Keep in mind the patent story I wrote a 12 months and a half in the past that predicted all the newest wi-fi Di2 derailleurs, or the another than two years again that teased 13-speed Shimano cassettes? Effectively, that early tease is getting supported by a number of current partial slip-ups from a number of completely different corporations within the bike business. And all of it factors to a brand new Shimano GRX 1x 13-speed replace on the close to horizon, presumably with Dura-Ace 13-speed coming not far behind?
So what do we all know?
Is Shimano going 13-speed with a brand new MicroSpline Street freehub?
A couple of week in the past, DT Swiss revamped their inexpensive aluminum 1800-series of street, endurance all-road & gravel bike wheels. Out of these three separate disciplines, just one, the gravel G1800, included a barely new reference to a previously-unannounced freehub customary. DT known as it “MicroSpline Street” of their press equipment. We might have written that off as no large deal… if there wasn’t the rest floating round. Loads of Shimano gravel groupsets had been already utilizing MicroSpline since GRX 1×12 shares wide-range MTB cassettes on MicroSpline freehubs.
So why a separate MicroSpline Street?
It seems the following one to disclose a bit extra was German on-line retailer Bike-Low cost.de.
They listed these new DT Swiss G 1800 Spline wheels with a bit extra element on freehub choices, and a few telling freehub physique product codes. Along with basic SRAM XDR (AXDR) & Shimano HG 11s (ASF11), we see two different choices with very comparable codes: Shimano MicroSpline 12s (ASL12R) & Shimano 13-speed (ASL13R).
The 12-speed MicroSpline appears to be the present MTB customary, and the brand new ASL13R seems to be the next-level development that DT was calling MicroSpline Street. Related product numbers would make sense for each being the identical spline sample. However this one goes to 13!
Why, you ask?
Maybe a brand new 13-speed MicroSpline street freehub wants more room to suit that further gear? Shimano, SRAM & Campagnolo have all used just a few tips previously to suit extra cogs of the identical width in the identical spacing earlier than – generally pushing these cogs nearer to the body/dropout floor, and generally cantilevering them over hub flanges & spokes. The truth that Shimano would wish one other, barely completely different freehub physique suggests they couldn’t discover more room with the prevailing MicroSpline, and wanted to push it a bit additional…
Shimano 13-speed isn’t assured, nevertheless it’s not simply hypothesis both
Shimano has been teasing us with 13-speed cassettes within the patent drawings for at the least two years. They might have simply put 12 cogs on that cassette in the event that they weren’t trolling us.
And within the meantime, each SRAM and Campagnolo have launched 13-speed gravel & street groupsets. So, it’s excessive time for Shimano to catch up.
When is it coming to gravel? And when will Shimano 13sp hit the street?
That’s one thing we don’t know. Shimano hasn’t instructed us when to anticipate a brand new dropbar groupset. Frankly, with pretty current GRX 12-speed launches, we wouldn’t have anticipated a brand new Shimano gravel launch any time quickly. However the truth that DT Swiss is debuting this new freehub physique choice solely on their gravel wheels (and clearly not on the street & all-road variants) suggests gravel is prone to get 13-speeds first. That in all probability does take advantage of sense, giving extra vary or smoother gearing steps to 1x drivetrains.
But actually, we’ve been ready for a brand new Dura-Ace groupset for a number of years. DT is looking the brand new 13sp freehub ‘MicroSpline Street’ which sounds to us prefer it’s laying the groundwork for a 13-speed street groupset, too. The truth that we didn’t see it on professional bikes at this 12 months’s Tour de France suggests it possible received’t be prepared till at the least subsequent spring.
However let’s simply say that Shimano & DT have piqued our curiosity. And we’ll be protecting our eyes open to identify an additional cog on professional street and gravel bikes over the following few months!
bike.Shimano.com
