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I wonder why no one has revisited what Honda did on their DH bike and stick a derailleur in a box, theoretically all the benefits of both options?
I guess limited range looking at the pictures
Greg Minnaar alluded to the fact that it was relatively high drag compared to a regular transmission. I can't remember if if it had a freewheel or not but It might be that it didn't so that it was possible to change gear while coasting. If you do away with that holy grail requirement it ought to fulfill most of maxtorque's points - other than the additional friction in the system from all the extra chains/steps in the transmission. For downhill it's probably not a major consideration but I don't think it'd work for xc/enduro as derailleur based systems.
I've never had an accident with a mech other than one of the very fragile SRAM carbon cages but I do like the idea of doing a mech-in-a-box bike as I loved the RN01. If they'd ever gone into production, there'd definitely be one in the garage right now.
Quite surprised at that considering the pedalling needed towards the end of Fort William (RN01s first WC race and win) back then. But then this is Minnaar we're talking about.
The RN01's chain did keep spinning even when the bike wasn't being pedalled and the gears could be changed while coasting.
I think it would be the coasting performance that suffered vs a normal setup as the whole of the drivetrain is rotating instead of just the pawls clicking over. When pedaling it's only be the added friction from the extra bits that would be the issue and with a full factory setup and the constant attention they got, that was probably minimal.