I am considering upgrading my beater bike for winter riding by adding an IGH and a dynamo hub. The bike I plan to use is an old Raleigh MTB with horizontal dropouts, so chain tensioning shouldn't pose a problem. I am looking at the Sturmey Archer XRD5 rear hub, with integrated drum brake, and their XFDD dynamo, also with integrated drum. I want the five-speed because I also plan to upgrade from my Schwinn hybrid to an Alfine-equipped commuter and I don't want my beater bike to have as many gears - call me immature but that's important to me. The drums also seem a good idea - sealed, low maintenance, and cheaper than going with a disc setup. My planned rides with the beater would be mostly flat roads so I might even consider a 3-speed. Does anyone have experience with these Sturmey Archer products, and if so what do you think about my idea? Any other suggestions? I'm trying to keep the price modest.

I've built up bikes for my friend's shop with SA IGHs and was totally unimpressed. They worked poorly and were hard to setup. These were 3 and 5 speed IGHs.

By comparison Shimano IGH bikes were easy to setup and worked well.

I'm running 1 Alfine and 2 Nexus 8 IGH on my personal bikes and like them quite a lot.

To be clear my entire SA experience has been 6 bikes so I'm just passing on my data points.

I've got a Shimano dnyohub on one bike and like it a lot. I have never used a SA dynohub.

I built up a bike for my wife with the SA 5-speed (the version without a drum brake). It works pretty well and setup wasn't really a problem. The shift cable seems to need adjustment every now and then, but that's easy enough to do. Otherwise it's been pretty reliable.

That said, I only went with the SA hub because the bike in question is an old 3-speed with 114mm rear dropouts, and it was the only hub available in such a narrow spacing. You can get 7 or 8-speed hubs for not much more money.

If you're dealing with mostly flat ground, you might as well just get a 3-speed hub and save some cash. Or even go single-speed.

I haven't tried the XFDD but I've been tempted by it. It's supposed to have the same internals as the Shimano generator hub, plus you get the brake thrown in for about the same price.

1. I just ordered a wheel built up with the Shimano dynohub from my local shop. It was this one (Handspun Front Shimano Dynamo, 32h, Salsa Delgado Cross,700c) for $150:
https://www.amazon.com/Handspun-Front...0522986&sr=8-7

It seems like a decent deal (unless you're building the wheel yourself by hand and already own the rim) though it doesn't have the drum brake.

2. I've just heard almost nothing good about drum brakes. The stopping distance is almost always described as really terrible - rim brakes sound preferable. Even in the rain I've gotten the definite impression that drum brakes have about the stopping distance of wet rim brakes.

Hopefully someone can comment specifically on having used those models.

Drum brakes are reliable since they are sealed and weather proof. I have them on my Raleigh Superbe and Pashley Guvnor. They provide good stopping power.

I don't know... You could buy a new bike (or a really nice used one) with a 3-speed IGH for around the price it would cost to buy and build both wheels and convert a cheap beater into an IGH bike...

It would be a lot less of a headache and work smoothly right out of the box...But if you have your heart set on the conversion then go for it.

I own an IGH bike that has a SA 3-speed. It's almost maintenance free. Woot!

I'm looking forward to riding it in the winter because last winter with my derailleur bike, the drivetrain cleaning ritual sucked! Nothing like having to clean off salt, sand and melting snow almost daily from your cassette and derailleur. Ugh.

I'm building a wheel with the SA dynohub/3 speed IGH. Going to have to use rim brakes, but that's my inclination anyway. I'm not entirely convinced it will work out, but it will free up my Shimano dynohub for other purposes. I'm building my own lights, should be interesting.