Originally Posted by
Spasticteapot
I'm well aware of this - my interest in an IGH is mostly based on hoping to avoid the hassle and cost of overhauling a drivetrain. An IGH can also be combined with a belt drive, greatly reducing required maintenance (I'm not much of a cyclist, but riding around severely damaged city streets while it's raining throws enough crud into the drivetrain that I need to brush off the sprockets remove and clean the chain at least once a week.)
I have no experience with belt driven drivetrains. I am somewhat wary of proprietary drivetrain solutions since such parts tend to be very expensive and hard to source, especially if the company goes belly up.
But in theory they sound like a very good match for IGH's.
Originally Posted by
Spasticteapot
I'm curious, though - is there any chance we'll see a cartridge-based IGH in the future?
The point is that cup-and-cone systems are superior to cartridge based ones for hub use (at least in theory), which is why Shimano and high end wheel makers like Campagnolo and Fulcrum uses such systems. I don't think that Shimano will use anything else than cup-and-cone systems for a foreseeable future
The problem with the Nexus 8 hub wasn't the cup-and-cone system as such, but bad sealing and perhaps low end cups.
[snip: regarding frozen grease and frozen cables]
Originally Posted by
Spasticteapot
Are the SRAMs any better in this respect?
Both Sram and Shimano gear shifting can suffer from frozen condensation water in cables. Derailleurs seems to have much stronger return springs than IGH's, so they doesn't suffer that much from this problem.
Cleaning the cable housing with WD-40, sealed cables or silicone grease are different solutions to the problem.
I have no idea whether the Sram IGH grease are less likely than Shimano IGH grease to gum up when it is very cold. This depends on the quality of the grease, and perhaps also on water ingress and contamination inside the hub. I know people are reporting problems with shifting their Sram IGH's when it is cold, but cable problems are probably the most common cause for this, so it is hard to tell.
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Regards