Custom Bike Thoughts

[Jezston]

So I've been bicycle commuting for about a year now, and on a decent hybrid for about six of those, and with my cycle scheme due for renewal in six months or so I'm thinking about my next bike.

I'm thinking of having some oddball custom bike made up for me by a local shop (assuming this would still qualify for the cycle scheme) based on my gradually increasing experience of riding certain types of bike and vague things I've learned (which may well be wrong!) about bicycle components.

Be good to get some clarification on my thoughts if anyone minds?

The big one is that as my commute is relatively flat, I only use about three or four gears out of the available 24 on my bike (pretty much always in the outer ring on the pedal gears if that's the right terminology) so was wondering about the practicality of hub gears. Now I understand they are a lot lower maintainance than regular gears , and they seem quite elegant a system, but do they give much of a range compared to regular gears? As my needs are fairly limited, might having a bike fitted with such a gearing system be a good idea, or have I got the wrong end of the stick here?

 

[fossyant]

Custom fixed from your local LBS - that's what I got on cyclescheme. Only using 3-4 gears - that was just like me, ditched the lot for the commute.

 

[Arch]

Hub gears are great. If you currently only use 3 or 4, then I'd say a hub gear would cover that range and more. (of course, the size of your chain ring will shift the whole range up or down a bit, depending on what you need.

I have hubgears on my winter bike. As you say, very low maintenance (um, no maintenance in my case!), the chain lasts longer (it's not being forced back and forth like a derailleur chain), and you can change gear at a standstill - yeah, I can remember to anticipate stops when I'm riding the derailleur bikes, but it's nice to be able to just pull up, click click down a couple of gears and be ready.

There's a comparison table of the various hubs, their ranges etc here:

http://www.hubgear.net/table.html

If you understand that sort of thing, TBH, it's at the edge of my little brain's power....

or there is the fixed/singlespeed option. I've ridden a ss and it was good, very simple. Never tried fixed, not high on my personal wish list, but many swear by it....

 

[Jezston]

Hub gears are great. If you currently only use 3 or 4, then I'd say a hub gear would cover that range and more. (of course, the size of your chain ring will shift the whole range up or down a bit, depending on what you need.

I have hubgears on my winter bike. As you say, very low maintenance (um, no maintenance in my case!), the chain lasts longer (it's not being forced back and forth like a derailleur chain), and you can change gear at a standstill - yeah, I can remember to anticipate stops when I'm riding the derailleur bikes, but it's nice to be able to just pull up, click click down a couple of gears and be ready.

There's a comparison table of the various hubs, their ranges etc here:

http://www.hubgear.net/table.html

If you understand that sort of thing, TBH, it's at the edge of my little brain's power....

or there is the fixed/singlespeed option. I've ridden a ss and it was good, very simple. Never tried fixed, not high on my personal wish list, but many swear by it....

Thanks for the info! Think I'd prefer the flexibility of hub gears over a fixed - had no idea there were so many models.

Now need to work out what the best type of braking system would be.

Bah, I'm annoyed now that I have to wait at least another six months for cycle scheme to come round again before I can do this

 

[Arch]

If you're going down the hub route, why not go for hub brakes too. Similarly maintenance 'free', not affected by wet at all... Guess what my winter hack has...

The only thing it hasn't got 'hub' is the dynamo, it has an old bottle dynamo (which is so noisy it serves as an additional audible warning signal on shared paths). You can get a combined front hub brake/dynamo, but when the bike was built it was made up from bits we had, and all we had was a hub brake. One day, I'll upgrade.

6 months - you can easily waste that long working out your options....

 

[arallsopp]

Big fan of hub gears here. I'm using dual-drive on my winter hack, but I'm really targeting a Rohloff. Each year's offerings seem to get better with the shimano / sram line, and its becoming easier to find the hubs at a component level (rather than being built into a bike). 6 months is nothing.

 

[jimboalee]

I can thoroughly recommend hub gears for commuting.

If you get an old battered hack with a Sturmey 3, gear it so third is at such a length that your natural cadence, sustained power output and roadspeed for its aerodynamics all match up.

This will make for a most pleasant ride.

Second gear will be a moderate climbing gear; and first, you might not use very often except up steep dual-use subway ramps at walking pace.

 

[jimboalee]

Ah, you're not looking for an old hack for commuting. You want a brand new bike for commuting.

Personally, I'd spend the cycle-to-work scheme outlay on a weekend jolly bright sparkly bike; and spend fifty quid of my own money on the bike which will get covered in rain and filthy traffic spray.

