no1mad 

1. If I buy this bike, and decide later to upgrade to more speeds, is it possible? Just install another hub, shifter, and chain?

2. Just how difficult is it to remove the wheel to change a flat?

I've got 21 speeds right now, and don't use even half of them. Thought about going to a SS, but it can get kinda windy around here.

Jeff Wills

1: hub and shifter. Chain remains the same.
2: no more difficult than any standard nutted hub. Loosen axle nuts, detach shifter cable, wheel comes out.

Robert Foster

I believe you have to also detach the coaster brake. I also don't know how the shifter attaches to the hub but I had a SRAM and it had to be detached before you could get to the nut.

PaulRivers

I have a 8 speed shimano alfine, and taking the rear wheel off is definitely more work than a regular wheel. Part of it is that it's different than the usual way, and that makes it unfamiliar. Part of it is additional stuff - like you have to carry a wrench of some sort to get the wheel off (no quick release).

tatfiend 

A coaster brake IGH requires undoing the brake torque arm from the frame as well as disconnecting the shifter at the hub and loosening the axle nuts. The added step compared to a non coaster brake IGH is undoing the brake torque arm connection to the chain stay.

no1mad 

So, note to self: Don't flat the rear tire.

HandsomeRyan

You should learn to patch a tube. It's a little more difficult to do it this way but often you can patch a tube without removing the wheel from the bike.

I prefer the oldschool glue on patches over the more modern "peel and stick" pre-glued type. If you do not know how to correctly patch a tube, there are dozens of how-to videos available online or the mechanics at your local shop should be willing to show you.

Juha

It can also be very simple. I have quite limited experience on IGHs but I did have to fix a rear flat on a Shimano 7-speed equipped bike once, complete with coaster brake. The shifter cable run down the whatsitsname tube to BB and along to chainstay to the shifter box, enclosed in housing all the way. The housing was attached to frame with small plastic tabs. Looking at the picture, it seems the bike you're considering has similar design (except for the coaster brake). I just had to disconnect the brake arm, then remove the couple of tabs that attach gear cable to the bike near the rear wheel and around BB. There was then enough slack in the cable so that rear wheel could be removed (after loosening the axle nuts of course). I never had to touch the shifter box at the hub, or disconnect gear cable from it.

If you have to remove the shifter box it gets more complicated as described earlier.

--J

closetbiker

It's a lot easier to take the rear wheel off an IGH bike than most think. After you've done it a couple of times, it's no big deal.

After using a conventional derailuer set up for the last 35 years, I switched to an IGH bike this past summer. Was flat free up until this past month. The last 3 weeks, I had 3 flats!

Time for a new tire.

PaulRivers

*I* own an IGH bike, and every year when I have to do it I forget how I did it last year and it ends up taking me half an hour to switch the rear tire.

Yes, if I could remember the steps it probably wouldn't be as hard. But in practice, I always forget. And I don't even have a coaster brake.

closetbiker

Yup. It helps to remember how to do something when you're doing it.

Maybe my recent, frequent flats had a silver lining?

PaulRivers

lol, yeah - sometimes I've thought that...

MichaelW

There is a trick to getting a Shimano gear cable in/out of the cassette arm; you need to rotate it a little by pulling down on the cable end, the metal clampy thing then falls out / slots back in.

tatfiend 

IMO the SRAM iM9 and Rohloff hubs have the easiest shifter cable detachment and my Rohloff even is held in by a normal quick release. Actually easier wheel removal than on a derailleur bike.

closetbiker

What I do is select first gear, loosen the wheel nuts, slide the wheel from the drop out, and then pull the cable from the slot to remove the nut at the end of the cable attached to the hub.

Putting it back on is the opposite. Place the wheel before the drop out, put the chain on the cog, put the nut at the end the cable in the slot at the hub, thread the cable around the hub and pull the cable housing so it slides into the cable slot, and then pull the wheel into the drop out.

I once was stuck trying to put the nut at the end of the cable into its place on the hub after I had the cable slotted through its guide. Took forever using vise grips and pliers, and had to twist the nut at a difficult angle to fit it into its place on the hub. It was near impossible.

LarDasse74

To get back the OP's question,

It will not be straightforward to convert to a derailleur and shifter style transmission becuase there is no derailleur hanger, from what I can tell. Not a deal breaker, but certainly limits your options and the quality of any conversion in the future.

You can, however, convert to one of the available 7 - 14 speed IGH hubs.
Although buying a new wheel, shifter, hub, cog, and various other bits you are probably more than half way to buying a whole new bike.

no1mad 

This is what I was attempting to ask in the OP.

badmother

Should be possible to put a der system, but I bet you`ll like IGH`s once you start using them!

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/product-S...g-Bolt-420.htm
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/product-S...-Fit-14759.htm

no1mad 

Alright, lemme clarify:

-Not interested in converting an IGH equipped bike into a conventional derailleur system. I've already got one with a 21 speed derailleur drivetrain.

-I realize that I should have used the term "gears" and not "speed".

I would prefer SS, but have my doubts as to the terrain, wind, and my own physical fitness level. 3spd IGH might work, but I am not sure. I was wanting to know how difficult to switch to a IGH with more gears. That stock IGH-3 might not be low enough for some of the hills around here, or it might be geared so low that I will find the top end lacking.

So, other than building a new wheel around another IGH and installing another shift controller on the handlebars, it's not too complicated?

LarDasse74

No. That is all you have to do.

I can't recall from looking at the bike - it has rim brakes and not coaster brakes, right? Rim brakes means you can use any IGH.

nymtber

Get armadillo tires, and some tough tubes, and you probably wont need to worry about it too much. Just a thought

PaulRivers

I've heard better things about both the ride and flat proofness of the Schwalbe Marathon Plus's though. :-)

closetbiker

I just bought a Continental Gatorskin. I hope I have better luck with that than I did this past month with an IRC Redline.

no1mad 

What, no tire liners?

There's all kinds of "which tire flats less/more" threads around BF...