Hub Gears vs lots of gears?

[Tim Linford]

I am going to buy a Hybrid Bike. I used to do lots of cycling but have not been on a bike for a few years, so the rules of the game seem to have changed and wonder if anyone could advise me.

I am comparing 2 bike, both Kona Hybrid Bikes. the first (I saw and liked) is a Kona Dew Plus, with a triple dyr' system of gears.. I was shown another by the bike shop, A Kona Dr Good Stubby, which is a really good deal (end of season) £500 instead of £750! the Dew Plus is an end of season but less discount...

The Dr Good Stubby has a Shimano Nexus 7 gear system... what sort of low gear will this give, will be be low enough for my old bones in the Scottish Borders?

I asked the bike shop what the gears in inches were and they just looked confused...

Can anyone advise me please?

 

[sabian92]

If the shop can't tell you about gears and their ratios I'd doubt their knowledge on anything else.

I'm of the opinion that being said, that it's not how many you have, it's how you use them.

 

[betty swollocks]

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

 

[stoofer35]

I use one of these for commuting
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002TLSW...de=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002TLSWYO

S

 

[MacB]

This is a hub gear comparison table, quite old now but I believe the ratios are correct:-

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

Looking at it the Nexus 7 goes from 0.632 to 1.545, so it's a case of working out what gear inches are given by your selected chainring and cog then multiplying that by those two numbers to give bottom and top. A quick look online tells me the stock setup is 38x18 which gives a 1:1 ratio of 57 gear inches with the stock 700x32 tyre. Means your low would be 36 inches and your high 88 inches....seems a bit lacking at the low end to me, especially if you plan on contending with any serious hills.

 

[Tim Linford]

This is a hub gear comparison table, quite old now but I believe the ratios are correct:-

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

Looking at it the Nexus 7 goes from 0.632 to 1.545, so it's a case of working out what gear inches are given by your selected chainring and cog then multiplying that by those two numbers to give bottom and top. A quick look online tells me the stock setup is 38x18 which gives a 1:1 ratio of 57 gear inches with the stock 700x32 tyre. Means your low would be 36 inches and your high 88 inches....seems a bit lacking at the low end to me, especially if you plan on contending with any serious hills.

Thank you for this, very useful info, it this is roughly what I thought by guessing. I couldn't remember the actual maths. Thanks again...

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I love my Rohloff hub on my touring bike. when we are on flatter areas we simply run cogs with more teeth at the front to give higher speeds, (so 42 front, 16 rear for example). when we hit turkey we changed over to 38 front & 17 rear which gave us a much better range for mountains. I have no idea what it is in inches, whenever i needed a new front chainring or rear sprocket, I would simply ask the shop for teeth numbers... (sheldon's site won't give me the answer because my tyre size is not there for starters). I know of at least one person who ran with 47/16 which had to be murder up steep hills!

anyhow - that aside, I am back on a bike with a derailuer system again and categorically much prefer the internal hub and I know plenty of others in the same position and you can change those inches by simply changing the 'teeth numbers'.

 

[Tim Linford]

I love my Rohloff hub on my touring bike. when we are on flatter areas we simply run cogs with more teeth at the front to give higher speeds, (so 42 front, 16 rear for example). when we hit turkey we changed over to 38 front & 17 rear which gave us a much better range for mountains. I have no idea what it is in inches, whenever i needed a new front chainring or rear sprocket, I would simply ask the shop for teeth numbers... (sheldon's site won't give me the answer because my tyre size is not there for starters). I know of at least one person who ran with 47/16 which had to be murder up steep hills!

anyhow - that aside, I am back on a bike with a derailuer system again and categorically much prefer the internal hub and I know plenty of others in the same position and you can change those inches by simply changing the 'teeth numbers'.

Thanks for this reply. I went to the bike shop today and rode both the bikes I was considering. The two Kona's were essentially the same (same frame, components, different tyres, little better bits and pieces on the HUB gear version). Although the derailuer version did have a much lower gear, I loved the feel of the Dr Good bike... so I bought this one.. It felt tighter, feet a bit closer together and although the Shimano Nexus 7 is no Rohloff, it shifted very sweetly and didn't feel too inefficient. I used to have a Brompton which I ran into the ground; the 5 speed SA, was a bit of a slug on hills. I had a gear reduction (i.e.. bigger than standard spec sprocket on it) so I appreciate what you say about chain rings and sprokets to suit. I will see how I get on with this nice new bike before I mess it about too much.

In the past I did some adventurous touring and in my mind I am sure I could do it again, but I have some medical things going on (sore joints), so I think the relaxed feel of the Dr. Good will suit be ok. I have an old Audax bike which needs renovating; if I get fitter, I could always restore that!