Originally Posted by
cccorlew
I've seen a lot of posts making a fetish of internal gearing. Why? Maybe I'm missing something.
As a kid I had a 3-speed that gave me no end of pain. I had to coast to shift, and if anything went wrong it was hidden inside the hub, out of my reach.....
Are internals lighter, or more durable, or what? What's with 'em?
Internal hubs will shift standing still now, the only time they won't shift is under pedaling. So if you're in an urban riding situation where you end up making frequent stops (for traffic or whatever) it's nice to be able to switch back down into a lower gear
while standing still to get rolling again.
There's also often some maintenance advantage--but in more agreeable climates that's negligible. I lube my external-gear bikes maybe once every two months, but I don't ride in the rain or snow.
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