Originally Posted by Abneycat

I don't know of any hub motor that uses multiple speeds aside from the Crystalyte dual speed series (which don't use gearing, rather a selectable stator setup). I've heard some fairly mixed reports about how well these dual speed motors work.

I recall the Sparc as well, but as JC says, it has an internal gear system like a Sturmey-Archer and so on, but the motor itself doesn't utilize that gearing. One of the big reasons is probably cost, both of these objects (geared motors and internal gear hubs) are expensive compared to their counterparts, dérailleurs and direct drive hubs, combining them together would likely make one *very* expensive piece of equipment.

In my opinion, something like this would probably be *great*, with high performance and low maintenance, if done right. But with the amount of complexity involved, it would have to be done *right*, and would cost dearly to do so.