Hub geared bikes

ride_whenever

What is available in the way of hub geared bikes, normally I'd look but I need somewhere to start. My friend has had his commuting bike stolen, what he wants is something fast like a road bike, but not nickable in london.

I was thinking maybe a hybrid with hub gears and then drop bars and really thin tyres for speed. Low maintainence and should be pretty fast, even if he has to up the chainring a bit.

Opinions?

Parkey

One of these?



Not sure about the handlebars, but could fit narrower slick tyres.

spen666

ride_whenever wrote:

What is available in the way of hub geared bikes, normally I'd look but I need somewhere to start. My friend has had his commuting bike stolen, what he wants is something fast like a road bike, but not nickable in london.

I was thinking maybe a hybrid with hub gears and then drop bars and really thin tyres for speed. Low maintainence and should be pretty fast, even if he has to up the chainring a bit.

Opinions?

Only way to ensure it is not nickable in London is to ensure it is NEVER brought to London.

Those lovable cockney will steal anything

bobfat

Many of the main manufacturers have a hub geared bike in their range.

I've got a Specialized crossroads hub (Nexus Inter-8 hub gear), as a hack/pub bike. I think they've re-named the Crossroads series now.

Cannondale do a Badboy with an Alfine hub or even a Roholf version if you've got the cash. When I was looking there was a Nexus-geared Giant, Ridgeback and Carrera.

Overall mine is fit for purpose (once I'd fitted slicks). They're not light and the range of gears may be insufficient if you live in a hilly area (although you can change the rear cog).

Alternatively, if you want speed and simplicity, why not try fixed.

ride_whenever

He really doesn't want a SS or a fixie, that's what i originally suggested, so any of the commuting nexus hubbed ones should do?

Surf-Matt

Posted this before but:

We had a Spesh Globe IG8 with the Nexus hub gears and found them so hateful that we returned the bike after 4 months and got a full refund.

Terrible range of gears, heavy and very creaky. Not good.

thesmellyone

If i remember rightly Surf-Mat you were using the bikes round Devon/Cornwall where there is a prevalence of hills - unlike London where it's mostly flat.

I have a Spec globe with Nexus hub. It works but now i'm getting crunching sounds from it maybe from grit. But can i find a lbs that would open it up????! No one will open it that I've approached, they just don't have the experience in servicing them unfortunatly.

Surf-Matt

Correct - it is hilly down here but I also didn't like the creaking or difficulty of servicing. My LBS was similar too - no real idea.

snooks

I was looking into the Charge Mixer which has hub gears.

To be honest on my commute (Twickenham to Southbank)I can do it all with 8 gears, by keeping it on the big chainring on my slicked mtb...But I did choose my route to avoid anything with the slightest incline

Surf-Matt

Snooks - just realised what you do (for a job)!

Where are you based? The inlaws have a Fisher 46 (first built in 15 years) and were looking to get some decent shots of it - they bought the moulds and plan to get more made.

My mate desgined the Pearl 50 too.

dang65

I've got a Decathlon Triban 5 with hub gears:



Have had it for about four years now with no problems, and I cycle up a couple of nasty hills on the way to work. Only gripe with the 7 gear range is on the fast downhill where I could do with a higher gear. It's fine for uphill, even really steep stuff, IMHO.

Very nice commuting bike anyway. Also has grip shifts, which I've insisted on since I first tried them about ten years ago. I'm not sure if they still make them though. :-(

snooks

Surf-Matt wrote:

Snooks - just realised what you do (for a job)!

Where are you based? The inlaws have a Fisher 46 (first built in 15 years) and were looking to get some decent shots of it - they bought the moulds and plan to get more made.

My mate desgined the Pearl 50 too.

I'm based in London, but travel round the world. I get back to Cornwall every now and again. The Fisher 46 sounds interesting, any idea on the time scale (pm me)

I haven't been out on the Pearl 50, but I shot the Pearl 55 in 2003 when it was in Motor Boat and Yachting, it made the cover

meanwhile

ride_whenever wrote:

What is available in the way of hub geared bikes, normally I'd look but I need somewhere to start. My friend has had his commuting bike stolen, what he wants is something fast like a road bike, but not nickable in london.

I was thinking maybe a hybrid with hub gears and then drop bars and really thin tyres for speed. Low maintainence and should be pretty fast, even if he has to up the chainring a bit.

Opinions?

Order a Cotic Roadrat from 18 Bikes with an Alfine or SRAM hub. Probably avoid the Nexus, because of the mixed rep, and a Rolhoff because it costs a fortune. The short version of the Rat frame is designed for drops, and you can have discs too.

And btw, "really thin tyres" actually have higher rolling resistance than wider ones made out of the same compound, although this is outweighed by air resistance if you're riding at TT speeds. Read the docs that tyre manufacturers provide on their sites.

jethro924

How about one of these




Can't see it appealing to the common criminal. Drop bars, hub gears, mudguards it's got the lot! currently on ebay for £40. If the wife would let me have yet another bike I'd buy it myself and make it a fixie!

I have got a Carrera Subway 8 from Halfords (8spd nexus hub gear, drum brakes) check out

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... ryId_60956

Wanted to put drops on it but you simply cannot get a shifter to work as the dedicated twist grip shifter has a different amount of cable pull. The only options are to mount the shifter on a "space bar" or get a converter so it fits on the end of the drop bar where a bar end shifter would go. You cannot use a bar end shifter in index mode and I was strongly advised, by Robin Thorn of SJSC, that you cannot run in friction mode and "feel" for the gears as you would just knacker the hub.

After about 500 miles the hub started clicking and clunking so I thought "sod this" and put a fixed hub on which allowed me to have drop bars. Got Halford to replace the hub with a brand newie which I promptly ebayed and got £90 for it!

SamWise72

Be prepared for the gear range - anything but a Rohloff will have a similar range to an old 70's 10 speed, which should be fine, but will seem paltry if you've been spoiled by MTBs. For mounting twist grips on drop handlebars, you can use one of these:


http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Minou ... 300001170/

victor ludorum

Try looking at the Charge Tap (see below)

http://www.chargebikes.com/products/bikes/detail.php?id=14

Internally geared hub, tange frame with a nice look about it.

Charge are a British company and they make some tasty looking bikes at reasonable prices.

Their Charge Plug SS is very popular, I've even seen messengers riding them...

Surf-Matt

snooks wrote:

Surf-Matt wrote:

Snooks - just realised what you do (for a job)!

Where are you based? The inlaws have a Fisher 46 (first built in 15 years) and were looking to get some decent shots of it - they bought the moulds and plan to get more made.

My mate desgined the Pearl 50 too.

I'm based in London, but travel round the world. I get back to Cornwall every now and again. The Fisher 46 sounds interesting, any idea on the time scale (pm me)

I haven't been out on the Pearl 50, but I shot the Pearl 55 in 2003 when it was in Motor Boat and Yachting, it made the cover

Think he designed that too (he worked for Dixon Yacht Design at the time)!

Boat is currently out of the water in the Med but they are based in South Devon - they had it shipped down there but will hopefully bring it back soon. Lovely looking thing (I think!) - this is the boat being moved from the builders yard in Holland a while back:



They are over here tonight so will see what their plans are.

Sorry VERY off topic - errmm hub geared bikes - pants.