richarnd

Does anyone share a rear wheel between bikes?

I'm considering investing in a nice internal gear hub (Alfine 11 or Rohloff). Primary use would be for touring and weekend day trips on a CX frame. But I'd be curious to try it out on my 29er hardtail MTB for dirty weekends, or maybe even on a tandem in the future if I can convince the missus to try it. These other uses would be a part-time thing - at most a few weekends a year - so there's no way I'd buy another hub for those bikes.

Is it totally crazy to consider buying one 700c rim, lacing it up to the hub, and swapping between bikes? I'd have to makes sure the rim width works for touring and MTB tires, and use consistent brake tech between the bikes (disc vs rim). Obviously I'd need to change tires to change roles, but this is a 10 minute job, a few times a year.

I doubt this is at all common outside the IGH world since it's much more difficult to swap a derailleur drivetrain between bikes. But maybe there are other situations where it makes sense?

Anyone do this?

Retro Grouch 

A bicycle is a simple machine but the devil is in the details.

Tire and brake clearance are possible issues. You may have to readjust rim brakes if your rim widths differ. Shift cable routing is something to think about too. Think through the details and you'll be good-to-go.

Actually, I think the degree of difficulty with derailleur bikes would be about the same.

contango 

Can't speak from experience but in theory if you've got a wheel that's suitable for both touring and MTB there's no obvious reason why it shouldn't work. You already mentioned the notion of swapping the tyres out and how the rim has to be suitable for tyres of all widths (it runs in my mind that 700c road tyres and 29" MTB tyres aren't quite the same size but I could be wrong on that).

The only real complication I can see with doing it with a derailleur drivetrain is having to keep adjusting the chain depending on the size of the chainrings in use and the associated potential to end up with some parts of the chain more worn than others, or maintaining two chains and finding they didn't wear evenly with the cassette, or whatever.

It's of academic interest only to me but I'd be curious to see if there is any particular reason why it shouldn't work.

fietsbob

even sounds odd to an IGH user..a Bike has 2 wheels..

in those hubs and how they work on the bike ..
You have to consider the Torque windup, on IGH.. it has to have a brace somewhere
to transfer that.

there is a special grip washer with Alfine.. it keeps the axle from rotating in the frame... .

Rohloff has a lot more torque to tame..
those have a few different ways to do that.

an arm under the chainstay [retrofit] or
OEM 1 dropouts .. torque transferred by a tab following the Axle into a longer vertical dropout,

or the OEM 2 a fork that fits over a Bolt head protruding inward
from the Lower of the 2 ISO pattern Disc Brake frame Mounts.

so you would have to pre plan your installations to match..

I have 2 OEM 1 hubs , but they are in 2 different sized wheels 20", 26"

sreten

Hi,

Doesn't make lot of sense to me.

Tandem perhaps fitted with a typically overgeared 3 speed hub (for a single person) might
make a swap relatively easy if you can get the gear controls to match somehow. If you
can then the same system on both bikes will allow a straight wheel swap, sounds good.

MTB with 3 front chain rings, 9 speed rear ? What are you thinking ? A complete PITA.

rgds, sreten.

dramiscram

I have one 1973 CCM with an internal hub and when I got the things there was (and still is) a few parts missing so I educated myself with Sheldon Brown and from what I read you need the proper shifter, the proper cable length, etc, and it all need to be adjust adequately.
I'm no expert but I don't know if you could just swap tires and go.

I think a good thing to do would be to ask the experts on the bike mechanic forum.

Retro Grouch 

I've built up second derailleur wheel sets for several folks so they could swap from knobby tires to slicks without having to make any other adjustments. The keys are rims that are the same width and hubs that position the cassette the same laterally. Chain length, I suppose, could be an issue but it never was in any of the bikes that I outfitted.

contango 

I was just thinking if you wanted something like a 11-34 cassette on a knobby-tyred wheel and 11-23 on a slick-tyred wheel you'd have 11 spare links on the latter. I suppose if you've got an RD that can cope with a 34t sprocket it can cope with a 23.

Retro Grouch 

OP, however, wants to use the same IGH rear wheel on multiple bikes. I'm thinking that different chainring sizes and different chain stay lengths might cause him more chain length issues than the same project on a derailleur bike.