Classified is finally ready to launch it's groupset, but can it beat Shimano and SRAM?

Classified - the innovative Belgium drivetrain brand renowned for its two-speed integrated rear hub - is finally ready to release it's own groupset.

The 'Vistar Powershift' groupset is a collaboration between the hub gear box company and Taiwanese component manufacturer TRP (Tektro Racing Products). The one-by groupset was first spotted in testing at Unbound last year and promised better chainlines and sequential shifting across a 12 or 13 speed cassette.

We recently got our hands on the production ready groupset at the Riva Del Garda Bike Festival, where former cyclo cross World Champion, Mike Kluge, demonstrated the system in person and let us have a play with it ourselves.

The TRP partnership means Classified will produce two groupsets, a 1x16 and a 1x15 aimed at road and gravel respectively. Both have wireless electronic shifting, a 11-40 cassette and a gear range greater than a compact chainset.

Classified released their hub-based shifting system a number of years ago. It received widespread acclaim and got significant backing. It impressed us when we reviewed it in 2022 due to its market-leading 'front mech' shift performance, and last year it was available on bikes from Enve and wheelsets from Parcours. The UK based wheel brand developed specific products for the hub.

But without buy-in from the big groupset manufacturers Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo, the Classified hub has not broken into the mainstream. By collaborating with TRP, who are better known for their mountain bike components, Classified is aiming to get their Vistar Groupset specced on more bikes rather than just being an upgrade option. Ridley will be the first bike brand to offer the 1 x 15 and 1 x 16 set up to customers.

The Vistar groupset's USP is the 'Quantum-Shift' technology, that gives riders a genuine 'synchro-shift' style system without the need to move the chain over the front chainrings and rear sprockets simultaneously, to access their preferred gear ratios.

Having used it this weekend I can report that the 15 shifts available on the road system were extremely smooth, and the shifting chain, moving up and down the centre of the block when needed, doesn't feel any different to a normal shift.

A traditional 2X groupset offers 24 speeds with a 12spd cassette but it might only have 14-16 individual gear combinations due to crossover of the ratios creating duplication of gears. In this sequential 1 x shift set up, it selects the next nearest ratio for you, delivering 15 individual ratios in road format, and 16 in the gravel set up.

The near silent, and somewhat ghostly operations happening in the Powershift rear hub, give you the impression you've just accessed the next sprocket on your cassette, when in fact the chain has moved up a sprocket not down to find your next gear. It does this as it's giving you the next logical, closest ratio, rather than just defaulting to the next sprocket, as you would expect in a normal shift.

Aside from the obvious technological difference of this shifting system, it was good to get a look at the groupset in the metal too. TRP have done a good job when it comes to design of the Vistar groupset which looks like the love child of a SRAM and Shimano system at the lever, and a SRAM system that's been on a diet at the rear.

The cranks and chainrings are good looking too, similar to the SRAM approach in terms of design, with a premium feel to them. The cassettes are really lovely components, with premium looking finishes and a similarly high quality look and feel to them, not unlike some of the upgrade aftermarket solutions we've seen over the years.