General Cycling Discussion - internally geared mountain bike (Crosspost from MTB forum)

Does anyone know if Centurion Bikes of Denmark are available here the United States? They have an internally geared Mountian Bike called the Crazy Point 7 that looks pretty interesting. However, I'm here in Houston Texas and I don't have any points of contact in Denmark who could ship me one.

In fact I'd be interested in any domestic sources of a classic framed Mountian Bike with Internal Gears. I have a family member who wants gears but doesn't want the perennial futzing of conventional derailurs.

I have a Niner Sir 9 set up as an internal geared 29er. It has eight speed Sturmey Archer. That's my MTB setup. As for a 26er, I can't help you there - most of them alas, come with vertical dropouts!

I wonder about the durability of the Shimano 7 speed hub under MTB use. Plenty of people have had a hard time using them on city bikes. However! there is a "kontakt" link at the bottom of the page, and ask if anyone is importing them to the US in small numbers. I haven't heard of anyone, but this is a big country;)

Aaron:)

Thorn Cycles in England does Rohloff hub mountain bikes. They do ship to the U.S. though no current dealers here that I could find when I did a Google search some months ago.

Based on listed input torque limit the NuVinci may be the strongest hub on the market. Damn heavy though. The only gear hub with the overall range of most MTB gearing is the Rohloff. Any MTB using a gear hub other than the Rohloff is going to be limited in capability due to gearing range limitations. The Rohloff has a range of 525% overall. Next best are the NuVinci with 350% and the SRAM iMotion9 with 340%. The Shimano 8 speed is about 305% as I recall and their 7 speed is about 250%.

The SRAM Dual Drive, incorporating a 3 speed hub and a 8 or 9 speed casette, is intended for MTB use. It is normally installed with a single chain ring, eliminating the front derailleur at least.

One of my friends uses a rohloff hub wheel for mtbing- they even make a really nice tensioner for vertical dropouts. End product weighs about the same as a deraiier bike, but with zero gear maintenance and same gear range. Also, you can shift without pedaling.

Voodoo makes single speed frames that work very well with IGHs.
http://homepage.mac.com/awcg/.Pictures/Bike/Voodoo.jpg

err, edited my post out, thought they had the alfine hubs in their mtb rentals for some reason

I rode a $100 mountain bike. I had "perennial futzing" with the derailleurs. Perhaps some more experienced people can chime in here, but it seems to me that the problem was riding a crappy bike, rather than derailleurs themselves being the problem. Anyway, those hubs don't come cheap, and by the time you get one built into a decent bike, you'll have a bunch of money invested. It might be a better plan to see if using higher quality derailleur gears properly adjusted would eliminate the problems previously encountered, without having to resort to an oddball and limiting hub setup.

It would cost you about a grand to $1100 just for the hub, but you can see about a mountain bike that uses a Rohloff hub. It's best if the frame has the right rear dropouts for it, but it can be retrofitted to existing vertical dropouts using a torque arm.

Advantage of Rohloff hub -- darn near indestructable, assuming you change the oil when recommended. Only real disadvantage is that it costs a pretty penny.