Hybrid bike rage.

Matteeboy
Matteeboy Posts: 996
edited January 2008 in Commuting chat
I have mild bike rage today.
When I got my mountain bike a few months ago (Spesh Stumpy), we also got wife a hybrid bike and fitted it with a rack and mudguards for when she had a baby (well for afterwards - we tragically lost the baby in November at 38 weeks).

The shop guy persuaded us to get an 8 speed hub gear instead of normal 24 speed gears - he convinced us that the hub gear has the same range as a 21 speed MTB - fine. Now we are using them a lot doing our daily ten mile ride around Truro -very hilly - it's clear that the lowest gear is not low at all (the same as me on middle ring, middle chainring on my MTB) and although she can make the hills around us, its VERY hard work. I know because we swapped today. The brakes are also total merde.

The bike was £500 so enough to make this really very annoying. So wife is having to use my old MTB (currently in for repair, hence using the hybrid) which is 10 years old (although most parts are much newer). I feel we have been heavily misled and ripped off big time. The bike is next to useless for what we need it for.

For those interested, it's a Specialized Globe IG8 (Nexus 8 speed hub gear).

Too late to take it back now. :x :evil:
Two Stumpjumpers, a Rockhopper Disk and an old British Eagle.

http://www.cornwallmtb.kk5.org

Comments

  • jedster
    jedster Posts: 1,717
    I'm not an expert on hub gears but I THINK that you should be able to alter the range by switching to a smaller chain ring and/or larger sprocket. This will make the top gear lower too but that is probably a price worth paying. I'd try to get the bike shop to do at least the labour for free - components should be no more than £10-15.

    Cheers,

    J
  • Put a smaller chain ring on and this will give you an easier lower gear, this will be at the expense of your top gear but sounds like this may not be an issue.

    alternatively stick it on ebay, chalk it up to experience and boycott the LBS in question
    <a>road</a>
  • Sheldon tells us the hub has a range of 244%

    http://www.sheldonbrown.com/nexus-mech.html

    A typical MTB will have 28/30 as a low gear and 48/12 as a high gear i.e. approx 22" to 103"

    so close to 400% range if my maths is correct

    so your bike shop was wrong, the hub has a lot smaller range than the MTB 27 speed I reckon
    <a>road</a>
  • Very sorry to hear about your baby, my sympathies.

    Sorry to hear you're unhappy with the bike - I've got exactly the same one (I think you posted about it when you first got it) but by contrast I use it for going around mostly flat London so it does the job well (I also think the brakes are great but then I was riding a 20 yr old bike with chrome rims before so I would!).

    I think it's a good fastish bike for London but having visited Truro I can see how it would not be suited to serious hills. I hope the solution that the others have suggested helps.
  • Cheers for advice all - much appreciated.
    Just seems a shame.
    It does the flat bits very well - comfortable and fast.

    The brakes may be sortable (they really are dire at the moment) but they are terrible compared to my old Stumpy which also has Avid V brakes.

    Sorry for the rant. Patience rather short at the moment.

    May try the smaller front chainring idea.
    Two Stumpjumpers, a Rockhopper Disk and an old British Eagle.

    http://www.cornwallmtb.kk5.org
  • Matteeboy wrote:
    May try the smaller front chainring idea.

    If you've got the patience, it might be worth working out what gears she uses most on the mountain bike, and work out a suitable range based on that.
    mrBen

    "Carpe Aptenodytes"
    JediMoose.org
  • Smaller chainring? Much cheaper/easier to change the sprocket first - wiggle have a limited range available atm, supposedly more after xmas, but there are other places you can buy them too.
  • belgiangoth
    belgiangoth Posts: 2,849
    You can drasticly improve your brakes by changing the pads. For the gear range you can (at higher cost than replacing your sprocket or chainring) get a front double or triple and use a chain tenioner (not done this myself, but I know that people on the CTC forum have had some success in combining triple chainrings with rholoffs).
  • Hmmm - I'm not sure we want to lose the higher gears.

    Going to take it on for the brakes - depsite knowing V brakes well, I'm stumped on this one - lever feel is fine, they are pulling okay, but just not gripping" the rims.

