hub geared bikes

Keiron Curtis

Dear all,

I've been back riding a bike now for just over 12 months,now,since stopping in my late teens.At 56 and very overweight I've seen my all round health improve greatly, feel great,and of course love riding my bike immensely.

But I don't like derailleur gears at all.When I was a lad it was a 3-speed,and that was that,currently I have a 27-speed Venture GT,which I do not like to ride at all,and a Raleigh Chiltern 3-speed,a much cheaper bike.which I love to ride all the time.

So here's my dilemma,I'm ready to commit to commuting by bike,and want to get a bike with a bigger range of gears,of the internal hub variety.I'm aware of Rohloff 14,but simply couldn't afford that outlay for such a bike.I think my best bet is a Nexus 7 or 8-speed.

Can anyone recommend such a bike for commuting around 20-30 mile round trip,travelling mainly on tarmac,cinder and paved towpaths?


Thanks

Keiron

alfablue

I think the Carrera Subway 8 (£279) or the Edinburgh Cycles Revolution Nexus Courrier (£349) are very similar bikes and should suit you. The Carrera is a better price, and if you want disc brakesand mudguards it looks better specced.

Hairy Jock

alfablue wrote:

I think the Carrera Subway 8 (£279) or the Edinburgh Cycles Revolution Nexus Courrier (£349) are very similar bikes and should suit you. The Carrera is a better price, and if you want disc brakesand mudguards it looks better specced.

I would suggest that if you are planning to cycle 20-30 mile a day on a regular basis you would be better off with the Edinburgh Cycles Revolution Nexus Courrier. At the end of the day you get what you pay for, disc brakes are expensive and completely unnecessary on this sort of bike, in order to have them on the Carrera Subway 8 costs must have been saved else where by using cheap components which will wear out more quickly and cost more in the longer term.

alfablue

Hairy Jock wrote:

alfablue wrote:

I think the Carrera Subway 8 (£279) or the Edinburgh Cycles Revolution Nexus Courrier (£349) are very similar bikes and should suit you. The Carrera is a better price, and if you want disc brakesand mudguards it looks better specced.

I would suggest that if you are planning to cycle 20-30 mile a day on a regular basis you would be better off with the Edinburgh Cycles Revolution Nexus Courrier. At the end of the day you get what you pay for, disc brakes are expensive and completely unnecessary on this sort of bike, in order to have them on the Carrera Subway 8 costs must have been saved else where by using cheap components which will wear out more quickly and cost more in the longer term.

I would agree in principal but I think in this case the Subway is keenly priced whilst the Revolution is on the expensive side. Disc are not necessary, but if they work okay, fair enough.

jongooligan

Had a Giant XTC N7 - worst bike I've ever had by a long way, mostly due to the Nexus hub. Could never get 7 gears, most of the time was running on 4-5 gears. It required constant adjustment and repairing a rear wheel puncture is a nightmare best only attempted in a fully outfitted workshop.

Mine's now in a skip at the local re-cycling centre. It still looks brand new but I hope nobody tries to get it going again - they will be in a world of frustration.

BTW - my recommendation is to stay well away from Shimano hub gears.

PHcp

I'm a hub gear fan, but before buying a new bike I'd investigate what was wrong with the derailleurs, they should run smoothly without too much trouble.
I have Rohloff and SRAM hubs, the only Shimano I've had was a four speed. The SRAM has a better reputation for reliability, the Shimano is almost cheap enough to consider a consumable. The range of 7/8 speeds is wider than many people realise, around 300%, so more than a road double but still significantly less than a MTB triple. It’s roughly equivalent to one chainring on your present bike. Is this going to be enough for your needs?
I'm not sure what your Venture GT is, I googled it and got different bikes. If you are happy with it other than the gearing why not convert it, putting the SRAM 5spd in my hybrid cost £170, the 7 speed isn't much dearer.

PHcp

alfablue wrote:

The Carrera is a better price, and if you want disc brakesand mudguards it looks better specced.

