avidone1

as I continue research on my next bike, I am curious about internal hub gearing.
I live in a very flat area. Seriously the only "hills" I have anywhere near me are highway overpasses.
So, it isn't really necessary to have alot of gears and the complications that can accompany them.
The idea of an 8 speed internal hub bike is appealing, but what is the reality?
Are they reliable? need attention? quiet? You get the picture.
In short how happy are you who own them?

ColdCase

Not much help as I don't own one, but I when was looking for 8 and 11 speeds I didn't find a complaint other than the 8 not shifting in sub zero weather (the 11 shift OK) and the ones that use belts tend to be inefficient. There is a bit of roughness and noise at times. Its tough to find a bike set up the way you want. A bike also with hydraulic discs will set you back a lot of money. Look for reviews of the Giant Seek 1. It may be easier to just build one from scratch.

dynaryder

I've owned 7 and 8spd Nexus hubs,8spd Alfine,and 9spd iMotion. Noise depends on the particular hub;the only one I've owned that was realy noisy was the iMotion,and that wasn't as bad as some of the high-end 'bee-hive' freehubs I've heard. Reliability is good;they are low maintenance,but you do nee to periodically service them. Biggest issues are weight,cost,and the requirement to use tools and disconnect things to remove the rear wheel.