Originally Posted by
staehpj1
Agreed, but again not entirely a panacea. These options all have advantages, but also associated costs either in weight, initial cost, or efficiency.
I think that these internal geared hubs are interesting, but I am in no big rush to move to them. They will have their place, but I don't see them as superior overall, they do offer a different set of compromises that will suit some folks better and not others not as well.
You do realise that the efficiency numbers oft quoted for dérailleur gearing is with a clean system and a straight chain line, however that efficiency drops quickly once you get a little distance on it, so it gets dirty and there is usually less then 3 gears that have a perfectly straight chain line. I don't thing that weight is as big a deal as a lot of people make of it, take your typical dérailleur gearing system, you need to include the weight of additional chain rings and the rear cluster as well as the dérailleurs themselves, no one item is really heavy, but they do add up. What's the difference maybe 500g, while that would be a lot for a racer, for a touring bike it's not such a big deal.
One reason why they are expensive, is that production quantities are fairly low, so R&D must be recovered through the small quantity that they manufacture, and often the production process for low quantities is more expensive. If Shimano could sell 50,000,000 a year then they could sell them for the same price as a decent quality dérailleur. I think they will fit some forms of riding better then others.
In Europe where there are far more commuters, existing internal gear hubs are quite popular, because it just works, you pull out the bike, pump up the tires and go, many of those bikes the fully enclosed chain gets oiled once a year, when the bike goes to the shop for it's annual service. I can see this kind of "black box" drive being handy for touring, where you don't really want to be doing a lot of fiddling with maintenance in camp. Now replace the chain with a CF impregnated rubber belt and it becomes possible to do the Anchorage to Reo tour without touching the drive system at all.
Is it a panacea, no, it's not for everyone, it's not for all types of bikes either, but it can have some advantages. If it's popular then
Sturmey-Archer will likely bring out it's own 11 speed model sometime in the next couple of years, and SRAM may also get into the market, with their own model.
One thing I think is needed though is a drop bar compatible shifter, twist grip is fine for mountain bikes and commuters, not so good for touring, a brifter like shifter or trigger type shifter would be really helpful, something that Shimano could be trusted to develop.