Originally Posted by
timo888
OK. The "nature of the beast". That prompts the question ... is the SA8 as reliable and safe as the Alfine or the SRAM iMotion in terms of its response to what you call "overzealous pedaling"? Those IGH's can "shift under load", IIRC. By your argument, they should deal better with "overzealous pedaling".
The second point I'd make is that I experienced the SA8's slip into first gear when pedaling with much less fervor than I'd associate with "overzealousness". And that less-than-zealous pedaling is the only reason I did not lose control of the bike and swerve uncontrollably into 45mph traffic.
Regards
T
P.S. I should also add that I weigh 88.8kg, and I believe makeinu is about two-thirds my weight, so your experience may vary.
Well, bear in mind that there may be a lag. I personally don't think that you can get the SA8 to slip from 8 down to 1 without having 8 failed shifts, each just slightly grabbing a higher gear due to the extra friction of pedaling too hard while shifting. Then when you push it even harder the friction makes it bounce out of its delicate state back to the true gear (first)...but that's just my take on it. I suspect that if you twisted the shifter back to 1 and then back up to 8 again without pedaling (to get a reliable shift) just before pushing hard it wouldn't slip. Of course this is assuming that the shifter cable tension isn't way way off.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just don't understand because I can't put the same force you can. It's true that I do weigh almost half what you do, so I guess I'll never know.
PS. For the record, I don't think the SA8 would be as reliable as the Nexus or iMotion hubs, but those hubs are way more expensive, especially if we're talking about entire bikes like a Downtube H vs a Dahn Mu XL. Are cheaper hubs less safe? Maybe, but what cheaper component isn't?
Not on a regular basis, only as occasion to put it in the car demands. I usually shift to 8th gear when I do (but as often forget). But I can't say that folding is a major cause for trouble.
What I find gives more trouble, is riding on wet dirty roads. That almost always causes trouble on those gears which are the most sensitive. I am not exactly sure what happens, but likely it is dirt getting into the cable wrapping groove changing the effective wrapping length. On bad days I sometimes have to stop using those sensitive gears.
You need a good layer of corrosion to seize everything in place.
