I’m likely to retire early next year and have been mulling over a new bike to mark the occasion. The bike will likely be a gravel race frame that I can use as a road bike as well. I love the concept of the Classified hub. Run a single ring and access the gear range of a double. But I have yet to see one in the wild, so to speak. Is anyone in this Community using a Classified? What do you see as the upsides/downsides? And would you buy it again?
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The 1x groups are getting so good, I don’t quite see the benefit on gravel. It would however be nice to ditch the Fri t derailleur on road where I’m more picky about cadence.
Right now I’m skittish about the maturity of the classified hubs and whether they will stick around.
I would be afraid of servicability, e.g. how quickly are spare parts available, or is it necessary to send the hub back to classified for maintenance?
I‘ve been running a Sram XPLR 12s on the gravel bike and replaced it with a 2x GRX Di2. IMO it’s better in any aspect than the 1x. The front derailleur is absolutely no problem, also on rough roads. The cassettes are a lot cheaper too.
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The classified system is really well made. I’ve worked on some with a lot of gravel miles still working great. The proprietary cassette is the only part that would give me pause.
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They might work okay, but it’s a super expensive, complex and proprietary way to replace light and mature tech. Servicing and longer term spare parts availability are huge question marks, and I wouldn’t touch this system unless you’re prepared to write it all off if they go bust.
That is excellent news Bruce, particularly given that early next year is 34 days away. Most important factor is for you to get what you bloody well want. Get something different, something that marks out your milestone and your pathway forward … always looking ahead and upwards. Geez, if we all bought stuff that was mature and well established it’d be a pretty boring show (says he enjoying his WRP hub and its silence). The Classified hub doesn’t seem to have any reported reliability issues. There have been some EC podcast grumbles about the quality of the shift hardware but that may have been sorted. Rather than failing, it seems more likely that they would be acquired. If I was a betting person (which I am not, because betting is pure evil), my money would be on DT Swiss. So it’s an unqualified, uneducated Yes from me.
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Doesn’t Rob Britton race on a classified hub and the first few times everyone thought he was nuts for his 1x chainring selection?
I ran one for a couple of years on my road bike, Enve Melee with 4.5SES wheels. Did lots of different riding including Haute Route Dolomites so plenty of big hills.
Overall my experience is the concept is great and I think it would be perfect for a gravel bike for rolling terrain. When it’s in it’s 1:1 mode it’s quiet smooth and you don’t even notice anything, with the reduced gear you did occasionally here a background noise from the rear hub, I had early version and did have some issues with the noise from the tension bar that rests on the rear stay but got that resolved.
I’m planning on moving it to my gravel bike at somepoint as I think it’s a good setup and have gone back to 2x for road use.
But shifting underload in ms is amazing fun, I just wish it had proper integration into groupsets… I run SRAM.
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I also have the Classified hub set up on my road bike since late 2023. Overall pretty positive experience and quite uneventful (in a good way). Once you get used to the shifter button (I got two separate for on and off on each side of the handlebar), things just work.
Would I buy it again today? Unlikely, because:
- While never promised, I somehow speculated that the integration with my SRAM shifters and my Hammerhead Karoo would have happened by now. Unfortunately zero signs this is on the horizon (I believe there’s some movement with Shimano?!)
- While I like the tinkering with new tech, supporting alternative ideas, etc I don’t feel there’s much gain once it’s all set up. The overall bike weight just shifts from 2x chainrings and front derailleur to the back wheel and being locked in to their cassette also means your gear ratio is on par with a similar traditional setup (maybe the enclosure is a big plus based on your gravel riding)
- Wheel choices are a bit limited, so based on what your direction is there, this might get in your way. But might also be a non issue (I ended up with Parcours wheels)
- I just finished a gravel/all-road build with the 13spd Force XPLR and I feel this is the simpler setup that works for me, even on a pure road ride. But that might be highly subjective based on your gear requirements and preferences. So given this is an option today on newer frames with UDH, I personally would give that a try over Classified
That all being said, the experience with Classified was overall very positive in that it delivered exactly what was promised and the non-integration isn’t a real show stopper, you get used to it pretty quick. Obviously budget comes into play too, but it sounds like that’s already considered in your case 
Call out if you want more details on any of that, happy to help. I found Peak Torque has quite a few good youtube videos on it and there was one from Ben Delaney recently looking at the whole integrated groupset (didn’t sound quite perfect yet)
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Thanks all for your comments! In particular those who have used the Classified product. One reason I’m considering the hub is their integration with Shimano. But my concerns also include the proprietary cassette and whether or not they have a US distributor for parts and support.