Originally Posted by
General Geoff
Between the Rohloff Speedhub, Nuvinci CVT, and Pinion gearboxes (combined with belt drive), you have plenty of much cleaner, more self-contained options at your disposal.
Mass-market bicycle design is more focused on light weight, speed, and efficiency, not necessarily convenience and longevity of wear components.
Sell people what they need and you'll probably survive.
Sell people what they want and you can make a pretty good living.
Convince people to want what you're selling and you'll die rich.
Most people focus on the marketing hype but the biggest factor for the mass market is price. Enthusiasts can debate endlessly the relative merits of slightly different products. Buyers only have so much money to spend. The hype is still a factor. They want to get as much as they can for their money. As you hit higher and higher price points your pool of buyers shrinks. Rohloff if truly impressive technology but the mass market is down at the big box store looking at entry level machines priced lower than the LBS could sell at a profit.