Originally Posted by
bigbossman
Please define "substantial hills". I can't see a loaded mixte with an internal hub hauling cargo up a substantial hill - at least by my definition of a "substantial hill".
BBM, the mixte I built for my wife has a low gear of about 29 inches, more than adequate to pull our trailercycle and our 45lb daughter up a very steep hill to our house. It was specifically designed around an IGH. If we wanted, we could lower the gearing down even further, at the expense of the top end (300% range on this hub).
Originally Posted by
snarkypup
I can't do the work myself. I mean, I can put wheels on a frame. I can put a new stem on, or add grips or stuff like that. But the pain/lack of torque-ing ability in my hands means NO real wrenching. I won't do it to my body. It just isn't worth the possiblity of a disconnected finger (they pop out with no real cause. It's part of the same reason my neck hurts when I ride the Panasonic).
Velouria had a good point about this when we were discussing what the bike cost me to build. She pointed out that most bike shops won't charge much to build up a bike. Partly because they are profiting on all the parts used to build up the bike. For example, I spent at least $400 on VO parts for this bike (on sale-- retail would have been $500). If a bike shop orders VO parts at wholesale, they're going to profit about $200 on those parts alone. I think if you took the build list to a few different bike shops and asked told them you wanted to drop $1200 in their shop, they'd seriously consider making it happen. Of course, the build quality might not quite match ;-).
Oh, and do you have a connective tissue disorder? I have one, and my shoulder and hip joints can pop out of their sockets at will. Seriously. I used to think it was cool to be "double jointed" until I started getting joint pain as an adult. Although, despite joint pain, it is pretty cool to be this flexible at 42
.