Originally Posted by
northernlights
the only thing worse than the noise is the weight of this hub. feels like pedaling with a lead weight attached to your wheel. and the gearing is too high. gears 5 thru 8 are practically useless. it desperately needs a lower gear range.
in a word, it sucks.
I think it's important to get gear 5 as your direct drive leaving you only 3 high gears. However, I'm not sure if SA recommends using a small chainring to do this. All hub gears are heavy and it's something you have to live with. This is why I prefer the SA 3 speed because it weights very little but I live with the friction loss.