEVERAL truvativ reps about it, and we just had a clinic here at my shop. Nobody has broken the production version in the 6 years in has been in testing. This includes the All mountain version as well.

If you've ever seen them apart, there is SIGNIFICANTLY more beef than what's found in even an I9 rear hub, and those have immense tensile strength. There really isn't any pawls, it's more like a ratchet that once it's switches gears, there is not engagement. There is A LOT of surface area, so the only thing that could break, would be the spring that causes the star to go from the lower gear ratio to the upper one. And there's not really anything that could cause it to break from a bash.

annular-ring-and-sun-gear_thumb.jpg

The whole thing can be taken apart and put back together in 5 minutes. Which is usually faster or about as fast as taking apart a rear hub...

Yes, it can fit a fat chain. I've ridden two set-up thus far, and I will tell you you can really feel the weight. The AM version is 1632 grams and the FR at 1940. Which is about twice as heavy as your average crank, i.e. the thing weighs 4-5 lbs. The weight, albeit you will probably get used to since it's dead weight in the CENTER of your bike, it's still noticeable. Imagine adding TWO POUNDS in weight to the BB area of your bike, and that's what it feels like. Otherwise, it's super solid and nice to be able to switch gears while in a stop without having to flick up the back wheel or pedal a bit.

I would say it's right at home on that frame. You could have a skate park/commuter gear, and a trials gear. And since 24's aren't usually victims of "lowest weight at all costs", it would be awesome to have...I smell a possible trading of an Inspired for that frame in my near future,.

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I don't doubt they haven't had a major failure in 6 years but I bet they haven't given one to a trials rider who actually uses the bashring. It would be like running front freewheel without a bash and then gapping to a rock onto the freewheel itself- all the forces are going straight into a load of planetary gears, pawls, bearings etc. and I very much doubt it'd last more than a week under proper trials conditions.

Oh yeah, and it's also butt ugly, looks quite heavy and is also pretty much useless on a trials bike! On a 'proper' street rig, all mountain bike or whatever I can see a small use for it but on a trials bike (even a 24" street-trials) I'd rather just run a rear mech and a couple of gears at the back... I just don't get it!

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I don't think hammerschmidt would stand up to trials abuse, which is a shame because the idea could be awesome. In all mountain applications if they (Sram) can get the weight down then i'd be tempted, still its a half way attempt at solving a problem that a lightweight quality gearbox would remove.

Edited by craigjames
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its a half way attempt at solving a problem that a lightweight quality gearbox would remove.

What's the problem though? It replaces a chainset with two rings and a front derraileur which work perfectly! The only problem I can see it solving is when using a chain guide with twin ring setup on freeride bikes, but dual ring chain guides exist (I think) so it's still not really a problem... I'm definitely missing something here!

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A lot of people sidehop mech side, and a 32t ring and bash would be just too much ...

This thing if it stands up to trials would be perfect. You can run a fixed hub to claw back some of the weight, and the actual freewheeling mechanism has a very large number of engagements. Also you can shift without pedalling which is a total bonus. Imagine a massive bak to rail followed by big gap- huck in on 32t mode click down at the last moment and bang the gap in 22t trials mode...

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They all have more than 2 gears though ! with ony two gears the hub should be small and lighter prob about the same as a cassete hub with a crap 9 speed cassete on!

One gear could be direct and one geared down to trials

I would rather have 3-4 lb at the rear wheel than 5lb at the cranks

Every time you tug on the bars your pulling up and holding 4lb more than if you had burns! try it two bags of sugar taped to your downtube !

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If it's more central then both your arms and legs are working to lift that extra weight. If it's just on your rear axle then it's purely your legs doing it. Equally, although it's weight close to the axle, rotational weight would add up on it a bit too. I'd much rather have a more balanced weight distribution than putting it all on my rear axle.

With the weight of it, if the front version weighs that much for just two gears, it's not like it's going to be significantly lighter on the rear? It's still going to be quite a lot of weight in any case. It would also have less of a difference for your gear ratio too compared to being on the front.

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Well, all the reps told me they wouldn't warrant it for trials use, but in all seriousness, how would they know what kinda riding app it was used in if taken off of the bike and sent back? There's nothing new about us having no warranties on our parts, there's nothing different here.

As for the weigh, if you ever get the chance to hold one, you'll see WHY it weighs so much. There really isn't an economical way to get the weight down. The internals between the AM and FR version are the same, the only difference being in the arms. It's about as light as you can get it without sacrificing strength. It's about as simple as you're gonna get without using some boutique Ti or other metals to make it lighter. Think about the weight of a cable, der, shifter, and some good wide based cogs. Weight of all those combined is pretty close to the hammerschmidt, just distributed evenly across the bike.

As for the whole front der thing, yeah, a 32 tooth chainring is a bit large and obtrusive. Not to mention, front derailleurs REALLY REALLY suck.

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We stock the justice, seems to be the same thinking between the effect and justice. I like thtm both, but a few simple bits would really enhance the bikes performance, like wider bars!! little xc race bars are not wide enough by any means for the justice! and hub quality on the rear isnt very good atall! toby

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Update

Just got a effect in to try out

looks nice but bars are 25 inch wide and gear is to hard and skips because chain is only round about 5 of the 13 t cog !

I think with wider bars and 14t/15t cog the bike would be much better. The rear hub is a bit gappy but quite strong also ive noticed a strange mount on the disc side i think it will become a bolt on disc guard !

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Update

Just got a effect in to try out

looks nice but bars are 25 inch wide and gear is to hard and skips because chain is only round about 5 of the 13 t cog !

I think with wider bars and 14t/15t cog the bike would be much better. The rear hub is a bit gappy but quite strong also ive noticed a strange mount on the disc side i think it will become a bolt on disc guard !

Just talked to a tech rep tonight. He came to talk about the XX stuff and we really delved into that. But before all that, I asked him specifically about this application, he said no go. He said that he wouldn't tell me that it would fail, but that the bash, although designed to be a "bash guard", would NOT support the weight of somebody landing on it. It wasn't designed to hold the weight of anybody on it, and it wasn't designed to have SHARP HARD impacts like you do with trials. It was more designed to be like a log guard to protect the teeth in a worst case swcenario, but even though it's designed in a DH application, he said when was the last time you saw anybody on a DH bike specifically use the bash rather than preventive measures so you can make it down the course.

Kinda sucks, cause although it was overbuilt, he said it wouldn't stand up to the abuse of trials. And I also brought up the whole "how would you know if it were regular use or trials use?" he said each one is marked, and the fact that it has massive amounts of bashing, would likely indicated "other than intended uses". So that sucks.

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