M-series, gearbox drivetrain mountain bikes

M-series

extremely smooth,
gearbox drive.

The M is a master of rough terrain with its athletic design, gearbox drivetrain and extremely smooth suspension. Ride with maximum confidence at any speed.

Downhill the M feels like a downhill bike with its plush suspension and central riding position. Uphill it is efficient and totally silent with the gearbox drivetrain and optional belt drive.

The M comes in five different models, from the Reebok M for fast trail riding with 130mm rear suspension up to the Kodiak M with coil and 150 mm rear travel, read for enduro race tape.

All models share their enduro genes, long and slack athletic design and our patented puma multilink suspension.

Available from

€ 7.299

Drivetrain

gearbox

Suspension

puma, multilink horst

Belt drive

optional

Trigger shift

optional

what the pro’s say

Enduro MTB

“The Instinctiv M scores points with its plush suspension and central riding position. The Pinion gearbox ensures a low centre of gravity and is beautifully integrated into the frame.”

BIKE magazine

“Downhill the M turns on and purrs smoothly through the terrain. The rear end works first class, responds well and reliably levels even rough passages. There is enough pop available for jumps and sufficient progression for hard landings. As a result, the potent rear end feels like more than 150 mm of travel.”

Ride.ch

“It rides extremely smooth and feels like a downhill bike on the trail. Thanks to the Pinion gearbox and a good chain guide, it doesn’t make any noise and is unusually quiet on the descent.”

suspension

puma

The patented puma suspension platform is the core of our bikes. It makes our bikes super smooth, fast and gives you more control than ever.

The system is an ultra compact multilink Horst setup. The suspension remains fully active and sensitive during quick descends, even when pedaling.

Thanks to the multilinks in our Puma suspension, we could tweak the leverage ratio independently of other kinematic factors and settled on a optimal 15% decrease through the travel. Something brands with a conventional single pivot or horst suspension can only dream of.

minimal
inertia

Small lightweight rockers and upside-down-shock-mount reduce inertia of moving parts to an absolute minimum, on top of the derailleur and cassette being obsolete.

The shock is not linked to the primary rocker, which greatly reduces torsional forces and thus friction being transferred to the shock.

ultra compact

A limited rotation of the shock throughout its travel, highest quality bearings and the use of high load needle bearings in many pivots make for both a very durable and a highly responsive layout.

The needle bearings make that we can build an ultra compact layout that reacts very active. Our bikes have a small rubber end stop to be able to preload the system. This preload makes that the suspension is always ready and loaded and has even less static friction.

drivetrain

automotive quality

Our gearbox drivetrain offers automotive quality, worry free durability and a super silent ride. It gives you more control as your rear wheel is lighter. That means more grip, more confidence.

The magnesium Pinion gearbox is almost maintenance free and eliminates the risk of bending or breaking your derailleur. You can run the gearbox with chain or carbon belt.

fast shifting

Our gearbox mountain bikes can be run with either Pinion’s DS2 grip shifter, or with our intuitive trigger shifter. In both cases; shifting is fast, instant and precise.

The DS2 shifter is great for shifting a number of gears up or down with a single action. It is light, clean and very fast.

Instinctiv’s unique trigger shifter offers an interaction that is resembling a derailleur shifter with the speed of a gearbox.

The system has two stacked levers for thumb actuation. It allows you to shift one gear heavier, or one or two gears lighter with a single thumb stroke.

how does it ride?

“Shifting a gearbox mountain bike is a different experience. It takes a few rides to get familiar.

Once you are used to the instant response, who wants to go back to grinding gears on a cassette?”

600% range

With the gearbox mtb drivetrain you will have a huge 600% gear range, 20% more than an SRAM Eagle 1×12 10-50t layout.

Pinion C.1.12

chainring/cog
30T x 26T
30T x 30T

lowest
0.63
0.55

highest
3.85
3.33

SRAM Eagle

chainring
32T
34T

lowest
0.64
0.68

highest
3.20
3.40

equal gear steps

The Pinion C1.12 provides equal gear steps throughout all gears making your selected gear ratios more predictable than ever.

Pinion C.1.12

2
17.7%

3
17.7%

4
17.7%

5
17.7%

6
17.7%

7
17.7%

8
17.7%

9
17.7%

10
17.7%

11
17.7%

12
17.7%

SRAM Eagle

42
19,1%

36
16,7%

32
12,5%

28
14,3%

24
16,7%

21
14,3%

18
16,7%

16
12,5%

14
14,3%

12
16,7%

Pinion C.1.12

gear steps
17.7%

SRAM Eagle

gear steps
12,5 – 20%

efficiency

What happens to the watts you put out? How does a Pinion gearbox mountain bike compare to a conventional derailleur in terms of efficiency?

The short answer is that out on the trail, in varied terrain and changing conditions, it is practically imossible to notice any difference.

Studies have shown that the efficiency of the Pinion drivetrain ranges from 91% in the heaviest gear to 98% in granny gear.*

For comparison, a derailleur layout, under perfect ‘laboratory’ circumstances, has an efficiency of 93% to 98%**.

However when dirt comes into play and builds up the efficiency tends to drop a good few percent.

A major benefit of the gearbox drivetrain is the straight, constant chainline, ensuring great efficiency between chainring and rear wheel. This in contrast to derailleur layouts where cassettes seriously compromise the chainline at either end of the cassette.

* 2017 ASEE Zone II Conference An Experimental Study on the Efficiency of Bicycle Transmissions R. Bolen and C. M. Archibald Grove City College, Grove City, PA

** Efficiency Measurements of Bicycle Transmissions – a neverending Story? by Bernhard Rohloff and Peter Greb, Wirkungsgrad von Fahrradantrieben von Prof. Dr. Ing Hubert Hinzen, Fachbereich Technik, Hochschule Trier

weight

We believe you can do the math. Yes our gearbox drivetrain weighs around 600 – 800 grams more than a conventional 1×12 derailleur groupset.

However about 600 – 900 grams of weight is moved from the rear wheel to the frame. This makes the rear wheel lighter than ever before, the suspension is more responsive and riding losses while riding over rough terrain are reduced. And during climbing it is difficult to notice the extra weight.

durability

Pinion gearboxes are used all over the world, in all conditions no matter how challenging. They have proven their robustness in numerous round-the-world rides. Ice cold temperatures at the Arctic Circle or sweltering desert heat do not present a problem for these transmissions.