| Country: | France | Primary Focus: | Hubs / Shifters |
| Years of Operation: | 1996 - 1999 |
Using a 7-speed rear cassette combined with a triple front derailleur, the EGS Synchro Shift system provides the rider with 11 speeds to choose from. With the synchro shift, it is possible to select and synchronise all the effective gears by means of a barrel inside the grip. The barrel is the controlling part of the system. It eliminates mechanically inefficient gear combinations and ratio-redundant gear combinations, offering only the most effective gears to the user. The gear combinations are staged progressively and naturally and are selected by the simple rotation of one grip. This product is designed to chose the best sprocket and chainwheel. It is a system that provides one shifter controlling two derailleurs simultaneously. It uses all relevant gears that produce progressive covered distances and a continually straight chain line.
Source: Edited text from EGS Syncho Shift website
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EGS was formed by Franck Savard and Christian Gauthier in April, 1996. Franck Savard was possibly the inventor of these devices.
EGS had plastic and CNC machined versions of the EGS Synchro Shift. After a few years (1998?) they also showed a CNC machined derailleur called Up Cage. This device was popular with French downhill racers. EGS made not only the Synchro Shift twist grip range and the Up Cage
derailleur but also a brake system called Twin Motion (which was a
double action brake lever) and a cassette hub called The Flash Hub. Then EGS disappeared never to be heard of again.
EGS was based at Châtellerault near Poitiers, close to the
Futuroscope theme park that was (is?) a popular point on the route of
the Tour de France. By the time of its bankruptcy in 1999, EGS claimed
to have sold 200,000 Synchro Shifts, to have 73 brands speccing their
products and to have distributors in 15 countries.
Following the bankruptcy, Shimano bought all the patents at a bargain price, and, according to Bike Europe, the EGS development team were ‘infected with melancholy’ by this outcome. The Poitiers facility was possibly taken over by IRCOS (see Stronglight), but IRCOS itself went bankrupt in 2000.
Source: Edited text from Michael Sweatman's Disraeli Gears website. |
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