Selecting A Internally Geared Hub
 

Those of you who've had a chance to ride these things, can you help guide me towards the purchase of the rear hub.

How do they ride and shift?

Are they noisy?

Are they energy hogs, sapping your strength?

Are they reliable?

What do you think about a built-in coaster brake? The frame has cantilever brakes but I wouldn't mind using a coaster brake in lieu of the rear brake, cable and lever. It is optional items like this that has me balking, because once you pick your options, the die is cast and there's no going back.

Which offers the best bang for the buck?

I have been looking at the Alfine 8, SRAM iMotion9 and the Rohlloff 14. I have pretty much eliminated the Rohlloff due to the high cost and the horrible cabling for non-OEM retrofits.

Well, thanks in advance for any help you can offer. I need to go research stems next but I have a good handle on that. That Velo Orange threadless stem adapter is very cool. It offers a lot of flexibility in selecting the stem.

I have a Nexus7 - bought over the 8 because I liked the smaller jumps between gears, and that I got it for a steal on Amazon (~$85). I've ridden it on the road (w/23s) and on a cross course (w/40s), but not a whole lot of miles in total. Just put it together this summer. I'm using cantis, as I already had those prior to the hub purchase.

Shifts quietly, runs quietly. I do find that I'm not quite as fast, particularly up hills, over the same roads as compared to my derailleur equipped bikes. It's not a huge deal, I just get dropped faster :). The closest thing i can compare it to is like riding a similar weight 10 speed (2x5), as you have 7 distinct gears.

My daily rider is a SA S3x on a race geometry frame. Church mouse quiet, super efficient, reliable shifts everytime. I'm seriously considering converting my "club ride" bike to a SA 5 or Nexus 7.

My daily rider is a SA S3x too

I really like the Sturmey Archer 8 speed hubs, which I've been using on my commuter bikes for almost 4 years. But they have 1:1 gear in first, all the others overdrive, which is ideal for small-wheeled bikes (I have them on bikes with 16" and 20" wheels). You can use them on a bike with bigger wheels, but you'll have a very small chain ring (like 25T!). What I like about them is the steps between the gears are very even; the first and last steps are big, the others are quite small and are ideal for fast riding in city traffic. I always know exactly when to shift. The first one deteriorated pretty rapidly, got very noisy and had to be replaced after about 6000 miles. The newer (w) version seems much better.

I have the new super-wide range Sturmey Archer 5 speed on one bike. I like it. The steps between the gears are really wide, though.

I use old Sturmey Archer three and four speed hubs a lot... and like them. The new ones are better in some ways; I just like to put old hubs on old bikes and new hubs on new bikes.

I have a Shimano Nexus red band 8 on my touring bike, and I like it pretty well, just not as well as the Sturmey Archer. The steps are uneven, and I often shift at the wrong time. Not a big deal; I just prefer the other. Very quiet and, I think, efficient.

I've used a Shimano Nexus 4 quite a bit. It's geared like the Sturmey Archer 8, first gear is 1:1, so I have it on a folding bike with 16" wheels (one I rarely ride, which tells you something!). It's a good hub, but the range is not really wide. It seems unnecessarily heavy and inefficient, but I have not data to back that up.

I have used a Rohloff... very reliable, and the steps between the gears are perfectly even, incredible range... but somehow it's not all that much fun. Can't really explain that. And it's noisy.

I have the NuVinci CVT hub, older version, on my xtracycle utility bike, which I just used the other day for riding my daughter around the neighborhood trick-or-treating. It's the most enjoyable bicycle transmission I have ever experienced; it makes all the others seem clunky. Good wide range, too, and said to be efficient and robust (which I believe). Big and heavy, though. Or should I say, REALLY big and heavy. Hard to exaggerate that one.

Bottom line, if it's a new bike with big wheels (26" or bigger), I guess I'd recommend either the Shimano 8 or the Sturmey Archer 5; or maybe the new Shimano 11 which I haven't seen yet.
I dislike coaster brakes, probably more out of unfamiliarity than anything else. If you have cantilever bosses, I'd say just use them.

I've got about 4000 miles on a Nexus 8 Red Band. I've done many rides over 50 miles. No mechanical issues whatsoever. I agree, some of the jumps are a little big. The SRAM iMotion 9 has more regular jumps. I am very excited about the Alfine 11 speed but that doesn't seem to be available yet.

I've ridden thousands of miles on a Nexus 8 with absolutely no issues, and now have an Alfine 8 on my main bicycle. If I were in your shoes, I'd hang on a little longer until the Alfine 11 speed is rolled out (ouch) - it offers a very desireable gear spread - as well as better steps between gears - than the 8 speed variant.
Otherwise, Sturmey Archer and SRAM make great hubs too.

My commuter is belt driven with an Alfine 8 has a gear range (with 32mm 700c tires) of 29 to 91 gear inches, utilizing 50T front and 24T rear belt cogs. The new Alfine 11 will offer a wider range with better steps.

I'm an IGH convert, and have no intention of ever owning another derailleured bike. The only place I can now see some benefit to derailleurs is in road racing, where there is a real need to be able to fine tune one's pace in 1 tooth increments. Other than that, I am hard pressed to see a demonstrable benefit to using conventional derailleurs over an IGH.

