kraftwerk 

I have ever only ridden single speed folders and have gotten by pretty well riding in Asia and Europe. The last place I went: Lausanne, Switzerland is sometimes referred to as the "Swiss San Francisco" for its steep hills (not for it's tech industry or claims on tie-dye.) Anyways, with a trip to LA next month, I am thinking an internally-geared hub-wheel might be in my future. Anyone suggest a brand of hub and number of gears? 7-8 sounds reasonable 3 could work I guess.. Lastly: anyone have one for sale? 451 is my choice but I could go 406 if the deal was too good to turn down. I might end up building my own wheel if I can't find one out there.
I own a Swift and a Raleigh Folding Twenty.

Just found this awesome thread:
https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-bi...b-upgrade.html

Maybe I will go with a derailleur and freewheel to save weight since I have all the stock-Swift parts here but I kind of like the idea of internal hub for some reason..

fietsbob

like I said on the other post..

Rohloff distils a whole Mountain bike drive train down to 14 ratios Made in Germany . I have one in My Bike Friday Pocket Llama 16:53t

They can Build you a wheel there, In Eugene.. they will also do a Shimano Alfine 11 or 8 speed ..

and in addition the Sturmey Archer 8 speed is well suited for small wheels . it's direct gear is the Lowest one
the other 7 are Overdrives so low is the cog [20,23,25t] and chainring choice .

PRODUCTS: www.rohloff.de
Alfine
Sturmey Archer | X-RF8

Put a 2 speed planetary crank Of Swiss origins on my Brompton 17" low 80" high 3 speed hub gears Used twice for 6 total ..
double planetaries make a fast double shift.

kraftwerk 

Rohloff ...always liked those a bit spendy though.
Alfine looks good 8 gears, maybe more than i need. Hmmm
3 speed might be the way to go..but I might want more choice.

Have to give this a solid think..

jur

I have an Alfine hub (7 or 8?) that I am ready to get rid of. A friend gave it to me and I had a vague idea to build it into a wheel for a Swift but I have no spare time and too many spare parts.

khutch

I used a SRAM dual drive rear wheel on my Dahon Mu for a while. It holds an 8 speed cluster (and probably 9, I don't recall) and gives you three speeds internally. I thought it would be great for long distance riding and it was, but I quickly learned that the Mu itself was not that great for long distance riding so I got another bike to do that. An IGH is great for commuting because you can shift it at a standstill when unexpected developments force a quick stop. The dual drive is pretty good for that but with only three internal gears not as good as it could be. So I switched to using a Nuvinci hub on that bike and while it is HEAVY it is also DELICIOUS! I still smile almost every time I ride it. You probably don't want a Nuvinci since you list weight as a concern. If you want to try a dual drive, let me know, I've always meant to get around to selling my dual drive wheel some day....

kraftwerk 

It's amazing how many options there are out there...

BruceMetras

The last incarnation of my Xootr Swift going from box stock to weight weenie Rolf wheels, skinny tire, derailleur set up was a Nexus Redband/Alfine 8 install with paddle shifter and Big Apples .. Alfine is nice for touring as 5th is direct drive so the 4 gears below it give you plenty of low gears within the 300+% range.. Big Apples took the road harness out .. you could build into a 451 wheel for speed, but then you would get the harshness back due to lack of high volume tires in that size.. the Nexus also has a very good reliability track record with a top notch price/performance ratio..