Good morning,
I looked at this in June 2020 (
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/c...13-speed-gravel-groupset.265134/#post-6087472) and some things seem to have changed.
The cassettes are their own design as the larger sprockets have a larger diameter hole than the smaller ones, it was claimed that this means that all the sprockets can be individual rather than joined in groups of 2,3 etc to stop flexing. To allow this the freehub is stepped which may make some sprocket combinations not possible as they are made with only the "wrong" diameter hole.
This is still partly true but the GCN video they appeared to say that the cassette was machined from a single piece of metal which sounded odd/I misunderstood what they were saying, but the Classified's web site also says single piece cassette.
Losing changeable sprockets seems like a bad/expensive idea.
I got a bit curious and wondered if the plan was for the company's version not to catch on, sell Shimano the patents for a large chunk of cash and we will all have single rings and 22 gears.
The reason for saying this is the two gears match a 50/34 compact (or 52/36 etc) chainset which would be very acceptable on so many bikes sold in the shops.
Had the plan been to sell it to the pros I would have expected a closer ratio or two versions, also by having to use non Shimano/Campag/SRAM hubs/wheels and cassettes is going to be a hard sell into teams with these sponsors.
I don't get the changing under load bit, as changing from 50 to 34 is such a huge difference it only seems likely on very rare occurrences, maybe a side effect of the design that the marketers caught on to?
I wasn't expecting the price tag.
Bye
Ian