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TPE16: Box Components updates & closes in on long awaited drivetrain, plus cranks & carbon wheels!

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Box Components Final-1

We’ve seen close to complete items from Box Components for some time now, but never so close to completion as we did in Taipei. Box’s Toby Henderson said since he started developing the drivetrain, the new clutch systems and upping the volume to 11 (speeds) by the big 2 has made it brutal trying to keep up to stay relevant.

Check out what looks to be close to production drivetrain and brakes, plus a whole bunch of pretty finalized looking items like cassettes, cranks, chainrings, and carbon wheels!

Box Components Final-2

I was pretty anxious to see Box at the show, not to mention have another chat with Box President and former BMX celeb Toby Henderson, (I’ve followed him on the BMX circuit since I was 9, and when I was sure that Hutch was King). We’ve seen a lot of Box prototypes including the 11 speed pieces at last year’s Taipei show, and things now look to be quite polished up and… working! Having made some tweaks to the clutch, the $125 11-speed Box-One rear derailleur works with any brand’s wide-range cassette up to 42t and weighs in at 265g.

Box Components Final-3 Box Components Final-8

The shifter is a “push/push” design where you push forward like on any other shifter to climb up the cassette, and using the same lever, pushing it inward, (with thumb cradled between the two paddles), to shift it back down. This was something that seemed like it would be easy to get used to within a few minutes. The 125g 11-speed PushPush Shifter is also both SRAM & Shimano compatible and will go for just $50. Toby said they’re shooting for early June to have some working pieces out in the wild, so we’re looking forward to that!

Box Components Final Brake-1

They also had their brakes on display, which looked to be in good working and finished order, (being star-struck must have made me forget to take pics of these), and the feel seemed to be on par while just sitting there. Using a 4-piston caliper with 14mm & 17mm vented pistons in each, the brakes use mineral oil and easy to find SRAM compatible pads. There are both reach and pad-contact adjustments right at your fingertips, letting you dial everything in where you want it. The 285g brakeset, (lever, hose & caliper),  will run $150/wheel, and we’re hoping to see these late summer.

Box Components Final-4

Also getting close to finished is the wide-range 11-42t cassette we got a sneak peek of a couple of years ago.

Box Components Final-6

New to the show were their Box crankset. Boasting a 30mm spindle, the hollow forged cranks will be available with a dual ring or a SRAM direct mount interface and will come in 170, 172.5, and 175 lengths.

Box Components Final-7

They also had their narrow wide rings on hand. The 7075-T6 aluminum rings will be available in even sizes ranging from a threaded 30t up to a 38t, and will retail for $64.

Box Components Final-9

Also new are the 27.5 inch tubeless-ready Box One Carbon wheels and new Boost hubs. Though part of the design, they looked good and stood out as they didn’t blend in with other carbon rims on the market.

Box Components Wheel

The carbon wheels are built to be light but sturdy, so they reinforced the spoke holes rather than the entire center section to have the best of both worlds. The rims have a 26mm inner width and the complete wheelset will weigh in around 1648g.

Box Components Final-12

The Box One wheels are built around their Boost Hubs and will be offered in both 110/142 & 110/148 varieties for $1,400/set.

BoxComponents.com

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18 Comments
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Adam
Adam
8 years ago

What sizes will the wheels come in?

JV
JV
8 years ago

Toby Henderson = Lengend

Patrick Michael
8 years ago
Reply to  JV

What the hell is a Lengend?!

typevertigo
typevertigo
8 years ago

Paragraph 9.
“Also new are the 27.5 inch tubeless-ready Box One Carbon wheels and new Boost hubs.”

mac
mac
8 years ago

I think I’ll try that shifter out.

typevertigo
typevertigo
8 years ago
Reply to  mac

Yeah, I would love to see how that shifter works. I still can’t get around how you’d push the lever inward to get to smaller cogs. Will probably have to wait for some sort of video because the photos aren’t illustrating it for me.

Chris
Chris
8 years ago
Reply to  typevertigo

Essentially it sounds like an inverted thumb shifter. Back in the early days of downhill guys like Greg Herbold would take their thumb shifters and mount them upside down so they could maintain a better grip on the bars. Eventually SunTour and Mavic both came out with below bar thumb shifters which featured a Y shaped lever which made them easier to use. Do a Google image search on “mavic Y mtb shifters” and you’ll see what I mean. All these systems were eventually replaced with Gripshift from SRAM and Rapidfire from Shimano.

C
C
8 years ago

Don’t tell Toby Sram is about to go to 12 speed

Ck
Ck
8 years ago

I hope this company keeps going. Would be nice to see a third rival in the mix between SRAM and Shimano.

Jim E
Jim E
8 years ago

Nice stuff for the money..

postophetero
postophetero
8 years ago

Former-racer, wrecking crew supermodel, entrepreneur and a nice guy?! Hard not to root for Toby H. and his co-workers.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago

Super curious about the SRAM/Shimano capability. I’m wondering if it’s only cassettes and saying there’s other compatible parts is just a misprint? Or maybe there are two ways to mount the cable on the derailleur?
Anyhow, pretty awesome price for a first go at $125 for the rear mech. Depending on what happens with 12 speed, this may be going on my next hardtail this summer

Bonk Bike
Bonk Bike
8 years ago

The shifter has one lever only w/ two thumb positions for shifting up or down. When you push the larger position, the lever rotates. When pushing the smaller position, the lever goes in instead of rotating. One lever does two different actions, which is a super cool idea. Would think they will get a lot of spec and AM sales since brands and consumers both get tired of the high prices of both SRAM and Shimano owning the market.

Bald Ben
Bald Ben
8 years ago

Great to see another mineral oil-based brake system coming to the market.

Eric
8 years ago

How does the shifter vary the amount of cable pull for cross-manufacturer compatibility? Same questions for the R. derailleur?
Also, notice, NO FRONT DERAILLEUR. Because they are dead. I saw it a SRAM video, so it’s true.

Bonk Bike
Bonk Bike
8 years ago

Actually they do have a front derailleur option.

jeb
jeb
8 years ago

Stuff looks really polished and if the rear Derailleur works with SRAM at those prices they will kill it in the market. Here’s hoping.

ascarlarkinyar
ascarlarkinyar
8 years ago

This is all great news. I will be buying these products

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