Originally Posted by
DJH8098
Nexus gearing:3 speeds with a 186% gear range: 1st gear = 0.733, 2nd gear = 1.00 (direct drive), 3rd gear = 1.36
Nuvinci 330 :330% Nominal Ratio - 0.5 underdrive to 1.65 overdrive
So the lowest gear is lower than the Nexus if the front and rear cogs are the same. Also the highest gear is going to be "heavier" in the same scenario causing faster speeds.
higher gear is 'heavier', but unless one got the muscle to power them, it usually doesn't mean higher speed. I always thought I was going faster on the bikes with the NuVinci gears vs the Nexus, but the bike app I use says otherwise for the recent 5 to 7 times that I used the NuVinci bikes. The many times I'm spinning like mad on the Nexus bikes, thinking "man, I wish this thing had a higher gear", I might be generating more power at those RPM.
Also, as I and someone else that rode the NuVinci bike have noticed, once in a while, a bike's top gear feels noticeably lower than a Nexus's fixed top gear. I suspect the shifter cabling setup is not adjusted so the CVT's top gear ratio is reached.