Sram Dual Drive

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I am looking at used Bike Fridays as a possible N+1 (many of them are fitted with dual drive). I have read some damning reviews by end users online and wondered what the good folk at CC think of this system
 
I have used the Dual Drive extensively on a recumbent. If you forget and stop in a high gear on an ordinary derailleur bike, you can just put a foot down, lift the bike and twirl the pedals while shifting down. On a recumbent that is well nigh impossible. Because the DD hub gears can be changed without pedalling, you can use the hub to select a lower gear and make your escape. Apart from that, the rest of my remarks will have nothing to do with recumbents.

Good points of DD:
Front and rear shifters are both on the same unit on one side of the handlebar.
No need for front derailleur mechanism, just a single chainwheel up front.
Hub gears protected from weather and muck.
Adjustment of hub gear important, but straightforward.

Less good points:
You need to get your head round the need to keep pedalling when shifting the derailleur part and to stop pedalling, briefly, when shifting the hub gears.
When dropping the back wheel to fix a puncture, the hub gear cable has to be disconnected. Getting it off and back on again can be a bit of a pig.
Hub gears can be a bit delicate and are difficult to fix if they go wrong.
If you need really low gearing avoid DD as the hub has a limit on the amount of torque it is able to take. Put too small a chainring on the front and you will exceed that limit, and may damage the hub when stamping hard on the pedals. Strong heavy riders may overload the hub, giving rise to some of the bad reviews.

I have ridden my DD for a good few hundred miles in all weathers. It has been entirely reliable. The different shifting techniques soon become second nature.

If mine finally dies, I am not sure if I will replace it though. For one thing, I am not sure if it is being made any more. I might go for a wide range hub gear instead.
 
Thanks for taking the time to write that useful summary. It is the part about being "delicate and difficult to fix" that sparked my concern, the little plastic box that sits outside the hub seems to be the systems Achilles heel with numerous people telling horror stories about replacing damaged ones.
The bike I had my eye on didn't work out but I shall keep looking until something more conventional shows up.
Thanks again
 

StuAff

Silencing his legs regularly
Location
Portsmouth
Bit late to this party, but…
I've had two DualDrive equipped bikes. On my old Dahon Jetstream XP, bought in 2007, which came with a 9-speed drivetrain, I had a DD wheel built & fitted. Hub had to be replaced after it disintegrated, fortunately covered under warranty. But the replacement lasted me the rest of my time with that bike, no problems at all. Replaced that with Chutney the Speed Pro TT, also second-hand. The only issue I've had- on a trip to Brussels some careless **** broke the clickbox when the bike was at a museum rack. @recumbentpanda has nailed every other pro and con. SRAM discontinued all their hub gear production a few years back, so if/when the DD dies I'd probably look at a Schlumpf or Efneo gearbox.
 
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