aka Tom Reingold
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: New York, NY, and High Falls, NY, USA
Posts: 40,509
Bikes: 1962 Rudge Sports, 1971 Raleigh Super Course, 1971 Raleigh Pro Track, 1974 Raleigh International, 1975 Viscount Fixie, 1982 McLean, 1996 Lemond (Ti), 2002 Burley Zydeco tandem
Mentioned: 511 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 7353 Post(s)
The IGHs and belt drives are technological improvements but have high dollar and weight costs, so they are useful for niche markets. The same is true of the NuVinci continuously variable ratio hub. They use it on many Citi Bike bikes in NYC. I guess they're durable but they're super heavy and not all that efficient. It's OK though, because being able to micro-shift is nice for me, as the 3-speed models have gears that are too widely spaced, effectively making them 2-speeds for me.