Classified has released its latest offering of 2023 in the form of a Powershift-enabled MTB wheelset and wireless flat-bar shifter. The Belgian brand is already making waves with its two-speed hub-based gearing system, such as appearing at recent WorldTour road races, and it’s now attempting a move into mountain biking too with the introduction of a 12-speed 11-40 cassette, 148mm hub spacing and new Ringshifter control.
More is more
Classified
Classified has dubbed its Powershift system as the ultimate ‘front-derailleur killer’ where it aims to remove the need for an extra chainring on road and gravel bikes. It is now aiming to promote the advantages of a double gear range in mountain biking, a discipline that has almost entirely embraced wide-range 1× drivetrains in recent years.
Classified says it wants to showcase the benefits of the added gear options with its new MTB setup, the advantages of which include smaller steps between the gears and more choices for optimal cadence in comparison to a standard 1× drivetrain.
Classified
Mountain biking has moved on from front derailleurs in the past decade, instead favouring bigger-ratio cassettes to allow for a similar range of gears, while cutting down the risk of chain drop and mechanical issues by eliminating front shifting, as well as allowing improvements to frames and linkage architecture.
Given that Classified also aims to target these issues by using an internal planetary gear system as opposed to an external one, the MTB segment was a logical next step for the Belgian brand.
Classified says its MTB drivetrain offers a total range of 530%, ie, the difference between the highest and lowest gears. By comparison, a 1× SRAM drivetrain with a 10-52 cassette offers 520%.
Shifting focus
Classified
Classified’s new flat-bar Ringshifter, designed specifically for this new configuration, connects wirelessly to the 148mm MTB thru-axle. The brand says the Ringshifter can operate up to 10,000 shifts before needing to be recharged, which uses a proprietary magnetic USB charging cable.
The shifter features a magnetic backspring mechanism, toggling between the two gear options rather than using a standard click or button design.
Classified says that the Ringshifter was made to fit seamlessly into most MTB cockpits, as well as to bring ‘feather light wireless’ technology.
The bigger picture
Classified
Mountain biking shouldn’t exclusively be the only discipline that will benefit from this latest release, however. Classified says that the new 11-40 cassette can be used with the existing 12-speed Powershift hub, using the 142mm smart thru-axle and drop-bar shift button.
This opens it up for use in applications like gravel and bikepacking – anywhere riders are searching for more capability from their gears. As such, the new system can be purchased in three different options: hub internals only, hub internals and shell, or as a complete MTB wheelset, in the form of the M25/30s.
Classified
The M25/30s come built onto hookless carbon rims, which have an internal width of 30mm and a profile of 25mm, which Classified says ‘have been developed to deal with every kind of off-road terrain.’
The new system comes in €2,699 for the wheelset or €1,549 for the complete hub, and the hub is available in 28-hole straight-pull or 32-hole J-bend configurations. Classified says the wheelset weighs in at 1,365g (excluding the Powershift hub internals) while the Ringshifter has a claimed weight of just 24g.
For more information, head to Classified.
Tags: Gravel