 

[MacB]

If it wasn't for cost, £1k hub alone, then the Rohloff would be on a heck of a lot of commuting bikes. The nearest rivals are the SRAM I-9 and the Shimano Alfine which have 9 and 8 gears respectively, to the Rohloff 14. The spread of gears for each is:-

Rohloff - 526% - whatever your lowest gear then the top gear will be 5.26 times this - the 13 steps are equal in %age increase terms so the bottom gears are clustered closer together and the gaps get bigger as you go up. You are limited to a twist shifter only and it has two cables with easy disconnect. Taking a standard setup of 20 to just over 100 inches then you have 6 gears from 40 to 80 inches, what I think of as the regular riding range. You have 6 below this and two above. Weight claims vary but 1.8kg, including shifter, seems about right, cost £1.1k.

SRAM I-9 - 340% - first and last step is smaller to minimise the cluster effect. Again it will give 5-6 gears in the range 40 to 80 inches, depending on how you gear it. I'd go with something around 26-88 to get the best options. This is twist shifter only with one cable and easy disconnect. This is the heaviest, approaching 3kg including shifter, cost £300.

Alfine - 307% - steps vary, again giving a more even spread and again a standard setup will give you 5-6 gears in the 40-80 range. A 27-80 gives you about the best range. This has twsit, bar end, STI and trigger shifter options, one cable but no easy disconnect. some claim it's simple once you get the hang of it but there's a lot of videos around showing how I believe around 1.6kg including shifter, cost £250.

As you can see the offerings are very similar in the sort of range a commuting bike would use. There are all sorts of claims around efficiency, from 20% loss of input energy to only 3%. My personal experience with the SRAM is that efficiency losses are at the lower end of that scale. Where the Rohloff wins hands down is in reliability, Shimano has a poor reputation here though many claim the Alfine is much improved. The upcoming Alfine 11 is a whole new design running in an oil bath, as per Rohloff, rather than grease. SRAM is meant to be great and I would have concurred but my hub is currently away for repairs. They insist on return to Germany so it's no quick turnaround. To be fair even net searches turn up nothing but positives for the SRAM re reliability, apparently I've just been unlucky If you want something multi purpose, ie touring as well, then the Rohloff is ahead. For commuting I'd say it's only attraction is lack of maintenance.

I also have a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, the SRF3 model, and have now got it geared as per Jimbo. So I have a cruising gear 3 of 70 inches, gear 2 at 54 inches for hills and gear 1 at 40 inches for steep stuff and loaded with shopping. In reality this would cover most commutes, once you're fit, that don't have any crazy hills. You can get a 3 speed for sub £100 and a heck of a lot of LBS's will be able to maintain a Sturmey, and it weighs around 1.1kg. There are twist, trigger and bar end shifting options and it's one cable. Release is a bit faffier then SRAM/Rohloff but better than Alfine.

As you have a flattish commute I'd be tempted to build up a hack around a 3 speed and then use the Cyclescheme to get a nice weekend bike as well. There you go took a long time to say the same as Jim

 

[jimboalee]

If it wasn't for cost, £1k hub alone, then the Rohloff would be on a heck of a lot of commuting bikes. The nearest rivals are the SRAM I-9 and the Shimano Alfine which have 9 and 8 gears respectively, to the Rohloff 14. The spread of gears for each is:-

Rohloff - 526% - whatever your lowest gear then the top gear will be 5.26 times this - the 13 steps are equal in %age increase terms so the bottom gears are clustered closer together and the gaps get bigger as you go up. You are limited to a twist shifter only and it has two cables with easy disconnect. Taking a standard setup of 20 to just over 100 inches then you have 6 gears from 40 to 80 inches, what I think of as the regular riding range. You have 6 below this and two above. Weight claims vary but 1.8kg, including shifter, seems about right, cost £1.1k.

SRAM I-9 - 340% - first and last step is smaller to minimise the cluster effect. Again it will give 5-6 gears in the range 40 to 80 inches, depending on how you gear it. I'd go with something around 26-88 to get the best options. This is twist shifter only with one cable and easy disconnect. This is the heaviest, approaching 3kg including shifter, cost £300.

Alfine - 307% - steps vary, again giving a more even spread and again a standard setup will give you 5-6 gears in the 40-80 range. A 27-80 gives you about the best range. This has twsit, bar end, STI and trigger shifter options, one cable but no easy disconnect. some claim it's simple once you get the hang of it but there's a lot of videos around showing how I believe around 1.6kg including shifter, cost £250.