I put a nexus 7 on my commuter bike back at the end of July. I have 30mm tires on it and I like it very much. I find the adjustment to be a little finicky and if you shift while pedaling hard it tends to shift poorly IME. You kind of need to let up on the pedaling a little while you shift....really thats just for changing to higher gears though, changing to lower gears is easier because you're working with the spring tension not against. I think 4th gear is 1:1 on the Nexus 7.

Mine has a coaster brake and I actually really like it for commuting. and just riding. The only issue I have with it is that It messes with my head when I switch bikes. I often have a little panic moment when I switch to a rim brake bike and go to pedal backwards and nothing happens. Similarly when I switch back to the coaster brake I usually have a moment approaching a stop light where i forget and go "Oh my god, where are the brake levers" :lol:

actually I have a front brake caliper on my coaster brake bike. I like it for steep descents, it gives me something to hang on to :)

Two bikes with Nexus 7s and one with the SA S3X hub. I like them alot. The only downsides to them for me is the weight and the gear range. These are not small problems, so they are not perfect solutions for me. But, they seem bombproof.

jim

The Sturmey Archer SRF5 weighs at least a pound less than the other hubs mentioned. I consider that to be important and that's why it will be my next hub. Additional speeds would be nice, but the weight penalty is too great, in my opinion. I don't like overweight bikes.

Within reason, I don't really care how much a bike weighs, if I'm riding it. If the gears are too high, then it will feel heavy and sluggish; but if the gearing is right, weight doesn't matter much. Of course, badly balanced and heavy bikes are no fun to carry around.

The bike is a full-sized frame (Specialized Stumpjumper Sport) with 26" balloon tires (Schwalbe Kojaks) and cantilevered brakes front and rear.

It was not my intention to use a 3 speed (too few choices) and I was going to stay away from the S-A because of the 1:1 gear ratio for low.

I have heard of the Alfine 11 but they are not yet available and I cannot find any anticipated release date. Not knowing how long I might have to wait for an Alfine 11 is not okay with me, so I am considering my other options.

So, that is how I arrived at the group I mentioned in the original post.

The high cost and horrific cabling leaves me disinclined to the Rohloff, leaving me with the SRAM and the Alfine 8.

It sounds as if I should put the Nexus 7 or 8 into the mix due to reasonable performance and lower cost.

Does anyone have input on the SRAM?

IMO the iM3 is the class of the three speed hubs. Only available in wider OLDs, though, and only a twist shifter is offered. :(

I like my Sturmey 8 equipped bike quite a lot, too.

Why do you prefer the SRAM hub over the SA?

Ive been riding Alfine for a couple of years, quiet, reliable, easy. I would recommend it without hesitation.

How are you going to deal with chain tension? You will have to fit a chain tensioning device which negates many of the benefits of hub gears.

The rear brakes doesnt do very much and you already have some so I would not bother with coaster brakes.

I really wish someone would bring out a truly lightweight, truly close-ratio 5-speed IGH. Like with Ti gears on aluminum shafts with an ally shell. That'd be hot.

I'm building a winter bike with the SA 5 speed hub and drum brakes (dynamo on the front). I read a lot of reviews and considered the costs and found out I got the most features I wanted for myself with the new SA 5 speed. I really just wanted some bail-out gears for winter commuting.

The price is right, too.

To me the major disadvantage of the coaster brake is it eliminates easy crankset repositioning for taking off from a stop.

Per some members of the Geared Hub Bikes yahoo group (see link below) the iM9 does not seem to be as reliable as the Nexus8 and Alfine. There have been some reports of early death on it. Too bad as the even steps between gears are nice. It is also relatively heavy.

If I were doing a conversion right now, and not using the Rohloff hub, my choice would be between the Alfine 11 and the new NuVinci N360. Per an email from AEBike the Alfine 11 is supposed to be out this month, November. This is per their distributor.

You are absolutely correct about the illogical outcome if one uses a chain tensioner.

The frame I'm using is a vintage 1985 or 1986, so it has horizontal drop outs. That was a criteria for selecting the frame. To be considered for this project, it had to have horizontal dropouts or an eccentric bottom bracket, one or the other.

That is good intel. I may just wait for it to come out. I don't really want to wait until next spring, if they were to delay it that long. I am ready to "pull the trigger" but can probably wait a month while I work the other aspects of the build.

Was this in response to clashers' post on an SA5 build? Doesn't the SA 5 has has that 1:1 ratio for first gear and requires an uber small chainwheel?

Luckily, my crank is a triple crank with a 32T front chain ring, so I could use that hub if I wanted to. The small ring does not fit on the outside position on the crank, so it may look strange up front but it would work. <-- Maybe I could use this as an excuse to buy a T-A crank. That way I could use a small chainring on the outer-most position.

I'll look into this tonight.

No, you're thinking of the SA 8 hubs. The 5's have the 1:1 ratio in the middle gear, and work with conventional chain ring and cog sizes.

the SA 8 speed has the direct drive gear as 1st..
5 speeds have been combining a narrow and a wide 3 speed in the same shell ..

R'off with the EX shift box works fine, tidy cable pair run is down and along the chainstay..

But how about a SRAM spectro7
you can get their disc brake version .. stick a Sturmy drum brake hub up front..

My other IG hub is an AW3, added a Schlumpf Mountain Drive crankset , Its on my Brompton,
low in low range is near 1:1 at 17". high in high range is in the high 70's

BAM! You got it exactly right. Thanks for pointing that out. No coaster brake for me. After all, It has some very good quality cantilever brakes on it right now.