The Subway 8 in the link hasn't got disk brakes. It has Shimano roller brakes, a bit like drum brakes. They are heavy and lack the sort of feel of other brakes, but IMO work fine. They require little adjustment and are weather proof, though they can add time to wheel removal. The big fins that you've mistaken for disks are supposedly there for cooling, probably OTT and really there to make them look like disks (seems to work)

EDIT - forgot to say they're also cheap, so HJs point about them being a big part of the bikes cost isn't relevent. ( I would have agreed if they had been disks)

SBothwell

I have a Subway 8, and it's managed nearly 3500 miles of commuting over the last two years with only one major problem - the hub gear wasn't sealed properly when i got it, and the non-drive side bearings got totally rusted in the first winter. £2.50 for new bearings and £5 for the specific grease and it was sorted (although there was a 3 month wait for the part...).

The Subway8 Halfords have at the moment looks decent - it comes fitted with mudguards, which is a bonus for a commuter. Potential problems - I whipped the suspension seatpost off mine after one ride, although the one supplied now looks different to the one it came with 2 years ago. Also, I find there appears to be quite a lot of friction from the roller brakes, and the feel is definitely different to any other kind of brake - with brakes fully on at a stop there is some play, like you have a loose headset - and they can take some fiddling with cable tension to get set up optimally. The plus side is you can get pretty good modulation if you set them up carefully, and they work totally fine in all weathers, until the cable gets clogged with ice and wont move (but your gears will have stopped shifting before that happens anyway).

I would say that for a 20-30 mile round trip I would probably consider something a bit 'sportier' but for a bike that just does the trip when you need it to, it's been pretty good. I'd also advise learning how to fix a puncture, rather than swapping a tube - taking the rear wheel off needs 2 spanners and a hex wrench as a minimum, although with practice it takes less than 2 minutes.

There was a big thread on the old cycling plus forum about the Subway8 - maybe you can find it archived on google somewhere?

Down the Road

Soon will see Trek's new SOHO 4.0 fitted with the NEW Alfine hub gear set. Looks nice too.

Don't have link but have seen pics.

CarKiller

They all look OK, but keeping my hands in just one riding position would drive me crazy. Why don't they come with proper road-going handlebars?

Keiron Curtis

Thanks for your suggestions so far.I'm really looking seriously at the Subway 8,but have also told,via another source,about the Diamondback Quantum Nex,does anyone know about this bike,how does it rate etc.?

ahab44

Have just recently bought the specialized globe ig8, so far it is a great commuting bike, time will tell on the reliability of the nexus hub

rdaviesb

Two hub geared bikes in this household. The Revolution Courier Nexus, and a Dahon Mu XL. Both have the Shimano Nexus 8 speed hub. Totally reliable so far, adn great for town cycling. I'm now totally convinced that I need to save for a tourer with a 14 speed Rohloff - this hub is the dogs gonads of the cycling world.

Totalnewbie

I am considering staying with hub gears when I eventually get a new bike, I'm confident getting the back wheel off my current hub geared bike (old Sturmey Archer hub), is the Nexus much more difficult then?

thesmellyone

OK i asked a bout a rear hub bike a couple of weeks back and had very little response. So i brought the Spec Globe anyway and i'm very happy!

8 gears is all i need, having changed from a 24 speed MTB to the Shimano nexus 8 speed was no problem at all. I't mush lighter than the old MTB and has less exposed mechs to get damaged. OK i admit i have no clue what to do if the rear hub stops working but i'll cross that bridge when it occurs.

If you can test ride one do so but i never got the chance and i;m very pleased with mine.

paulhipwood

I am also 56 and have been riding for two years. I bought a second hand Moulton as my research indicated this would be a comfortable bike, which it is.
I then realised that I wanted a bike to last me. So I decided to buy a Rohloff equipped bike. I got one second hand for a bargain.
No nasty dirty gears to clean and adjust, just a yearly oil change. Yes they cost a bomb but it will see out my cycling days. I am covering 3500 miles per year.

reards
paul

NorwegianBlue

SRAM do have a better rep than Shimano, but it's not really deserved these days. Shimano do a cheap version of their hubs and a premium version. Everybody that whinges about the Shimano's seems to have experienced the standard cheap version, the premium 8 speed version seems to go on forever. The standard 8 speed is a lot better than the old standard 7 speed.

