ganchan

I'm swapping out the single 46T chainring on my current cruiser with a 42T one to better cope with hills. Personally, I'm not interested in a workout -- I just want to get from A to B as painlessly as possible.

If I do get an IGH bike someday, I'll be going for "unathletic-friendly" gearing there too.

Monster Pete

3-speed bikes tend to be geared fairly high, so if you buy one rather than convert an existing bike, it's worth fitting a larger sprocket and/or smaller chainring, making 3rd gear your level-ground gear. 1st and 2nd gear are then available for acceleration, climbing and for when you're tired after a long ride. It's closer to a 'single speed with options'.

ganchan

That's pretty much what I'm doing with the 7-speed -- the 42T will probably make 4th gear my level-ground gear (instead of 3rd), and then I'll have 3 easier gears to play with. Of course, I'll still have 3 harder gears that I'll never use (I almost always coast down hills)....A new chainring (or even a whole new crankset) is a lot cheaper than a new bike, but I really like the style of the classic Dutch or English 3-speed.

Sixty Fiver

Your typical Raleigh three speeds all came with a stock gear range that was roughly 50/66/89 regardless of their wheel sizes and this is a gearing set up that is only good for the very strong or those who live in really flat places... it is not ideal for higher cadence riding which is also more efficient and easier on the body.

From my customer's point of view, a nearly 90 gear inch high on a three speed is not that useful unless you have a tailwind or are descending... we do a lot of cog swaps to lower the gearing on three speeds here and teach people how to spin.

A 42/57/76 gearing is what you get when you change the 18 for a 21 tooth cog on an EA3 wheel (26 by 1 3/8) and this is much nicer for all around gearing although going faster means you have to learn how to spin properly but if you can spin 76 gear inches at 90 rpm you'll be passing most people. This is also the preferred gearing for most who ride SS and fixed gear bicycles.

Most of our three speeds are set up with a reduced gearing save for my '54 Raleigh which has that stock 48/65/86 gear range but as a lighter club bike it is easier to exploit that top gear when one really wants to go a little faster.

Sixty Fiver

This is my thinking on three speeds as well... making 3rd gear your primary and having two steps down works better than having the 2nd gear as your primary with a 3rd that is usually too high and a low that could often be lower.

When you move into hubs with more gears and wider ranges a common issue is still not having a low enough gear and getting that lower low requires a little sacrifice off the top.

fietsbob

The engineers of the S3X did that, high gear is 1:1, the other 2 are reduction gears

it's their fixie 3 speed , But, the tips of the driver-splines are threaded, to accept a Screw on freewheel.

Sheldon was saying that, cruise in 3rd , 1:1 and first, below that ..

S-A, new 5 speed hubs have a 3 speed gear set, just like the AW, for 2nd,3rd,&4th..
so then you'd have 1 higher and 3 lower..



Swiss Mountain drive 2 speed Crankset, drops by 150% and makes the AW3 into a 6 speed mountain Pass Hunter.
my Brompton got one of those 18~80 GI (aprox)

Sixty Fiver

Was just looking at the numbers for my Moulton and the wheel size is only relevant as it applies to the calculation... with the Shimano Inter 7, I have a nice 30-76 gear inch range which is perfectly suited for an about town bike that will be expected to deal with stop and go traffic and some utilitarian riding. It is a very well designed hub and offers more even shifting than the Shimano 8 speed which has an uncomfortably large change in the middle.

It has a 245% range with steps of 13 to 17% as compared to an SA three speed that has 178% range and steps of 33%... these tend to be the most important numbers to consider when you are looking at internal hubs as you need a range to suit the terrain and using more gears closes up those steps between gears which makes shifting more enjoyable and riding more efficient.

There is a lot to consider with an IGH, Sturmey Archer's 3 and 5 speed hubs are some very mature technology and when you add more planet gears to a hub you add complexity and this makes servicing them much more difficult... most folks can learn to overhaul an SA three or 5 speed and in a shop environment it is not hard to do.

Dahon.Steve

I don't believe it was the intention of the hub's designer to have you ride in 3rd gear all the time. I've always said the Sturmey Archer/Sram/Shimano hub designers made the 3 speed wrong for over 100 years! I believe 3rd gear to this day should have been 2 steps higher and no more! As it stands, it's rarely used at all during a ride.

However, the engineers knew that 3rd gear would be too high but it was created this way so you could take advantage of downhills only! It was never designed to be ridden in all the time which is why "Direct Drive" is second gear in the Sturmey AW3. In fact, by riding in 3rd gear all the time, you choose to use an inefficient gear selection.

