Chinese brand Whaleroad has launched a new wireless drivetrain called R7, which features a whopping 14-speed cassette.
We spotted the new Whaleroad R7 drivetrain fitted to a Cykl Graave at the Sea Otter Europe trade show in Girona.
Whaleroad isn’t the only Chinese cycling brand to release a drivetrain that’s compatible with 14 speeds. Wheeltop’s EDS derailleurs can also be configured for up to 14 gears. But this is the first time we’ve seen such a system paired with an actual 14-speed cassette.
Antoine Delmur, the founding director of Cykl, said of the R7 drivetrain: “We've been testing it for a little while now and, so far, it's really impressed us.”
418% gear range
Whaleroad says its 1x14-speed cassette offers a 418 per cent gear range, spanning from an 11-tooth smallest sprocket to a 46-tooth largest sprocket.
The cassette fits a conventional Shimano HG freehub body, meaning there's no change needed to proprietary standards.
Squeezing the extra gears into that space has seen the cogs on the bottom of the block become significantly narrower.
Wireless derailleur
Whaleroad’s R7 derailleur is wireless and uses a removable 725mAh battery. Whaleroad claims up to 1,500km of riding from...