    Did consider a double/triple chainring but not sure if it will end up being a bit of a mess.
    I WISH we'd got the 24 speed "normal" version now.

    Darn. :cry:
    Two Stumpjumpers, a Rockhopper Disk and an old British Eagle.

    http://www.cornwallmtb.kk5.org
  • I don't suppose your Matteeboy from Scoobynet as well???
  • GrantyBoy wrote:
    I don't suppose your Matteeboy from Scoobynet as well???

    Who knows eh?
    I remember your name but can't remember of you're on of the (many) cool people or one of the hateful to55ers?
    Two Stumpjumpers, a Rockhopper Disk and an old British Eagle.

    http://www.cornwallmtb.kk5.org
  • Always ride the bike before buying, if it don't feel right don't buy it...
    **************
    Best advice I ever got was "better get a bike then"
    Cycle commuting since 1994. Blog with cycle bits.
    Also with the old C+ crowd at Cycle Chat.
  • Hairy - We did. The hills near the shop are nowhere near what we usually ride. It felt fine and we were reassured that the gear range "is the same as a 21/24 speed MTB" It isn't.

    Unless you actually ride up the same hills, you can't tell.
    Two Stumpjumpers, a Rockhopper Disk and an old British Eagle.

    http://www.cornwallmtb.kk5.org
  • PHcp
    PHcp Posts: 2,748
    What poor advice from the bike shop. Your MTB has a range of around 600%, a 21spd only slightly less and the Nexus hub a little over 300%. They're simply not comparable.
    If it's the same as the one recently tested in Cycle, the gear range is 31" to 96" and it was commented that it was too high. If you really need a gear as low as a 22 x 34 on your MTB (17") you'd have a hopeless top gear (50" approx). The best compromise would be around 25" - 75". The equivalent of loosing the bottom three and top two gears on your MTB.
    If this isn't practical, then selling and starting again seems the best option. Doing that while it's still fairly new would be better than struggling on and trying to get a decent price later.
  • I agree with PHcp about the gear range. I have a subway8 and I find a range of about 25 to 75 is about right for me. These hub-geared bikes all appear to be supplied over-geared. Sure, you might think you need a taller gear than 75" - but do you really? A 75" gear will still give you about 22mph on a 26x1.25 tyre at 100rpm. I don't know about you, but on a generally heavy(ier) commuting bike I'd be doing well to need that on the flat, and if you're going downhill it doesn't matter so much.
  • Drfabulous0
    Drfabulous0 Posts: 1,539
    Maybe I'm missing something obvious here but is there any reason you can't convert to a standard drivetrain by fitting a 7 speed rear wheel and one of these mechs http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/acatalog/info%5fshimano%5frdtx70b%2ehtml? I think the spacing should be correct although you might need to mess around with the cable routing, but that's what zip ties are for.
  • simonali
    simonali Posts: 1,730
    Matteeboy wrote:
    GrantyBoy wrote:
    I don't suppose your Matteeboy from Scoobynet as well???

    Who knows eh?
    I remember your name but can't remember of you're on of the (many) cool people or one of the hateful to55ers?

    And AON? Still have the Astra or did you buy that Evo?

    Sorry to hear about the baby. :cry:
    <font>I sig you not</font>
  • Simon - bought a little 4x4 off roader as an addition for boat towing and trialling and are keeping the Ashtray for a bit.
    I'm looking at an A4 3.0TDi Avant or a 335d Touring as a next car but nothing at all urgent at the moment - the combination of the Astra and the Jimny work very well for now.

    Cheers for the comments all - Going to take it in to get the brakes looked at and will discuss options.
    Two Stumpjumpers, a Rockhopper Disk and an old British Eagle.

    http://www.cornwallmtb.kk5.org
  • Matteeboy
    Matteeboy Posts: 996
    LBS are taking it back and giving us a full refund (sort of) - we are paying £150 extra and getting a 2008 Specialized Rockhopper Disk - splendid!
    Two Stumpjumpers, a Rockhopper Disk and an old British Eagle.

    http://www.cornwallmtb.kk5.org