Conspiracy Theories and Pointless Ramblings of a Madman

This is perhaps dry, but it seems worth pointing out... and I haven't seen anyone else mention it (maybe because they're not supposed to).

Last week, March 17th to be more precise, SRAM announced the death of the front derailleur.

I support this... kinda.

Not because I want all derailleurs to die (which I do), but because I never got along with the two different 2X systems that I tried. I spent 95% of my ride time in the big ring, and when it was time to actually use the small one, it was a kachunk up front followed with a kachunksmashglunkglunkglunkkachunk in the rear to find the next logical gear choice. So part of the reason I stayed in the big ring up front was to avoid all the mess, but often times on local trails I found myself fairly cross-chained in my 39Xwhatever. Being a single speeder used to a perfect chainline, I could feel 51 of my maximum 108 watts being sapped VIA this inefficiency.

So yeah, I'm pro 1X due to its simplicity. Disregard the fact that I've tried it twice (and hated it). It was me. Not you.

Back to whatever I was talking about before.

One Up announced they are bringing an 11 speed, 10-50 cassette to the market.

Seems like a good idea to me, I guess.  I'd still find it to be a terrible option for me at this point, and not because of the size of the jumps between gears or the wear on an aluminum 50 tooth cog with the chain at maximum deflection or because it's green.  Just because it's gears in general.  All the reasons you might want to hate it are conveniently listed in each and every comment section available to a mountain biker with a keyboard.  What no one is pointing out here is the coincidental timing of this release... maybe because legit sources that want to keep their credentials can't do it. I have none of those.

Pictures were leaked back in late January of SRAM's new 12 speed 10-50 tooth cassette (and complete group).  Maybe they were fake, but SRAM's rush to get them taken down wasn't.  It was removed where it could be, but this is the internet.  Your leaked product photos and dick pics are going to be out there forever no matter how hard you try to get rid of them.

So the thing I find interesting, if the Eagle™ is real and the embargo date (the date which this information can be allowably disseminated, suspiciously one week after the death of the front derailleur video), is that One Up's timing is impeccable.

Which also makes me wonder...

One Up is a smaller company.  One of the advantages of being small is that they can go from idea to final product much faster than a lumbering behemoth of a company.

So...

Did One Up see this coming down the road a long time ago, did they react to the leaked images and beat the timing of the embargo, or a little bit of both?  Did someone get strangled at SRAM after the leak... only to be followed by a few other stranglings yesterday?

I'll just say this.  When I once had the ear of a product manager for a medium sized company, she told me all about the importance of a product release.  When the information gets out, how soon that product will be available, what other competing product lines they still have out there to support, how other releases of similar product can affect them, consumer behaviors... "industry" insider douchebag stuff that I just can't get enough of.

That's why I find this fascinating.  Not so much about the whole "gears" thing.  I still have $300 worth of shifty bits burning a whole in my anal cavity to remind me that I'm still not ready to go down that road. I'm old, but I'm not that old.

The "industry."  Such a strange and fascinating beast.  I just want to see how the sausage gets made by the man behind the green curtain.  ALL OF IT (even if I don't plan on eating it).