I doubt I’m the only one who penned up plans for an “apocalypse-ready” bike build when they were ordered to stay indoors and cover all breathing holes at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. I was afraid of the unknown, and my mind anxiously wandered to questions of resource availability and access. The ideal bike to pedal into a desolate landmine was fully rigid or fully coil-sprung, with heavy downhill casing tires, robust bits throughout, and of course, internal gearing.
Eventually I shook my head hard enough to remember that our ancestors lived through similar pandemics. My anxiety ebbed, but the question of internal gearing lingered loudly, so I did what I do. I researched. Are we banging expensive derailleurs against rocks and replacing drivetrains annually out of mere stubbornness, or is there some merit to our transmission hesitations?
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