Who made bike gears?

The very first bicycles, the precarious high-wheelers, offered nothing in the way of gear selection; every pedal stroke resulted in exactly one wheel rotation, making hills a test of brute force or a very long walk. The ability to adjust the relationship between leg power and wheel speed is a relatively modern convenience, requiring nearly a century of engineering refinement after the initial safety bicycle appeared around 1885.

# Early Adjustments

The initial attempts to gain mechanical advantage were rudimentary, often requiring the cyclist to stop completely. On some early designs, achieving a different ratio meant physically detaching the rear wheel, flipping it around to expose a second sprocket, and remounting it—a process that clearly favored riding on flat ground. While this offered a choice of two gears, it was a compromise at best, as the selected ratio was rarely optimal for the terrain.

As bicycles evolved, the hub gear emerged as a more contained solution, packaging the necessary components into a self-sealing unit within the rear hub. These systems gained popularity through the early 1900s, dominating the market until around 1930, as they were easy to use compared to swapping entire mechanisms. However, racing cyclists generally rejected them due to their added weight and the difficulty in performing field repairs on the sealed mechanism.

# Derailleur Concept

The true breakthrough that led to contemporary gearing systems was the derailleur—the mechanism designed to deliberately move the chain from one sprocket to another. The basic principle of "derailing" the chain was first laid out in a French patent by Jean Loubeyre. Yet, the concept was met with significant resistance from the professional racing community. Even the founder of the Tour de France, Henri Desgrange, famously opposed variable gears, suggesting they were only for riders past the age of forty-five.

Despite this skepticism, the idea persisted. In 1905, the passionate French cycling advocate Paul de Vivie, known by his pen name "Velocio," was testing various schemes, including a two-speed derailleur called the Cyclist. The shift away from single-speed racing finally began when the Tour de France permitted derailleurs in competition in 1937. These initial race-legal devices were still cumbersome; riders had to reach down near the rear wheel and physically guide the chain across the sprockets by hand, a difficult balancing act while moving.

Who invented gears on a bike?

# Cable Innovation

The next crucial step was replacing physical rods with cables. In 1938, the French company Simplex introduced the first system that used a cable and pulley arrangement to manage chain tension and movement between sprockets. This represented a significant departure from direct mechanical linkage.

The progression continued when Tullio Campagnolo launched the Gran Sport in 1949, which is often highlighted as a revolution because it allowed for consistent shifting, even if it was still performed by feel rather than automated indexing. The parallelogram design popularized by Campagnolo allowed the chain to move left and right while staying parallel to the cogs, leading to smoother motion. Another early player, Lucien Juy of Simplex, secured a major victory when Fausto Coppi won the 1949 Tour de France using a Simplex derailleur. However, for decades following Campagnolo’s breakthrough, shifting remained a friction-based art, requiring the rider to listen for distinct sounds and feel the transmission to know the chain had settled correctly onto the desired cog.

It is interesting to note the engineering philosophy of this friction era. When a rider had to rely solely on feel, they were acutely attuned to the drivetrain’s operation. This forced an intuitive mastery of the system, where the feel of the bike dictated the shift timing. This contrasts sharply with today’s systems, where a precise click or electronic signal removes much of that physical feedback loop from the rider’s immediate required attention.

# The Rise of Indexing

The world changed again in the late 1980s with the arrival of indexed shifting, driven largely by the Japanese manufacturer Shimano. Shimano introduced its Shimano Index System (SIS), most notably on the high-end DURA-ACE 7400 series in 1984. Indexing meant the shifter would click into a predefined position, telling the derailleur to move a specific, measured amount, placing the chain precisely on the next cog. This positive click eliminated the guesswork of friction shifting.

This innovation brought about a fundamental shift in how components were manufactured and sold. With friction systems, almost any derailleur could work with any shifter; with SIS, components had to work in harmony because the cable pull per click was standardized. This necessity paved the way for the modern concept of the "group set," where drivetrain parts—shifters, derailleurs, cassette—are designed to function optimally only when used together.

Shimano’s strategic approach during this period was distinct from the European incumbents like Campagnolo. While Europeans often debuted new technologies at the premium level and waited for consumer demand to trickle them down, Shimano and SunTour (a competitor at the time) introduced innovations like indexing at the lower end of the market, often using less expensive materials, before moving them upmarket. This cost-effective scaling, combined with constant technical refinement, allowed Shimano to overtake older manufacturers. By the 1990s, this strategy had cemented Shimano's position as the world's largest bicycle component manufacturer, accounting for an estimated 85% of the global market by value.

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# Total Integration and Beyond

Once indexing was established, the focus moved to rider stability and convenience. In 1990, Shimano introduced Shimano Total Integration (STI), merging the shift mechanism directly into the brake lever assembly for road bikes. This meant riders no longer needed to reach for downtube shifters, allowing their hands to remain constantly on the handlebars for braking and shifting. Campagnolo followed with its own integrated system, Ergo-Power.

The evolution didn't stop at mechanical linkage. In 2009, Shimano introduced electronic shifting with DURA-ACE Di2, which utilized wires to deliver precise motor commands to the derailleurs. While French company Mavic had pioneered electronic shifting with its Zap system in 1992, and later Mektronic, their attempts were plagued by unreliability, slow shifts, and radio interference issues. Shimano succeeded where Mavic faltered by sticking to a reliable, wired connection for direct control.

The competition in the drivetrain space—now fiercely contested by Shimano, Campagnolo, and SRAM (which entered the road market around 2006 with its DoubleTap logic)—has continuously driven the pace of innovation. SRAM later introduced its own wireless electronic system, eTap, a development that validates the concept Mavic first tried to bring to market wirelessly.

# Modern Complexity and Rider Benefit

The advancement in gear selection is staggering when comparing eras. In the 1980s, a professional cyclist like Bernard Hinault might ride a maximum top gear ratio of around 53x12, with his lowest climbing gear being a relatively high 42x22 or 42x24. Today, a professional might use a mid-compact setup like a 52/38 front paired with an 11-30 cassette, resulting in a much easier climbing gear (a lower ratio) than what Hinault considered adequate for the steepest slopes.

This massive increase in available gear range highlights a key difference between then and now: the tolerance for larger jumps between gears. Modern wide-range cassettes offer exceptional low-end climbing ability, but the gaps between successive cogs can be significant, forcing the rider to accept larger, more noticeable changes in cadence with every shift. For example, the rise of 1x (single chainring) drivetrains, pushed heavily by SRAM, simplifies the system but exacerbates these ratio jumps in exchange for lighter weight and mechanical simplicity.

Looking at how far we have come, it strikes one that the early pioneers like Loubeyre and Velocio were fighting for the ability to shift while moving, dealing with equipment that was often unreliable and difficult to operate. Today, the issue isn't capability; it's optimization and refinement—whether to choose the absolute lightest setup, the most electronically precise, or the simplest mechanical offering. The sheer breadth of choice, from 1x SRAM systems to 12-speed electronic Shimano groupsets, is a direct result of over a century of engineers like Loubeyre, Campagnolo, and the founders of Shimano pushing the boundaries of what was possible on the chain and sprocket.