“If this patent becomes reality and is adopted by mainstream brands — which isn’t beyond the realms of possibility, given Shimano’s influence in the OEM market — it could represent a potentially huge change to bicycle design.”

If you are a bike nerd this is some heavy shit. Shimano has filed a patent that strongly suggests that it is finally developing a gearbox for both road and mountain bikes. If you examine the patent filings you can see exactly how the gearbox could work along with details of a low-friction coating for chainrings and chains that could reduce the drag of a gearbox (one of the main failure points in most bike gearboxes). Time will tell if this is an improvement on derailleur systems but if it is the bike industry could be in for a massive change?