When the belt manufacturer Gates offered €100,000 to the first elite rider to win a Downhill World Cup aboard a belt-driven, gearbox-equipped bike in 2024, no one was sure it would happen.
The 2024 season was quiet for belt-driven riders, while 2025 saw a few top 10s. However, in 2026 it became more of a question of ‘when’, rather than ‘if’ the ‘Gates Belted Purse’ would be won, after the likes of Gloria Scarsi and Reece Wilson proved themselves to be podium contenders throughout the early part of the season.
Then came the demanding course in Les Gets, France. Here, AON Racing’s Hattie Harnden proved not only how good she is as a rider, but that bikes with belts and gearboxes are capable of winning.
In the process, Harnden, one of the most successful multi-discipline racers Great Britain has ever seen, snagged herself and the team €100,000.
While the victory clearly cements the importance of alternative drivetrains in downhill racing, with the cash prize now won, will the hype around belts and gearboxes quieten down or are we going to see more of them in 2027?
- Read more: Why aren't gearboxes for bikes more popular?
Vive la belt-driven gearbox
Les Gets has rightly cemented itself as one of, if not the, premier weekends of World Cup racing, with a multitude of headlines being written across the four days of practice, qualifying and racing.
Rightly, it’s the athletes who garner the majority of the headlines.
Harnden won her first DH World Cup, contributing to an astonishing roster of accomplishments for the young British rider, ranging from cyclocross to DH, via XC and enduro.
Max Alran won in incredible fashion in the Men’s Elite DH – his first win in his first year in the category – sparking finish-line scenes that even French president Emmanuel Macron felt worthy of sharing on social media.
But for us tech heads, it's Harnden’s win that puts to bed a long-running thread of a story that kicked off in 2024 – Gates’ Belted Purse.
The prize, along with a plethora of bikes and riders using the system, shone a spotlight on the gearbox tech that has long promised a multitude of performance benefits.
Such benefits have a natural home in DH – centralised weight, incredible durability, improved suspension sensitivity and the ability to shift when not pedalling.
Things really got into gear in 2025 when the season kicked off with the likes of Atherton, Intense, Zerode and Gamux bolting Pinion gearboxes onto their innovative frames.
The roster of riders on their bikes was equally impressive – former men’s world champions Charlie Hatton and Reece Wilson, newcomer to DH Harnden and Mille Johnset, who had been knocking on the door for a few seasons.
Many expected the prize to be claimed in 2025, but for a range of reasons it never happened – not least because none of the riders went fast enough.
Ollie Clark came closest, winning on a Zerode G3, but he was in the junior category and therefore ineligible for the prize.
It’s fair to say the hype over the technology has cooled this year – the stories of the season have been far more rider- and race-focused rather than tech.
The rise of first-year elite racers such as the Alran brothers and Asa Vermette, showing the world what can be achieved on seemingly ‘stock’ bikes, has certainly been a focus.
But then Les Gets happened, Harnden won and that focus has shifted quickly back to bikes without traditional derailleurs and chains.
Perfect storm
The fast and rough track, which was a muddy hell-hole during qualifying before drying through race day, is arguably a great place to have a gearbox-driven bike.
Harnden qualified third, then dropped time in the early portion of the track on her race run, before lighting the afterburners and setting a time that neither Marine Cabirou nor multiple world champion and already overall 2026 World Cup winner Vali Höll could match by the time they crossed into the finish corral.
Not only did Harnden collect her first Downhill World Cup win, she also found herself in possession of the coveted Belted Purse €100,000 prize pot.
With the cash now won and, perhaps, peak hype reached, are we going to see a whole raft of bikes and teams shifting to this now ‘proven’ tech?
I’m not so sure.
Slow to catch on
Harnden's win was almost certainly, almost entirely, down to her skill as a rider, and while the bike clearly hasn’t slowed her down, correlation doesn’t equal causation.
There have been a lot of race runs on gearboxes that haven’t won, and while this season has also seen impressive results from Harnden's AON Racing teammate Wilson and MS Racing’s Gloria Scarsi, both on the gearbox and belt system, there hasn't been a wholesale shift in the results sheets.
Things could change, though.
The roster of gearbox riders has some talent – Harnden, Scarsi, Wilson, Hatton and his team mate, Luke Wayman, are all clearly big hitters. But if you dissect the top 10 to 15 riders in each category, the reality is the biggest stars are almost all on bikes with conventional drivetrains.
Perhaps the most obvious reason for this is the biggest stars, who demand the biggest pay cheques, can only be afforded by the biggest outfits.
These are more likely to be factory teams from the likes of Specialized, Trek, Canyon and Mondraker.
Such big brands are most likely to be working closely with the two major drivetrain manufacturers, both technically and financially, with neither SRAM nor Shimano offering a gearbox option.
While you’re highly likely to see brands such as those on your local trail, when did you last see a Gamux or a Zerode being ridden on your local trails?
These smaller brands are more likely to be able to break the mould, go their own way, throw the odd curveball, and in doing so, create some much needed noise about what they’re doing.
So, for the whole gearbox ‘thing’ to take off and for gearbox technology to dominate the results sheets, we’re going to need SRAM and/or Shimano to develop a gearbox for DH – and neither seems likely to do that any time soon.
Let's be honest
The reality is, while the Pinion and Gates system is very cool, and while it has some performance benefits on paper, it’s clearly not enough to give riders a percentage-point advantage on the course.
If it were, the biggest teams – and the major manufacturers – would be jumping on the hype train already.
On reflection, it may seem I’m being a bit of a sour-puss on gearbox downhill bikes. However, I promise I’m anything but.
I was screaming at the TV set when Harnden won the race, and visiting Reece Wilson earlier this year, and Atherton last year, were absolute highlights for my nerdy brain.
I love what they’re both trying to achieve with their respective DH bikes, and as riders, I’m huge fans of Hattie, Reece and Charlie.
I love the development that has gone into the Gamux and Atherton bikes, the performance focus both brands have, and the fact that they’re willing to push the envelope in the tech, the construction and even the aesthetics of their bikes.
They’re a true breath of fresh air in DH tech.
Even if the bigger brands don’t adopt gearboxes in the short- to mid-term future, every big brand will be looking at these small upstarts, and Harnden’s run will be being replayed in R&D offices the world over.
