Originally Posted by dbg
And the down side of internal hubs (only one I can determine) is the significant increase in complications for pulling the rear wheel off to fix a flat. Standard derailed rear wheels pop right off and back on. Internals have to be disconnected and re-connected to the gear shift mechanism, and have to be aligned correctly. I am totally comfortable doing that for my bike --but I build these things. If my kids had a flat somewhere, someone unfamiliar with the linkages would have trouble.
The Rohloff hub does not have this issue. If designed around rohloff specific drop-outs all you have to do to remove the rear wheel is this.
1. put shifter in either 1st or 14th gear
2. unscrew thumb screw on shift box on hub and pull off
3. undo quick release and remove wheel
Reverse to assemble.
Dave Bohm
Bohemian Bicycles
P.S. I think the biggest improvement that could be made to any of the lower end gear hubs is to make them easier to remove from the bicycle. I am surprised that Shimano/Sram has not emulated the Rohloff mechanism as this is the largest hurdle for your recreational-commuting cyclist.