Introducing the Supre Drive
A new type of mountain bike drivetrain
In March of 2019, I came up with an idea for a mountain bike drivetrain that solves the problem of derailleurs breaking. I’ve been developing this idea full time since then. Here it is:
This drivetrain is reliable like a gearbox, but it doesn’t have the drag and weight disadvantages of gearboxes. No other mountain bike drivetrain achieves this: the reliability of a gearbox combined with the efficiency and low weight of a derailleur drivetrain.
Conventional derailleurs have two functions: first, they shift the chain across cassette sprockets, and second, they tension the chain. My idea is to separate these two functions, with the shifting remaining with the derailleur, and the chain tensioning functionality moved to a chain tensioner at the middle of the bike. This enables the drivetrain to have more ground clearance, and it enables the derailleur to be tough.
The drivetrain is called Supre Drive, and the company that I’m starting is called Lal Bikes.
For a video and lots more information about this drivetrain, you can head over to a news article on Pinkbike that’s linked below. Or you can check out the Lal Bikes website or Instagram account which are also linked below.