I considered an IGH however went for a derailleur when I considered the following points:

- more gears - I change gear a lot to keep my cadence comfortable and I hate being in a gear too high or too low
- I rarely do maintenance on my derailleurs and they seem to work ok :D, any maintenance is pretty quick and easy (usually just a tension adjustment - 10 mins tops)
- derailleurs are lighter, cheaper, and provide a better and more customisable range of gears
- I like drop bars and STI style shifters (although I know that there are some out there now for the alfine IGHs)

I think for a long journey like yours, I'd be looking at a comfortable road bike - more of a sportive geometry. This will mean you are a little more upright so you can see better, but also will allow you a comfortable journey with drops for headwinds.

Daven

For several years my commute was 50km round trip [with train] or 100km round trip without train. I found 50kms a nice distance to ride each day. Enough to get a workout and feel satisfied without killing me. I rode the 100km route each day when I was in the mood for a real workout and the weather was nice.

33kms isn't a problem with a well setup bike and a bit of a phased approach to building up the mileage.

The 2hrs on my bike each day was the best part of my day!

No - the internals are the same.

Changing a tire once on an internal gear hub bike shook me off that decision.

Derailers are so much simpler, and the maintenance is stupid easy.

When my commute changed from 10K to 30K, I got rid of my flat bar "commuter bike" and went to a touring bike, based on advice I got here. I haven't regretted it.

Only the 8C31, 8R35 and 8R36 share the Alfine internals. The other, such as 8R20 and 8R25 are older designs and don't have the life of an Alfine.

33km is getting up there... as long as it isn't hilly or very windy an IGH should offer you enough range once you get the crank tooth size dialed. I wouldn't quite recommend belt-drive though, it is expensive to experiment with the sprocket sizes if you find the OEM isn't right.

If you aren't in stop-go traffic for a lot of it... maybe a RD is better.

My thoughts exactly. With a regular chain I had plenty of easy options on changing gearing.

I personally never found the need to change the gearing on my IGH. I've biked in the winter, in the summer, with nothing on the bike, and with the bike loaded up with gear for overnight camping 40 miles away. I always found the bottom gear was low enough, the top gear was high enough, and I generally stayed in gear 4 or 5 on the flat.

If you're worried about gearing, a regular derailler is a far more flexible choice. If you don't want to do maintenance, an igh with a belt completely eliminates the source of regular maintenance by getting rid of the chain.

(To be fair, I don't own a bike with a belt so there may be drawbacks I'm unaware of, I just own an IGH with a chain which was the only thing available at the time I needed a winter bike.)

IGH with chain is nearly maintenance free. You barely have to oil/clean the chain....I rarely do....just ride it until the cog and ring are thrashed and then replace all 3. Without a derailleur the chain will keep going 'round happily for a very long time without much attention...especially if your cog and ring have even numbered teeth as Sheldon points out:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chain-life.html

With a Rohloff just flip the cog and ring and add new chain for a whole new lease on life with minimal cost - I run $16 SRAM 8 speed chains on my Rohloffs.

I have not experienced any difference in this regard between a decent derailler (like Tiagra) and my IGH bike. Both required adjustment after 100-300 miles for optimal shifting. Neither really "requires" constant cleaning of the chain, they seem to work fine without it, and I can just run them until the chain or cogs wear out, though I have no doubt there's a certain number of people who feel the chain should be cleaned regularly - I try to do it once a year, but in the past I've gone years without cleaning a chain on a derailler setup. A rear cassette seems to be slightly more expensive than a rear single ring. As I mentioned - there's not much of a difference for regular road riding.

Since all of you are here, sorry to change topic to a degree but what about clutch slip with IGH. Is that common? I can be hammering a hill, stop briefly and when I start to pedal again, there is a bit of a slip before it engages fully again. Normal or faulty hub?

I might add it happens in some gears, not all.

I would try to answer your question, but I honestly just don't know. And since my IGH is winter-only, I probably wouldn't be able to answer your question until next year.

My only suggestion would be to see if you could find another bike (do any local bike shops carry them?) and try it out yourself on it.

Sounds like you need a cable adjustment. Take it to a pro to make sure it's adjusted properly. Mine never slips when adjusted right.

The cable is adjusted just as it's supposed to be and it shifts perfectly. I stand on nearly all hills and I have a lot of 6-7% stuff. I think I need someone who hammers hills with the IGH to answer. Torque the hell out of a stroke, pause and try to stroke hard again and nothing is there immediately.

+1. If you're not mechanically inclined (like me), this is a major drawback. I have an IGH on a Downtube mini and have definitely ridden it less because I don't want to risk having to deal with a flat. When I bought it, I was under the impression that the only difference was that you had to bring an extra wrench, but it's really more involved.

You could also try it yourself, Civia has a decent video here titled "Alfine Shift Cable Adjustment":
http://civiacycles.com/resources/tech/

It's not a matter of cable adjustment, it's clutch slip and I'm guessing it's common but no everyone experiences it, especially if you sit most the time.

The gear slip is not uncommon on Nexus hubs especially for strong riders. The old Nexus 8 could be torn apart by people who could put a lot of torque into them, but with the newer IGH's like the Alfine, Shimano redesigned the hub and put a "torque limiter" into the hub. You could probably lessen the problem somewhat by exchanging your 22 rear sprocket with the standard 18 tooth sprocket. (I seem to remember that Shimano advice some minimum gearing ratio to avoid torque problems).

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Regards

My most abused IGH bike was setup once 14 months ago...has been ridden on the beach [sand & splashed saltwater], in the desert, winter biking on road [salt/slush/sand, etc...], burning man [corrosive dust], dirt road touring, mtn biking, and more....I've lubed the chain twice and never adjusted the IGH.

My derailleur road bike has seen several adjustments and had the drivetrain cleaned twice in the same period even though it has seen less than 50% the kms and all on road.

I can feel this on my new REI folder(Dahon) with a Nexus 7 (my 1st IGH experience). Not too much info from google, but this slip seems to be normal for this hub at least. The only thing that bothers me is you can hear a faint ratcheting on 6 & 7 when pedaling which is normal too I guess on this lower end IGH. The thing I'm not sure of is the "derailleur out of adjustment sound" in 5th gear. Does anyone have any incite into that?

Actually I felt that same slippage with the original 44X18 set up. I'm curious why it only happens in some gears too. For example, the lowest gear doesn't slip at all.

If you look at a diagram of planetary gears, you'll see that the different speeds have very different configurations of gears. Some of them push force through 2-3 gears; I bet those are the ones that have issues at high torque.

The standard answer is that if you want to hammer, the Rohloff and NuVinci are better at handling high torque. It's one of those "get what you pay for" things, unfortunately.

^^^^thanks for the info, I had an idea that may be the case. I can live with it. just wanted to make sure it wasn't damaged somehow. In spite of that slipping thing, I love the IGH.

Despite several people insisting that the Nexus and the Alfine hubs share exactly the same internals, it was my experience a year or two ago that the Nexus made that sound while the Alfine did not. I think it's "normal", and I don't know if it's anything other slightly annoying, but the Alfine doesn't do that.

Depends on the hub IMO. SRAM and Rohloff hubs have excellent design quick release shifter cables. Shimano hubs less so. IMO a Rohloff rear wheel with a QR axle, external shift box and OEM or OEM2 torque connection is as easy to remove as any derailleur rear wheel. Any IGH wheel with a coaster brake will be more of a hassle. A lot depends on the ease of installing and removing the shift cable from the hub. Horizontal dropouts and a rear fender can also be a difficult combination.