When buying new gears for your ‘rig’ (ha ha there you are Ash I said it) you have really one of two options…. don’t you? Shimano or the ‘Big S’ hailing from Japan, or Sram or as they say in China ‘S ram’ from sun bathed Cali. I’ve always liked to stay away from the mainstream so ever since I can remember I’ve always chosen what I considered to be the ‘Underdog’ option. Anyone remember Sachs wavy shifters? I had those, and my current ’sled’ (ha ha I did it again!!) has nothing from the ‘Big S’ on board. However now even Sram is pretty mainstream so I’ve been hankering over something unique. I already have two single speeds before you start, and a hub gear has been rattling around in my mind for some time. No, what I want is something people are going to look at and either say ‘Wow, thats pretty cool’ or for the uneducated ‘Why would you use a piece of sh1! like that?’.
Today I found this, the Driven range of top end bike parts from………. Sunrace!! If you’ve been in to cycling for a while you would have heard of Sunrace. Back in the day when everyone was starting out Shimano, Sunrace and Suntour were all pretty level pegged, however the other 2 S’s struggled to keep up, and are only just gaining momentum again.
The Driven range has been in development for sometime and consists of both mountain bike and road bike components. Everything from hubs, shifters and derailleurs have been designed and made of advanced materials such as carbon, ceramic and beautifully cnc’d aluminum.
The Driven mountain bike range comes in two flavours the NMX and NMZ (the X is presumably the higher of the two models as it has gold bits !).
RDMX - 9 Speed Mountain rear derailleur, All alloy construction, CNC alloy pulleys with sealed bearings, Alloy hangar bolt, Shimano compatible, Weight: 227g
FCMX - Mountain Crankset, 2 Piece External Bearing System BB, Sealed Bearing BB, Patented Fluid Drive shifting ramps, Shimano Compatible, Weight: 771g including BB
Keep posted for more pics and info on the rest of the Sunrace range, and something I find interesting from good old Sturmey Archer.