patentcad

14 + a triple = 42 speeds. Think of the cross-chaining potential. It's enough to give every Fred on BF a brain aneurism.

FlashUNC

Give Shimano another couple years. They haven't gotten around to their latest binge of forced obsolescence.

That diagram is pretty nutty.

logdrum

If a nexus type 14 speed hub can get down to 160 grams and have the noise level of a zipp FRONT hub and the ability to move from a 60 g rear hub casing on a rear wheel and survive a compression force of 4700 lb/sq inch -- coupled to a 100 gram electronic shifting mechanism with a 50 gram battery that can perform one 1 shift per 4 seconds while coupled to a 500 lb flywheel for 72 hours on a single five minute charge...

That will be the day!

asmallsol

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/nanodrive/index.html
Why not just go nanodrive?

As for adding 2 more gears in the rear, I don't get the point. Even with a 12-25 cassette matched to a R700 compact crank, I never suffer from gaps in my gearing, and I have a very high cadence. If you really want more gears, why not just go with a...gasp...Triple.

Az B

This is the future. No cables, no complex brifters, and a huge selection (2) of gears available.

Prepay now and be the first one on your block.

Az

2manybikes

Very true. They may have discovered something about it they don't like by now.

MIN 

Continuously variable transmissions are the future, or something like a Rohloff. 12-speed dishing is stupid and a "just because we can"-type of devolution.

banerjek

Better yet, an 11-34 corncob. I can see it now. Cogs as thin as razor blades (that you can even shave with in a pinch) and a chain so thin and fine you'd have to worry about your wife wanting to wear it....

2manybikes

You don't need all that complicated stuff. If you put another gear on the other side of the hub, all you have to do is turn the wheel around. As long as your fingers don't get cold doing it up in the alps!

Cerberusgl

12 to 14 speeds hmm. Sure, and how long would the chain and cogs last? I killed an AM 10spd Conversion casset and connex chain in 1200mi. Went back to 9 spd so I could at least get 3000-4000miles out of a cassette. Or I could stop mashing on my commute.

Slice2

Isn't the designation of the new e-Dura Ace "D12"? First thing that occured to me when I saw that was that they're setting the stage for a 12-speed cassette.

Bob Dopolina 

+1000

This is a typical Shimano strategy.

They have patents on anything and everything they can think of, even things they have no intention of developing. They sit on them and, when a competitor comes out with a product that infringes on one of their myriad patents, they sue the crap out of them. This ties up money, resources, time...

They've been doing it to Campagnolo for years. Now they have their sites on Sram, who is, after all, their real OE competitor.

Shimano won't just compete on design and innovation, they've gotta drag the bloody lawyers into it. Factor that into the cost of your new 7900 group.

Bad Shimano, bad.

SpongeDad

If it wasn't for bloody lawyering, I wouldn't be able to afford the new 7900 group.

While it is definitely the case that companies try to patent not just their product lines but the commercially viable space around their product lines, it's pretty damn hard to do much more than that. Patenting everything under the sun becomes very expensive and the return can be pretty iffy once you start getting away from the projects that you think are viable especially when you consider that the decision to file a patent on something may come several years before market entry is even feasible.

But is Shimano bad? Hell yes, they're gonna make my 7800 obsolete ('cause you know they aren't going to really support it). It's bad enough having 9sp stuff on my winter bike.