BlueRaleigh

The Sturmey Archer sounds more like an airplane off in the distance.

tcs

My $125 S-A XRK8(W) makes less noise than my buddy's $1250 Rohloff Speedhub.

AaronAnderson

Wow. Those are horrible.

Dan Burkhart 

Are you saying you never get out of first gear?
Seriously, I have 2 Rohloffs, neither of which is totally silent, but neither makes anywhere near the level of noise my SA 8 speed makes from 2nd gear up.
Not that I really mind the sound. I replaced a Sram iMotion 9 with the Sturmey Archer, and I found the noise of the Sram more irritating, although the ratcheting sounds were only present from 6th gear up (the overdrive gears.)

mrrabbit 

Time for you guys to make a "music" commerical video - kinda like that Nissan one awhile back.

=8-)

wroomwroomoops

Because they could sell a ****-ton of 'em.

noglider 

The manager at my LBS says that the wholesalers he deals with aren't very helpful in general but Shimano gives him terrific service. This comes to me as a pleasant surprise. He wasn't referring to IGH's, though.

Batavus

Don't understand the nexus 8 hate. I've seen tons of them go by in the workshop and only the infinitely abused gave as any trouble. Generally a very good hub. We had one guy who used it on his commuter any weather bike and he went through 3 internals during the time I worked in that shop. Cost him a good deal, but not nearly as much as the equivalent in cassettes, chains, rings, jockey wheels etc.

The only drawback was the moaning of customers during wintertime when the shift cable would freeze up. No matter how many times i explained that the problem would go away once temps rose, people simply refused to believe that stuff like that happens.

I ride a Sachs Super 7 myself with the old style thumb lever shifter and push, pull cable. The cable almost never freezes up and when it does, I just push or pull it into gear Absolutely bombproof hub.

SlowCrank

Be sure and keep your rear brake on. I've heard that the S3X IGH isn't really designed for leg braking. The torque can tear up the IGH.

AaronAnderson

Anyone have a video/audio clip of an S3X? I will be building a commuter bike (new job, new location) and need something in 120mm spacing...

machinestatic

I know you've already received 5 pages of opinions and I have less than 10 posts, but fffffuuuuuuu, here we go anyway.

From my personal experience, I bought a bike with a Sturmey Archer internal 5 speed hub (a Torker Graduate) and just a few weeks later, I went and dropped money on a single speed bike to ride instead. (Of course, this is just my experience but...) I HATED the Sturmey. It would slip into neutral in between gears, and the pedals would spin freely without catching. It would down shift 2 gears below what I was riding at, all by itself, while I was riding next to speeding cars. It would make all sorts of terrifying clunking noises in the middle of Boston intersections.

And this is after I had mechanics at two different shops fine tune the fussy indicator chain to exactly where they felt was the right spot. It's a great product when it's adjusted EXACTLY perfectly, but I don't have the patience to tune a microscopic nut for a half hour every day.

However, since then I've had a friend show me how easy it is to adjust a Shimano hub by just matching up two yellow lines in a matter of 5 seconds. Curse you Sturmey Archer!

trike_guy

I'm almost positive that Rohloff actually uses just two planetary gear sets for those 7 gears. One is "3 units" in size and the other is "2 units", then for the gears on either side of the direct drive they run them against each other giving "1 unit" of gearing.

SRAM S7 of course uses three sets of planetary gears one at a time as you describe, which I think is great especially since its not high class enough for needle bearings.

The one I really wonder about is the Nexus 7. Anyone wanna guess how many planetary gear sets are in there? No less than four of them! It runs them against each other for gears 3, 4 and 5 and I really think I can feel the effect on a hill I ride over every day. On my SRAM S7 I can use direct drive, gear 4, without any drama. On the Nexus 7 I use gear 3, and I just about kill myself if I do it in 4th gear. This despite the Nexus 7 being set up with a rear sprocket with 1 or 2 more teeth than the S7 (same size in front). Shimano apparently does not like using one planetary gear set to get both a higher ratio and its inverse lower ratio.

Anyway I think that stuff is pretty interesting...

Dan Burkhart 

Too bad you didn't persue this with Sunrace Sturmey Archer. I'm sure they would have looked after you.
I'm assuming the Torker has the wide range version. I have no experience with this model, but I sold and serviced several of the ball lock type, which was the predecessor to it. I also own and use a couple of these myself.
I sold one such hub that could never be made to function properly, and Sturmey Archer shipped a replacement set of internals, no questions asked.
Look up Sunrace Sturmey Archer on facebook, or better yet, call 'em. (707) 259-6700

trike_guy

Based on what I've seen of commuting, in the city its mostly IGH bikes. Those people go in all weather, all seasons. I'd say a lot more than 30-40% of bikes are IGH. It might get down to those percentages near the city end of my new long commute (towards Hillerød). Almost everyone who goes a long distance (on that route) has a derailleur bike, but I think that has a lot more to do with fitting in as a "serious biker" than it has to do with any technical need. I think that few if any of those "serious" bikers could stoop so low as to try an IGH and find out if its reliable. I mentioned the Alfine 11 to a guy I am acquainted with, and he only laughed! This after he had just told me how he spent 2500+ DKK fixing his derailleur after he broke a chain and crashed.

I guess that has led to the uniform usage of Nexus 7 on all "big name" brands. How boring. I heard something similar about the iMotion 9 from a senior mechanic down at the Nihola store. Apparently his test model didn't last a single year, and they've kept selling nothing more exciting than 5 and 7 speed SRAM's ever since. (I tell you, iM9 would have been glorious on a trike.)

My problem is just a frozen shift cable. I ran my Nexus 7 in 3rd gear for a month or two this winter. Turns out it hardly makes a difference on my commute times. Course a lot of other things got rattled, rusted or broken off the bike these past two winters...

dbg

I commute all winter long (2+ miles to train station is tolerable even at 20 below). Only on the super coldest days have I ever had issues, and I'm certain it was cable freezing (I could force the upshift but it wouldn't release slack for the downshift). I later switched from a nexus 7 to an older 4 speed (not noted for reliability based on some sheldon comments) and used a brake cable to allow a little more room. I have never had a hint of a problem since.