Hub Gear Heaven

May 18, 2008 in Hubs & Parts
Tags: Alfine, gear, heaven, hub, i-motion 9, nuvinci, Rohloff, Shimano, speedhub, Sram, velovision

Peter Eland from velovision.com has written an interesting article about internal geared hubs.

Here is his conclusion:

CONCLUSIONS 

It’s great to see internal gear hubs developing to 

the extent we’ve experienced in these reviews. The 

Alfine in particular has the ease-of-use and style to 

charm everyday riders away from derailleurs and 

to introduce them to the low-maintenance joys of 

hub gearing. The SRAM too is a user-friendly hub, 

but perhaps more aimed at the performance rider 

who will appreciate the wider, more even spread of 

gears and won’t mind the extra cost. 

The Rohloff is in a different league in every 

aspect: range, price, tandem rating and quality. 

It shifts reliably but not quite as smoothly as the 

Alfine, and the lower range noise is irritating, at 

least on a non-worn-in hub. But it’s still the only 

truly wide-ratio hub gear, and many will find it 

well worth the money. Strong riders who break 

other hub gears may well end up with the Rohloff 

too, as the only hub they can’t destroy.  

The NuVinci was a very pleasant surprise 

– a novel transmission which really works. Yes, it’s 

heavy, and perhaps a bit draggy, but it’s bomb- 

proof and super easy to use for non-mechanically 

minded riders: a welcome addition to the hub gear 

world and one which deserves to do well. 

More details can be found here:

http://www.velovision.com/mag/issue29/vv29hubgears.pdf