Last year, a Canadian engineer launched the Supre Drive, a mountain bike drivetrain that he invented and boasts of including the world’s toughest, most unbreakable derailleur. Now, for the first time, someone has made a bike that uses the gearing system, and it is available to order, if your wallet’s fat enough, that is.
Cedric Eveleigh is the mechanical engineer who founded Lal Bikes and the brainiac behind the Supre Drive. As a passionate mountain biker who’s been riding for as long as he can remember, he is well aware of all the technical problems these wheelers come with, and the unreliable, easy-to-break derailleur is the one that bugged him the most. It was what motivated him to invent the Supre Drive, which he claims is reliable like a gearbox, but doesn’t have the drag and weight disadvantages of gearboxes. And most importantly, it solves the problem of derailleurs breaking. The Supre Drive is already patented in Canada and patent-pending internationally. It requires a certain type of frame that's designed specifically for it.
This thing is engineered so that the derailleur has two mount points and to separate the chain-tensioning part of the gear-selecting one. With this new drivetrain, the derailleur only focuses on shifting, while the chain tensioning is moved to a chain tensioner at the middle of the bike. There’s a video at the end of this article that explains exactly how the Supre Drive works.
German manufacturer Nicolai Bicycles is now producing a bike using the Canadian drivetrain. It is a long-travel enduro bike called Nucleon 16, a high-pivot wheeler with 29” wheels and a mullet option in the 160 mm to 180 mm travel range. The bike can also work with a 29” wheel in the front and a 27.5” one in the rear.
Nicolai’s new enduro bike is available in multiple color options and frame sizes from S to XXL. It uses high-quality components from Fox, Magura, Continental, Shimano, Intend, Hope, and the like, and the manufacturer sells it both as a frameset with shock and the Supre Drive or as a complete bike. You can find all the details on it on the company’s website, where you can also place an order for it.
The Nucleon 16 starts at €3,100 (approximately $3,150) as a frame, while the complete bike starts at €7,500 ($7,610).
This thing is engineered so that the derailleur has two mount points and to separate the chain-tensioning part of the gear-selecting one. With this new drivetrain, the derailleur only focuses on shifting, while the chain tensioning is moved to a chain tensioner at the middle of the bike. There’s a video at the end of this article that explains exactly how the Supre Drive works.
German manufacturer Nicolai Bicycles is now producing a bike using the Canadian drivetrain. It is a long-travel enduro bike called Nucleon 16, a high-pivot wheeler with 29” wheels and a mullet option in the 160 mm to 180 mm travel range. The bike can also work with a 29” wheel in the front and a 27.5” one in the rear.
Nicolai’s new enduro bike is available in multiple color options and frame sizes from S to XXL. It uses high-quality components from Fox, Magura, Continental, Shimano, Intend, Hope, and the like, and the manufacturer sells it both as a frameset with shock and the Supre Drive or as a complete bike. You can find all the details on it on the company’s website, where you can also place an order for it.
The Nucleon 16 starts at €3,100 (approximately $3,150) as a frame, while the complete bike starts at €7,500 ($7,610).