Originally Posted by pragueinspring
I've been thinking about it, and I was wondering if it was possible to outfit this bike with a Sturmey Archer 3-speed or Shimano Nexus 8-speed rear hub to add some speed and ease of getting up large hills when fully loaded. It has a coaster brake which I adore and am also wondering if that would be affected by the changed hub. It's great for the rainy weather that is very imminent here in California.
Any input would be greatly appreciated! And here's a picture of meh baby;
Coaster brakes are built into the hub. The current coaster brake on your bike will be removed when you take off the current hub. You can get 3 speed or 7 speed hubs with integral coaster brakes. I don't know about 8 speed hubs with coaster. My commuter for the last 4 years has a Sachs (SRAM) 7 speed Spectro hub with coaster and I couldn't be more pleased for all weather reliability and stopping power. I also have a Schwinn cruiser with the Shimano 7 speed hub with coaster which is also nice, though I like the Sachs better. If 3 speeds are enough, I highly recommend a Sachs Torpedo 3 speed hub with coaster. I used a bike with that setup for 5 years of commuting prior to the current 7 speed.