Seems cool you can mix and match again, but time will tell whether their improved wear and tear resistance is marketing dreck or actually pans out. I kind of get the feeling it's not going to be as good as using thicker 7/8/9-Speed chains.
Also kind of worried about parts for my traveling bike. Really don't want a 1x11 on that one, even if has similar range. Hope Microshift keeps cranking out 3x systems.
Hubs have 8 speeds now? My bicycle is literally from :19::84: so I was not aware of how advanced this shit was getting.
Ever since Fichtel & Sachs / SRAM dropped their internal hubs in like the mid 2000s (sort of a slow death type situation) the regular consumer market is basically Shimanos 3, 7 and 8 Nexus internal hubs and their Alfine 8 and 11s. Latter one gets pricey though.
After that you get Rohloff with 14 gears (really pricey) and Pinion, which attaches to the crank set and goes up to 16, but it does require a specialty frame and the gearbox itself ain't cheap, getting into really, really pricey here.
Enviolo is pushing into the market, they do CVTs for bikes - mostly electric because the abhorrent inefficiency isn't such a problem. Soo....infinite gears on that one, I guess. They're now coming with automated shifting though, kind of fancy. You can get a all-wheel drive automated shifting e-bike with ABS these days.
Honorable mention to Bromptons weird gearbox design that gets you up to 6 speeds here.
After that is just niche stuff. They're still making repro Sturmey Archer A2K automatic two speed hubs (shifts via centrifugal force) or stuff like the Schlumpf drive (crankset gearbox with 2 gears, attaches to your standard issue bicycle)