I would have to use a very small chainring to get 3rd gear low enough for regurlar riding. Using Sheldon's calculator, here are some of my numbers.

Wheel size -------- 700x35
Sprocket----------18T
ChainRing----------26

Results:

3rd Gear ---- 52.3 inches
2nd Gear -----39.2 inches
1st Gear -----29.4 inches

That's a real small chain ring I would have to use to get the gears I need. What chainring are you using?

wahoonc

You could get pretty close to that with a 38/26 combo, why would you want an overall range that low? I you need a very low first gear the AW hub is probably not the best bet. I live in an area that is pretty hilly, there are a couple of hills that I have to walk up with a 3 speed, on my 18 speed mtb I can make it up in bottom gear. Also people seem to forget that the original AW hubs were used by mashers not spinners.

Aaron

MetalPedaler

What do youse guys think of the 8-speed IGH? I know if I were in the market, that's what I'd be looking at, as they seem to offer the perfect number of gears. Are they reliable?

Retro Grouch 

Can a bike be too pretty?

That bike is so perfect I'd never bring myself to using it as a daily driver.

Darth Lefty 

The only reason that the SA 3-speed has 2nd as direct drive is because it reverses direction of the same gearbox to get the upper and lower gears. Gear the bike however you want, it won't hurt anything. Making top gear the level cruise gear is probably more useful. For my commute I've looked hard at gear hubs and my own present derailleur bikes and their gearing, finally deciding against it. I need the triple ring gear range to deal with both the worst climb and my heart problems, and the weather exposure and road quality here is too good to make durability a problem.

fietsbob

which one?

Sturmey's is unique . first gear is direct 1:1, all the others overdrive , 8th is 3.5:1..
best with small wheels, and/or a tiny chainring ..

MetalPedaler

Yow! Not that one!

fietsbob

OK,that leaves Sram and Shimano..

MetalPedaler

And Campy, of course!

[Thinks he can pull the wolf[sic] over a poor noob's eyes! Hmmmf!]

fietsbob

Never been any Campagnolo made IGH, Kid, but, you're not old enough, (to know Better) I suppose

MetalPedaler

I was kidding, Kiddo! (I doubt very much that there is an SRAM IGH, too....)

agent pombero

Norco Indie IGH

Nexus 8/Alfine 8/Alfine 11

https://www.norco.com/bikes/urban/urb...nce/indie-igh/

Clawed

My "return to bikes" bike is a Cannondale Adventure 2 with a Shimano Nexus 8 (no longer made). I have looked at all the beautiful old and new steel frames, but I just can't bring myself to go away from the IGH. If I saw that beautiful Raleigh in my local CL I would buy it in a heartbeat and have a Nexus or Alfine 8 built into the wheel. I might even try to get used to the 3 speed. Maybe an SA 8 speed just for authenticity.

You have to remember I live on a small barrier island where the highest elevation is 11 feet. We call it "Mt. Sanibel."

Doug5150

In my experience (being in the USA) if you only shop for bikes that already come with an IGH you're not going to have much to look at. Especially if you don't want a 3-speed. It is much more practical to get a suitable frame in the correct size that can then be adapted to using an IGH. If you can't find anything with horizontal dropouts then you'd need hand brakes, but anyway.

The problem I've noticed with a lot of the off-the-rack 3-speed cruisers available in the USA is that they are sized properly for ...... teenagers. The frames are way too small for most adults.

I had a Worksman for a while and they had the same problem. The 'large-size' frame itself was built okay but I'd have needed it about 4 inches larger to get comfortable on it--and I'm only 6'2". The handlebars were in my lap. It was painful even on short rides.

dynaryder

Great,another urban bike with a straight blade alloy fork. Wish I lived in a city with roads smooth enough to ride one of those. Maybe I should move to Metropolis or Gotham.

wahoonc

I have a Nexus Redband 8 on my city bike, so far so good. I like the range and the gear steps.

Aaron

wahoonc

SRAM IGH

Aaron

Monster Pete

It's actually built that way so that you can use a single planetary gearset to get three gears. 1st and 3rd just swap the drive and driven parts of the gear. The 5-speeds are the same, using stepped planets and a sliding sun gear to give you wide and close ranges. Sure, going through the gears in 3rd will make it marginally less efficient than the direct-drive 2nd gear, but this is far better than not having a gear low enough for steep hills and a top gear that never gets used. Oil-lubricated 3-speeds are quite efficient.