As you can see the offerings are very similar in the sort of range a commuting bike would use. There are all sorts of claims around efficiency, from 20% loss of input energy to only 3%. My personal experience with the SRAM is that efficiency losses are at the lower end of that scale. Where the Rohloff wins hands down is in reliability, Shimano has a poor reputation here though many claim the Alfine is much improved. The upcoming Alfine 11 is a whole new design running in an oil bath, as per Rohloff, rather than grease. SRAM is meant to be great and I would have concurred but my hub is currently away for repairs. They insist on return to Germany so it's no quick turnaround. To be fair even net searches turn up nothing but positives for the SRAM re reliability, apparently I've just been unlucky If you want something multi purpose, ie touring as well, then the Rohloff is ahead. For commuting I'd say it's only attraction is lack of maintenance.

I also have a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, the SRF3 model, and have now got it geared as per Jimbo. So I have a cruising gear 3 of 70 inches, gear 2 at 54 inches for hills and gear 1 at 40 inches for steep stuff and loaded with shopping. In reality this would cover most commutes, once you're fit, that don't have any crazy hills. You can get a 3 speed for sub £100 and a heck of a lot of LBS's will be able to maintain a Sturmey, and it weighs around 1.1kg. There are twist, trigger and bar end shifting options and it's one cable. Release is a bit faffier then SRAM/Rohloff but better than Alfine.

As you have a flattish commute I'd be tempted to build up a hack around a 3 speed and then use the Cyclescheme to get a nice weekend bike as well. There you go took a long time to say the same as Jim

Jimbo knows where to get a Sturmey AW3 for £8. Their all used mind, and come with free rim and spokes.

I'll check. They might have taken a price-hike to a tenner.

 

[PpPete]

Used to have a Sturmey 3 speed in my yoof. Long time ago. Couldn't get rid of it fast enough to go to derailleurs, and that was in the days of friction, downtube shifters only.

The twist-grip shifters and high cost of all the modern systems puts me off.

I'm with Fossy on this one, if you only use a narrow range of gears, please try a fixed wheel, they will cope with a surprising range of gradients. Mine is a cheap thing hacked together from second & third hand parts, and even as a novice fixed wheel rider I can cope with ups & downs that otherwise need a gear range of 40" to 90" on my geared bike.

 

[Theseus]

The one hub that is missing off Arch's link is the SA S3X. I wouldn't mind fitting one on one of my bikes.

 

[Arch]

The one hub that is missing off Arch's link is the SA S3X. I wouldn't mind fitting one on one of my bikes.

I think that site was written before the S3X came out...

Also in the pipeline, the Alfine 11 spd...

 

[mac1]

Another big fan of hubgears...in fact I'm completely indifferent to anything else...

Came across this website:

http://hubstripping.wordpress.com/

The Alfine 11 is due in September, which conveniently coincides with your renewal.

 

[MacB]

Jimbo knows where to get a Sturmey AW3 for £8. Their all used mind, and come with free rim and spokes.

I'll check. They might have taken a price-hike to a tenner.

Jim, the only negative around this are the axle lengths available, they just won't fit to a modern sized frame. Even the new ones, though the SA catalogue shows a 175mm axle option with 126.8mm OLD, in reality they don't do these in Europe. I've even tried the European HQ and no joy. Yet this should give you enough axle to space all the way up to 135 if you need to. The options available here are 117.3 and 107.7 OLD. I had to order my 175 from the US in May last year and, looking for another one now it seems I've got to do the same again.

I'm converting my 9 speed hub gear commuter to a 3 speed, I've analysed the gears I used commuting and the 9 speeds went mainly unused. With the 3 speed I can get it maintained locally, I can afford to keep a spare wheel(with hub obviously) lying around. I can learn to strip and maintain it myself and spare parts, excluding the axle, are easy to come by. No-one argues the claim that a 3 speed matches a clean derailler for efficiency. I can also afford to keep a small selection of spare sprockets, and matching chains, to gear a bike for any given day(£3.50 for a sprocket and £10 for a chain). It's also as light as the lightest of derailler setups, 1.3kg for hub, shifter and sprocket. If you add up what you wouldn't need, normal hub, FD, RD, cassette, gear shifters, second gear cable and at least one chainring, then it's probably lighter than most derailler setups.

I ride with enough people that do all, or most, of their riding on SS or fixed. For me this has all the benfits of SS with only a tiny weight penalty and a slightly more complex wheel change operation.