Shimano Nexus 8-speed Hubs

Sheldon Brown wrote:
Chalo wrote:

Confound it. True to clueless form, Shimano have dished up a
heaping helping of asymmetrical flange offset on a hub that
didn't need to have any.

2.7 mm is a "heaping helping" of asymmetry? Most non-flip-flop
hubs have at least this much asymmetry.

Ah, I looked at your photo of the hub without the roller brake or its
fixing nut, and I saw a bunch of offset. But as installed, the offset
is pretty reasonable.

It does make me wonder why they wouldn't make it genuinely symmetrical
for ease of wheelbuilding, though.

I continue to be completely vexed by the Sturmey Archer gearhubs that
build into dished wheels. I reckoned Shimano had given us another such
abomination, but I was wrong.

Another nugget on the towering mountain of reasons not to buy their
crap-- like I really needed another one.

"Crap?" This is the best multi-speed hub you can buy for less than
$700! Sounds like predjudice to me.

I beg to differ-- I have owned both Sachs/SRAM 7 speed hubs and Shimano
7-speed hubs, and the difference is astounding. SRAM S7 hubs give a
wider range of gears and a *much* smaller amount of drag, while seeming
generally more rugged. I have never heard of someone wearing out or
overloading a Sachs or SRAM 7-speed hub, but I have heard direct
accounts of Nexus hub failures (requiring gear body replacement) from
local shop mechanics. My two Nexus 7 hubs are on small-wheeled art
bikes that doesn't get very many miles, so I've not laid waste to them
yet.

When I ride my Nexus-7-hubbed bikes, I feel like I'm losing a whole
gear ratio to system inefficiency. Admittedly this is a tough thing to
quantify, but I don't find my SRAM hubs to display any more noticeable
drag than my derailleur bikes. They seem to drive at least as freely
as my Rohloff hub.

The Nexus 8 hub is going to have to be a *whole lot better* than the
Nexus 7 before it can be considered equal to or better than the SRAM
S7. It doesn't have a wider overall range than the SRAM S7, and it
obviously uses more sets of plantaries. The presence of a true 1:1
ratio in the new Nexus hub bodes well, but I suspect that in the field
it will prove to be a lesser product than the SRAM.

Chalo Colina