As for the drop bar issue, I have to agree. I find it laughable that people like Thorn are selling a premium product at a premium price in their Rohlhoff equipped bikes, and then try to tell the customer that they are wrong to prefer drop bars and should use risers. Particularly the ridiculous "risers are better than drops" arguments they used. I'd like to bet that if Rolhoff develop some STI style shifters for their hubs Thorn will suddenly start telling us how great they are and how they are worth the premium they will surely cost over the standard grip shift.

SBothwell

For what it's worth, removing the rear wheel from the subway8 isn't difficult - remove the bolt holding the roller brake reaction arm to the chainstay (30 seconds - make sure you don't lose the nut!), unclip the gear cable from the cassette joint (15 seconds), undo the wheel nuts on each side of the axle (30 seconds, don't drop the anti-rotation washers) and remove the wheel.

Only people who have never dealt with anything except a 'flip-it-open' quick release skewer could describe it as difficult, IMO :twisted: - the only thing is it's not an on-the-road job unless you habitually carry the necessary spanners.

Keiron Curtis

Thanks Paul,

I'd love to get aThorn for my commuting etc.,but its well out of my price range at the moment.I've admired them since I discovered them on the internet about a month ago,also I've looked at shop soiled and demonstraters from Sjs cycles,but still too expensive.

Where did you get your 2nd hand model from?

paulhipwood

I went to SJS and had a ride on one of their demonstrators. The price was steep but I found that I wanted all the upgrades and it would have cost a fortune.

Then I saw one for sale on the Thorn forum.
The guy selling it lived 5 miles from my house. He had chosen quite a few upgrades and it was a good price
He had about three or four bikes and wanted to sell it. It was about 18 months old and had done 1500 miles. I have put 5500 miles on it in the last 18 months.
Since then I have seen the occasional one on e bay.

I suppose I could have bought a conventionally geared bike but it is so easy to ride and maintain I do not think I would have done the miles I have covered.

paul

NorwegianBlue

I actually quite fancy one of Thorn's more mundane bikes, but I doubt I'll ever buy one. The chance of a test ride is pretty much zero. A round trip of almost 500 miles for a test ride is a bit ludicrous.

PHcp

NorwegianBlue wrote:

As for the drop bar issue....

This comes up again and again, always aimed at Thorn, anyone would think they were the only people offering Rohloff touring bikes. As for their ridiculous arguments; who else offers you 100 days to make your own mind up?
The demand for a drop bar shifter would be tiny, because most of the worlds cyclists use flat bars for everything except racing, and hub gears are not suitable for that.
If you do want drops on a tourer, how are the twistgrip mounting options any less convienient than the tourers favorite, bar end shifters ?

The chance of a test ride is pretty much zero. A round trip of almost 500 miles for a test ride is a bit ludicrous.

If you're serious, which I doubt, why not treat the 100 days offer as a long test ride?

Tralfamadore

Ebay's German site (www.ebay.de) has a lot of interesting hub geared bikes for sale. They include bikes with the SRAM i-motion 9 speed geared hub and usually a hub dynamo as well (either Shimano or i-motion). Some of the dealers will deliver to the UK, and some will accept PayPal.

I use Ebay now and again, and I don't have a problem with it. Has anyone bought one of these bikes, and if so, what was the experience like?

amircp

Anyone heard anything about UK-source bikes with i-motion 9 fitted?

NorwegianBlue

PHcp wrote:

This comes up again and again, always aimed at Thorn, anyone would think they were the only people offering Rohloff touring bikes. As for their ridiculous arguments; who else offers you 100 days to make your own mind up?
The demand for a drop bar shifter would be tiny, because most of the worlds cyclists use flat bars for everything except racing, and hub gears are not suitable for that.
If you do want drops on a tourer, how are the twistgrip mounting options any less convienient than the tourers favorite, bar end shifters ?

