# Pinion Gearbox on Technical Trails! (Southern Utah Stoke!)



## Fattyrider38 (Jun 7, 2018)

I just got back from heading down to Hurricane Utah for a quick trip away from the snow, and I had to post another Pinion Gearbox review. It has been quite some time since I have been able to ride my gearbox bike since its winter and all of my riding has been on my fatbike. So, I headed down to ride on some dirt finally and took my titanium hardtail Pinion gearbox bike, and well it was the first time I've ridden this bike on super technical trails, and well it was AMAZING.







I had forgotten how technical trails near Hurricane Utah can be. If you have ever heard about or ridden Gooseberry Mesa you know what Im talking about. A lot of the actual "trail" is riding on imbedded giant boulders that you stick to like sandpaper. Kinda like slick rock trail mixed with single track, and riding over huge truck sized boulders all in one. I rode with a buddy on a regular drivetrain bike and it was crazy how many times I heard his drivetrain pop, and skip as he tried to adjust to needing to change his gearing ratio throughout the rides. Many of these trails you last minute come upon a super steep climb, or a small section that you need to power over to clean. Regardless to say, I was loving my ability with the pinion to dump 4 gears in an instant, or vice versa, to be able to get into the correct gear to climb or descend something.






Also the two trails we rode were new to me, so I didn't know the trails at all, and every turn had a surprise for me since I was leading most of the time. 
Gearboxes are not cheap, and neither are carbon belt drive systems, so I understand why these types of bikes are not a common sight on my local trails. But after rides like these, I am very happy with my decision to go with the internal gears, and belt drive. It is uncanny how much of your pedal stroke power gets lost on a regular drivetrain.






Thats one of the things my buddy said after he tried my bike for a few minutes. A straight chainline all the time, no drag from a derailleur, those were the things that he noticed the most. For me, I notice and love those things as well, but what I like the most is one thing that many mention as this Pinions greatest weakness, the gear shifting. They say grip shifts suck, and not being able to shift under power etc, for me those are the systems greatest strengths. This is the first time that I have ridden any of these trails down here and cleaned the entire loop. And i had never ridden the trail before. I felt like a kid in a candy store down there with my bike, and well, I just wanted to share my thoughts since as a prospective buyer I would have loved to be able to read more about it before buying. All in all, it was an awesome quick trip down south.












Sorry guys, no matter what I try this damn forum turns my pictures sideways...anyone know how to fix this ??? thanks


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## rasidi (Apr 19, 2006)

Pictures looked good on my phone

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk


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