Originally Posted by
Joe Bikerider
I appreciate all the thoughtful comments. It might matter that these days I mostly ride two different IGH hub bikes. One Biria 8 speed and the other a Linus 8 speed. Different Shimano hubs. You’ve made me think about what I like (or don’t) about the two. I think range is very important (of course) and after that the gearing steps near my usual gear is also very important. I will look up that gear calculator and think some more. Thanks.
I have a Nexus 8 on one bike. I dislike the 22.3% change from 5th to 6th.
https://sheldonbrown.com/nexus8.shtml
Currently, my bike has sprockets of 42/20, which puts the top 4 gears in a usable range for me, but 5th is still a bit too low for my liking.
Currently, the gear inches in the top 4 gears are approximately 57.4", 70.2", 81.4", and 92.7".
I could change the sprocket teeth to 42/23 to close up the gap shifting to 70", which would give me gear inches of 49.9", 61.0", 70.8", 80.6".
https://sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html
What I don't like about that is it would essentially turn my bike from a 4 speed into a 3 speed in usable gears. I'm a flatlander, so extra low gears go unused.
So, after many months, I've grown accustomed to the 5th gear to 6th gear gap and accept it for what it is. 22.3% is still a tighter gap than a traditional 3-speed hub of over 30%.