Well number one, I didn't particularly level it at Thorn, but Thorn's Rohlhoff bikes came up in the conversatio. Having said that I do feel that Thorn are the only manufacturer of hub geared bikes who try to push flat/riser bars to such a ridiculous degree. It appears to me to be a case of methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Bar end shifters? No, never seen the attaction myself. Why make life difficult?

I used to have a bike with a 5 speed Sturmey Archer hub and the thumb shifter mounted right by the brake lever. That was before the days of STIs and it was much more convenient than any of the alternatives.

PHcp wrote:

If you're serious, which I doubt, why not treat the 100 days offer as a long test ride?

At the moment I don't have the funds. I'm struggling to get about six or seven hundred quid together at the moment so, the cost of a Rohlhoff equipped bike is but a dream. However hub gears are still attractive in an everyday bike.

Keiron Curtis

Thanks all you bicycle fans,keep the conversation going,I'm really enjoying your advice and comments,somehow 7,8,or9 gears is more attractive to me than 14?Never ridden any such bike in my cycling experience.

What do you guys think?

The idea of a Thorn bike equipped with a 14 gear rohloff is fantastic,but would it be wasted on me whose only real experience has been a mere 12 months or so on a Raleigh 3 speed Chiltern?

Should I look to these 7,8,or 9 speed types for now and save for the future?Would I be able to cope with such an arsenal of gears?

I'd like to hear your experience and views.What do you advise me to try?

NorwegianBlue

Personally I'd be perfectly happy with three gears. I usually ride fixed or single speed, but it's hilly round here and there are days when I'd like a choice of gear. However most three speed bikes tend to be your traditional heavyweight. The Swobo Otis appeals to me.

DaveytheStoat

I've been commuting on a Carrera Subway 8 for a couple of months now and have found it very reliable.
I've got a 30 mile round trip that includes a lot of muddy railway cycle path, so I found that deraillier gears were becoming clogged with muck and would I spend far more time than I would like cleaning the things at weekends.

The Carrera was very cheap as it was last years model, which essentially is exactly the same as this years model, but I've had to make a few modifications to suit my journey.

The main mod was to replace the standard 44 tooth chainring with a 38 tooth one. My commute involves a long hard climb for over four miles and the bike was far to over geared.
I also replaced the straight bars with a set of Modolo Yuma bars, which are very comfortable and give me a lot of choices in riding position and replaced the saddle with my favorite Madison G11.

My only complaint about the Carrera would be the frame, which being aluminium is far too stiff and can be uncomfortable over rough sections of road.
The Nexus gears work faultlessly, and the hub brakes are great in all weathers, although they do get hot enough to make your fingers sizzle on long slow decents.

I have a Rohloff hub on my Tandem, and find the Nexus hub just as easy and reliable to use. The gear twist grip on the Rohloff runs the oppisite way to the Nexus however, which always has my stoker moaning as we grind to a halt on another hill!

baudman

14 speed? How about infinite number of gears?

http://www.fallbrooktech.com/NuVinci.asp

jedster

The demand for a drop bar shifter would be tiny, because most of the worlds cyclists use flat bars for everything except racing, and hub gears are not suitable for that.

I find this a bit strange, surely a lot of the market for rohloff hubs is for touring or longer distance commuting and surely most of these riders want drops? There's not much point spending rohloff money if you are just going to be pootling about and for longer rides, speedier rides and headwinds you want the variety of riding positions that drops offer. Surely?

david2

I ran a nexus 7 for a few years, brilliant. Had no trouble with it 'til curiosity got the better of me and I had tp take a look inside. Again brilliant but getting the thing back together is the devils own job. If you can resist the temptation for a little peek do so. Mine only cost £50 including the buke to go round it so I could afford to risk it. Still got 3 years of commuting out of it before that.