Hi folks,

I really don't like derailleurs!

I commute on a single speed and have a hub geared MTB which I love too. However, I've an old MTB that I mainly use for commuting in ice and snow but it's needing a rebuild. I've been looking at replacing the knackered old gears with a Nexus hub but have no idea how much I should be paying to have it fitted to a rear wheel. Any ideas would be well appreciated.

Here's the bike I'd like to convert



Thanks,

Floydster

Sorry I like them they are so easy to get you home if the shifter fails, try doing that with a nexus or any hub type.

I suppose with a lot of mountain or rough terrain they are more vunerable but I don't like things I can't fix at the side of the road.

Rich

They don't fail, that's the beauty of them. I've been using hub gears for about 30 years and never had a failure. Compare that to when I'm doing a winter event with derailleurs and I'm stuck in the same gear after about an hour when the conditions are bad.

I've gone through yet another rear cassette on my bad weather bike and the front shifter's stuck again so time to go for something more reliable. My alfine is zero maintenance but the nexus is so much cheaper and should be more than capable of what I'll be using it for.

Floydster

Dunno how much the nexus hubs are BUT a wheel build should be between £15 and £30 depending on if you buy all the parts from the same shop (hub, rim, spokes) and which shop you use.
Probably not worth reusing the current rim as they aren't particularly expensive and that one looks a bit, um, old, so the rim wall will probably be fairly worn. Can spend as much or as little as you want, separate rims start at under £30 and go to well over £500 each The really cheap rims aren't available separately, they generally only come in built up wheels.

You might also be able to buy a complete built up nexus wheel in 26" for not much more than the hub cost as well.

Might also need a new chainring as standard ones don't like single speed use as the teeth are shorter and aslo designed to allow shifting, not what you need with an inline transmission!! These aren't expensive and can probably be fittied to your existing crank.

Will also need a chain tensioner as the specialised doesn't have horizontal drop outs. Your single speed and existing hub geared bike probably do. It is possible to bodge the existing rear mech to do this job. Looks a bit (lot) messy tho.

They DO fail, but generally (with the shimano hubs) to a set gear. If you set them up wrong you can end up between gears, or with slipping gears, if you get water in them and they freeze then they can stop working completely.
Failures on conventional gears are more likely but, when they do fail, you can bodge it up, unless the freewheel mechanism dies, them you are walking home.

I don't like derailleurs on kids' bikes, I had three today to fiddle with to fix them, only BMX's have guards for the rear cassette and they break so easily, and kids do throw them on the ground. I get one broken one a week, across 36 or so kids, on average. The odd one shears, most are just very badly adjusted and many are seized at the handlebars from lack of use, or at the rear cassette from lack of lube.

I find them reliable if they're looked after, I've never had to buy a new one and have only ever owned five bikes and have cycled for over 30 yrs. Mine on the folding Dahon gets squashed when I'm putting it in the boot of the car but I squash it carefully.

I did consider a hub but the one I would have wanted would have cost more than the bike.

Still do want one, I only use 7 of the gears anyway! Maybe if I win the pools I'll get one on the Dahon. There's a nice man in Spennymoor who will help me out, I think.

OK, slight exageration maybe. All mechanical devices will fail. However, I've never had one fail compared to countless derailleurs that have packed in on me and I've never had to limp home with oily hands when riding a hub geared bike After all, Mark Beaumont wouldn't have shattered the round the world cycling record using hub gears if he thought it would be less reliable, would he? Fingers crossed my latest hub geared bike will last me the rest of my days as it's totally sealed and maintenance free

I've approaced a couple of companies about building a wheel for my old winter bike, if anyone's interested I'll post the responses here. If they're too expensive then I guess I'll be closely watching eBay.



It's a bigish job (for a bicycle) but worth it I think as I love the bike. It does have vertical dropouts (unlike my other bikes) but I'm going to try a half link chain before going for a tensioner as this has sometimes worked for me before.



That'll be the Rohloff then! Just think, 3 speed Sturmeys are still being ridden daily after 50 years, what age will you be when the Rohloff dies?

Floydster

To be fair, in 25 years of riding and racing a bike on and off road i've broken maybe 4 rear mechs, all have been fixable in 10 or so minutes. And thats with a good number of years doing 12-15000 miles of training and racing......... so they don't actually break that often.

The shimano hub gears are in theory maintenance free, but to get them to work well, they need a strip down and clean after they are broken in. Rohloffs apparently need a regular service (in germany). Which is not cheap!!

And how do you mean "companies", any halfway decent bike shop should be able to do it, in fact, any bike shop that couldn't (or wouldn't), i would probably stop using........ and its a couple or three hours workshop time to be fair, depends how well prepared they are! But hardly a massive job

I ride a lot of hours through mud which acts as grinding paste. I've gone through an entire drivetrain in 24 hours in the past. For this type of riding the hub gears have already proven to be more resilient with less components needing replaced.

I've already put over 20K miles on the old bike and been through more than 4 mechs.



I am talking local bike shops who I have emailed to save a trip into town, they're companies too aren't they?

Floydster

Just trying to make it sound FAR too grand for a bloke with a bike shop

And by the same token, the mech on my wifes cross bike was supplied on my team bike, in 1998, and is still working fine, despite 10 years use for racing, training and playing and is now 2 or 3 years into its cyclocross career...... some people break kit, some don't.

And yes, if you only do enduros and slogging thro the mud, hub gears work. For anything else, they tend to not offer any advantages over conventional gears.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/2010/02 ... -beaumont/
See if Vin can do the deed....... http://www.greatbikeride.com/

Pretty much just 24/12 hour enduros that I race in, so far there's no comparison

Getting pretty hacked off with all the winter crud sticking in the gears of the winter/cargo bike so definitely going to be converted to hub gears, never had any probs with them in the past.

Had to modify my trailer to hook onto the right of the bike so there's less chance of it fouling the mech if it isn't there.

Floydster