4 ms·

Worldwide, enclosed-gear hubs are STILL vastly more popular than derailleur-style gearing implementations, btw. They're part of what we might call the divide b

Worldwide, enclosed-gear hubs are STILL vastly more popular than derailleur-style gearing implementations, btw. They're part of what we might call the divide between "cycling" and "riding a bicycle." The cycling hobby is mostly about go-fast or go-far for its own sake, but in much of the world a bicycle is just transportation. In those places, you trade away efficiency or speed or weight in favor of the "it just works forever" bulletproof-ness that the enclosed hub provides.

analog31 5y ago
Indeed, my daily driver is a Sturmey Archer AW from 1963. But I must say, contemporary derailleur systems with indexed shifting work pretty darn well.
- ubermonkey 5y ago
  They need maintenance that sealed-hub bikes can mostly do without, though. My road bike has SRAM eTap on it. It's beautiful, sleek, and shifts perfectly almost every time. BUT that performance starts to suffer if I let the drive train get dirty, especially if I let gunk accumulate on the jockey wheels. Your Sturmey can be ridden without such concerns. I mean, I'd never be able to keep up on my group rides on it, but for a general use bicycle it's probably superior.
  - analog31 5y ago
    I built a three speed road bike, and its downfall was riding with others due to the low ratio. When you're riding solo, you can ride at the right speed for a gear. But in a group, others are choosing your speed for you. Also, I like having a few more gears after mile 30 or 40.
    - analog31 5y ago
      Oops, not low ratio. I meant wide spacing.
yodelshady 5y ago
Given a totally free choice, I'd love to try building up a racing frame with a modern hub gear. All those moving parts exposed to road grime, gone.
- nradov 5y ago
  Well you can do it if you have the money. They're slightly less efficient than a regular cassette and derailleur, but if you're not racing it probably doesn't make much difference. https://www.rohloff.de/en/products/speedhub https://www.rohloff.de/en/products/speedhub
- usrusr 5y ago
  The gravel sub-genre has spawned a few frames built for the Pinion drive gearing solution (located in the bottom breaker area, like a central ebike motor, started by car gearbox engineers). Arguably that could be considered the next level of hub gears.
amluto 5y ago
I have only personally had two serious failures of a bicycle transmission system, and both were on a rather new high end Rohloff hub. One was a mechanical failure (seal failure causing an oil leak). The other was a complete e-shifting failure caused by the most excellent engineers at Bosch’s failure to allow the shifting system to operate independently of the ebike drive. (The latter is such a severe design error that I think no one should purchase the Bosch+Rohloff system until or unless it gets fixed. Use something else. An ebike is not a car, and it should be operable as a rider-powered bicycle even in the event of an electrical fault.)

analog31 5y ago

Indeed, my daily driver is a Sturmey Archer AW from 1963. But I must say, contemporary derailleur systems with indexed shifting work pretty darn well.

ubermonkey 5y ago
They need maintenance that sealed-hub bikes can mostly do without, though. My road bike has SRAM eTap on it. It's beautiful, sleek, and shifts perfectly almost every time. BUT that performance starts to suffer if I let the drive train get dirty, especially if I let gunk accumulate on the jockey wheels. Your Sturmey can be ridden without such concerns. I mean, I'd never be able to keep up on my group rides on it, but for a general use bicycle it's probably superior.
- analog31 5y ago
  I built a three speed road bike, and its downfall was riding with others due to the low ratio. When you're riding solo, you can ride at the right speed for a gear. But in a group, others are choosing your speed for you. Also, I like having a few more gears after mile 30 or 40.
  - analog31 5y ago
    Oops, not low ratio. I meant wide spacing.

yodelshady 5y ago

Given a totally free choice, I'd love to try building up a racing frame with a modern hub gear. All those moving parts exposed to road grime, gone.

nradov 5y ago
Well you can do it if you have the money. They're slightly less efficient than a regular cassette and derailleur, but if you're not racing it probably doesn't make much difference. https://www.rohloff.de/en/products/speedhub https://www.rohloff.de/en/products/speedhub
usrusr 5y ago
The gravel sub-genre has spawned a few frames built for the Pinion drive gearing solution (located in the bottom breaker area, like a central ebike motor, started by car gearbox engineers). Arguably that could be considered the next level of hub gears.

amluto 5y ago

I have only personally had two serious failures of a bicycle transmission system, and both were on a rather new high end Rohloff hub. One was a mechanical failure (seal failure causing an oil leak). The other was a complete e-shifting failure caused by the most excellent engineers at Bosch’s failure to allow the shifting system to operate independently of the ebike drive. (The latter is such a severe design error that I think no one should purchase the Bosch+Rohloff system until or unless it gets fixed. Use something else. An ebike is not a car, and it should be operable as a rider-powered bicycle even in the event of an electrical fault.)