So we’re down, or up, depending on your viewpoint, to eleven gears it seems, or even seven if downhill is your game. Clean, crisp reliable shifting has never been so good. You could argue that many riders are very brand loyal in their choice of drivetrain but seeing as there are only two major players our choice is relatively simple here. It’s also no surprise that those same two companies, SRAM and Shimano, are by far the leading lights this season on the braking systems with some truly stunning stoppers. Pretty easy then? Well, reasonably until you turn to pedals. Of course pedals can be personal too, just like drive, especially when it comes to clips, but you can never take away performance from the equation no matter how intimate you want to get. Nevertheless the flat pedal call was one of the hardest product choices to make given the huge variety.