I got one for the NuVinci Hub. I couldn't pass up a deal like that, $400 with free shipping. I received my Cadillac Bike within a couple days of ordering it. Impressive. I slapped it together in my living room, in a jiffy, and took it out for a ride. Here is my story:
With every rotation of the cranks, there was a sound reminiscent of when a chain guard is rubbing on the chainwheel teeth. I've had that happen on numerous bicycles as a kid, that were equipped with such pant-leg protectors. I just pushed the sound away, as I wanted to ride a little longer, to get a feel of this new GM vehicle (It says General Motors on the box it shipped in). When I got home, turns out that that sound was actually not the chain guard. It was my new Nuvinci shifter cables being chewed away by the front chainwheel. Ouch. Didn't eat through the skin, and I plan on getting some longer cables anyway (if I can figure out how to remove and replace those cables in that shifter).
The way this Cadillac Fleetwood is designed, the cables will rub. The cable stops welded on the aluminum frame, are just in the wrong places. I had to zip-tie the cables taut against a chainstay, to keep the shifter cables safe. Strike one.
Strike two was a little harder to diagnose. My bike was creaking, like crazy as I rode it. Just echoing through the large diameter aluminum tubing, really amplifying the sound. The thing is, this is a (huge) $400 investment for me, and I really believed in this hub. I've been drooling over it for years now, and I really wanted this to work out. This bike didn't come with a Nuvinci Manual. Just some Pamphlet, about 7 pages, that didn't tell me anything I wanted to know, but I figured out how to remove the shifter cables from the axle, then I removed the wheel. My freewheel was the culprit. It has a lot of play, and as I turned it with my fingers, I could feel and hear it creak, popping, almost. Slipping. Being a piece of brand new junk. I didn't want to deal with shipping this bike back, and I don't know how to build wheels yet (though I'm mustering up the courage to try), so I got online, and ordered Nuvinci proprietary freewheel service kit, which arrived today.
Nice tools. Nuvinci branded, and the job took me like thirty seconds. I was almost disappointed I didn't get to use my new tools a little longer. Oh well, put them safely away, in my drawer, probably won't use it again for years. Anyway, I replaced it with the same count (17t) freewheel, but this time a Shimano Branded one, made in Japan. Another thing that prompted me to service my freewheel, was when I looked up Nuvinci Hubs online, they said they didn't come with a freewheel, so it made sense to me, that Cadillac would fit the cheapest freewheel in the world to their bike, which they did, at least on the one I got.
Buttoned her back up, and took her for a spin. No creaking! Wow, this is the first time I really got to feel this thing. Took a few tries, keeping faith through disappointments, but it paid off. I ended up riding a lot further than I thought on that test ride. Cool, but then that NuVinci started squeaking like a thousand hungry baby birds with nests in my hair. (I found the thread about the squeaks, and I plan to slather some tri-flow all over it, and I still have faith).
There were other creaks, not as loud - coming from that terrible adjustable stem. And there's no provisions for a front brake on that Cadillac Bike either. I'd swap out the fork, but that's set up rather strangely as well. It's a 1 and 1/8 inch threaded headset, but the lower bearing race is welded to / part of the fork. Not only that, the head tube is HUGE, like a Cannondale, (1 and 3/4 inch O.D.) with a reducer to fit the 1 and 1/8 inch adjustable stem. My conclusion is that the only way to have front brakes is to either weld (the fork is steel) some bosses on that fork, or just toss the frame completely which is what I was thinking when I ordered it.
The handlebar was ridiculous. I threw on a Surly Torsion 1x1 bar, and the ergonomics really improved considerably. Oh, and I really like the way it looks. I keep thinking, "my other bike's a Cadillac". The seat was terrible to pedal with, but I threw it on my electric cargo / chopper bike, and it's SUPER comfortable on that thing. WIDE saddle, built for some hefty American passengers, and not any good for pedaling, because it's too wide, but I got use out of it.
I switched out that disk with a Hayes hydraulic I had laying around, and noticed the rotor bolts look like galvanized allen head bolts, but they worked. The Hayes hydraulic lever didn't work with the NuVinci shifter, because the two bolt design was too bulky, and the lever would hit the shifter, inhibiting it's range of motion. I had to throw the Hayes lever on the left side of the bar, but this was doable, luckily the Hayes is symmetrical and reversible.
With the thin seat, and the flat bar, the bike looks completely different, and it's much more rideable. (by the way the seatpost on the Cadillac Fleetwood is 27.2mm, so I had an Easton laying around to swap it with, because the one it comes with only holds those saddles with that clanky 14mm steel thing that only holds wide saddles)
Oh, the rear wheel with the DaVinci hub is out of round. Isn't that just a bummer? Yes, it is. Darn it. I'll have to build a wheel sooner than I thought.
Conclusion. Yes, this is a "cheap" bike. Would I recommend it? No. Not unless it was someone who only wanted the hub, and wanted to spend the extra dough to get the special tools and a better freewheel. Someone who was prepared to add front brakes. Someone who has tools and a workstand, and all the extra parts needed to make the bike rideable. That being said, I don't want to ride the bike. I am getting a frameset, and building up something much better. I am not a big fan of aluminum for bicycle fans either. But I really dig that shape, and with the new set up, it rides like a mountain bike, instead of a "cruiser" - too bad it still sucks.
I should take some pictures before I tear this thing apart, and I might just do that later today. But it's a tough call. It might save you some pain, to just order the hub alone. At least you wouldn't need any special tools, because you'd start with a decent freewheel with your build. The build that I have to do anyway.
As far as the hub - first impression: really neat! Didn't notice the weight nearly as much as I thought I would, but it was harder to climb this hill than I wanted it to be. I think I'll notice a huge improvement once I get rid of the new squeaks, and fit it to a round wheel, on a decent steel frame. One more annoyance, is it sounds like a disc brake is rubbing as I rotate the NuVinci up in the workstand. I've removed all disk brakes while examining this. Noticeable drag, but as the wheel slows, once it starts rotating slow enough, it sounds clearly like a disk brake is dragging inside the hub. I'm just hoping this with go away on it's own - I've heard it takes a few miles to "break-in" these hubs, and that's just where I'm at with that dragging noise for now. I'm looking forward to a long future with my NuVinci Hub.
Here are some pictures:
