Nexus hub or not?

A new Edinburgh bike shop has opened in manchester and they're
offering 20% off bikes for a few weeks. I need a new one but am not
too knowlegable about them.

I have a mountain bike that with a bit of work could be fairly decent
again, but recently have been using it maily for getting to work
(about 4 miles each way).

I'm thinking of getting a Revolution Courier (£249) as its easily
within my price range and seems like it'll be able to do the job. Then
theres the Revolution Courier Disc (£299), the Nexus (£349) and the
Race (£279). With the 20% off its going to be one of these.

I've been into the shop and they were telling me about the nexus hub
and it sounded pretty neat (there are far too many trafic lights on my
route) so it looks like i'll be going for that one. I just want to
know whether thats a good idea or not.

Will it make my life that much easier?

Do you think 8 gears is enough?

Is the hub all that hard to maintain?

Would I be better off going for the Disc?

And what else can you tell me about this?

Cheers

Madcap wrote:

Will it make my life that much easier?

Yes, easy to clean and doesn't wear out in the winter.

Do you think 8 gears is enough?
Easily, as they are nicely spaced apart. You won't need any more. I have
climbed big hills in first and done 30mph in top, how fast do you want
to go?

Is the hub all that hard to maintain?
There is no maintenance to speak of; Mrs B as had a Nexus bike for 18
months now and it's been faultless. I understand they need regreasing
eventually but it doesn't look too scary.:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/nexus8/

Would I be better off going for the Disc?

If you can afford the extra, I would suggest the Mongoose offering as
being (almost) the perfect urban bike:

http://www.mongoose.com/bikes/detail...nal&brandID=82

Thanks to the disk brakes. It needs mudguards/carrier and maybe needs a
hub dynamo though for perfection ;-). Mrs B has the ridgeback with
roller brakes - a good compromise between the two I guess:

http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/index.php...show_bike=TRUE

And what else can you tell me about this?

For commuting and utility I find the Nexus hub hard to beat. Rholoff are
no doubt better made and have more gears but they are very expensive.
The Nexus has not caused us any cause for concern, it's a great choice.
Expect to see lots of Nexus hubs if/when urban utility bikes become the
next mtb/bmx/whatever craze.

The only snag is the faff of getting the back wheel out, although we've
not had any punctures so far (running Conti SportContact tyres)and it's
something that no doubt gets easier with practice.

hth,

Tony B

Tony B writes:


Do you think 8 gears is enough?
Easily, as they are nicely spaced apart. You won't need any more. I
have climbed big hills in first and done 30mph in top, how fast do you
want to go?

My son has a bike with a shimano 7 speed nexus and, whilst the range
of gears is fine for riding on the road, I would say it's a bit
lacking for real off-road use.

Although for most off-road riding you seldom need very big gears
unless you're racing and every second counts - just adjust the size of
your rings so that you get the small gears you want and just freewheel
on the fast downhill bits

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:03:15 +0100, Tony B said:

http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/index.php...show_bike=TRUE

I have one of these, and am very happy with it. I did change the rear
sprocket from 21T to 23T - I have quite a few hills on my commute.

http://groups.google.com/group/uk.re...3b42daf6e5812d

And what else can you tell me about this?

The only snag is the faff of getting the back wheel out, although
we've not had any punctures so far (running Conti SportContact
tyres)and it's something that no doubt gets easier with practice.

I had one puncture on the Conti tyres, after only a few weeks
commuting. I swapped them for Schwalbe Marathon pluses, on which I
have never had a single puncture in about a year.

Make sure you carry the right tools with you. A decent 15mm spanner to
undo the nuts, and then re-do them tightly - if you don't the rear
wheel slides forward and your chain jumps off as you cycle over
cobbles. I use a "dumbell" spanner, although don't use one made from
cheese - I snapped one a couple of weeks ago. Don't re-use an inner
tube that has been patched, either - patches can fail. You will also
need either a large Phillips screwdriver or a couple of spanners to
undo the nut/bolt on the brake stay. Practice once first, to make sure
you have the right tools, and you know what to do.

--
Alan J. Wylie http://www.wylie.me.uk/
"Perfection [in design] is achieved not when there is nothing left to add,
but rather when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

in message .com, Madcap
') wrote:

A new Edinburgh bike shop has opened in manchester and they're
offering 20% off bikes for a few weeks. I need a new one but am not
too knowlegable about them.

I have a mountain bike that with a bit of work could be fairly decent
again, but recently have been using it maily for getting to work
(about 4 miles each way).

I'm thinking of getting a Revolution Courier (£249) as its easily
within my price range and seems like it'll be able to do the job. Then
theres the Revolution Courier Disc (£299), the Nexus (£349) and the
Race (£279). With the 20% off its going to be one of these.

I've been into the shop and they were telling me about the nexus hub
and it sounded pretty neat (there are far too many trafic lights on my
route) so it looks like i'll be going for that one. I just want to
know whether thats a good idea or not.

Will it make my life that much easier?

On the whole, yes.

Do you think 8 gears is enough?

Yes. The gear range covered by the Nexus is adequate for any normal urban
cycling.

Is the hub all that hard to maintain?

Derailleurs are not at all easy to maintain; hub gears in principle need
much less maintenance. However, we've had one or two worrying reports
about water getting into Nexuses this winter. On the whole I'd say a hub
gear is a much better idea than a derailleur for anything except a road
racing bike, but if it's a Nexus don't leave it out in the rain too much!

Would I be better off going for the Disc?

No. Hydraulic brakes offer more precision control than cable-operated
brakes, which is important for very technical mountain biking; and
hydraulic brakes are also lower maintenance. Disk brakes are better in
extremely muddy conditions. But for urban commuting they aren't going to
give you any advantage at all.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Woz: 'All the best people in life seem to like LINUX.'
;; URL:http://www.woz.org/woz/cresponses/response03.html

On 26 Mar, 07:57, (Alan J. Wylie) wrote:
Don't re-use an inner tube that has
been patched, either - patches can fail.

Yes, and thorns can cause punctures... However a properly repaired
tube with a decent (e.g. Top Touring) patch is highly unlikely to fail
again at the same point!

Alan J. Wylie said the following on 26/03/2007 07:57:

Don't re-use an inner
tube that has been patched, either - patches can fail.

I've never had one fail in 25+ years of cycling. There is no reason not
to use an inner tube with a patch, so long as it's applied properly.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:57:09 +0100, (Alan J. Wylie)
wrote:

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:03:15 +0100, Tony B said:

http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/index.php...show_bike=TRUE

I have one of these, and am very happy with it. I did change the rear
sprocket from 21T to 23T - I have quite a few hills on my commute.

http://groups.google.com/group/uk.re...3b42daf6e5812d

And what else can you tell me about this?

The only snag is the faff of getting the back wheel out, although
we've not had any punctures so far (running Conti SportContact
tyres)and it's something that no doubt gets easier with practice.

I had one puncture on the Conti tyres, after only a few weeks
commuting. I swapped them for Schwalbe Marathon pluses, on which I
have never had a single puncture in about a year.


Thre is seldom a need to remove a wheel from the cycle to repair a
puncture; it can make it easier, but it isn't necessary unless you
decide that the damage is so bad the tube or tyre need replacing.

Am Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:09:38 +0100 schrieb Simon Brooke:

in message .com, Madcap
') wrote:
Do you think 8 gears is enough?

Yes. The gear range covered by the Nexus is adequate for any normal urban
cycling.

In flat and slightly hilly terrain with moderate speeds it's perfectly
fine. For anything more I would personally prefer a derailleur system or
something like the SRAM DualDrive. The Speedhub would be beyond my budget
:-)

Is the hub all that hard to maintain?

Derailleurs are not at all easy to maintain; hub gears in principle need
much less maintenance. However, we've had one or two worrying reports
about water getting into Nexuses this winter. On the whole I'd say a hub
gear is a much better idea than a derailleur for anything except a road
racing bike, but if it's a Nexus don't leave it out in the rain too much!

Well - to be fair, the derailleur system is slightly more efficient than
the hub gear at least on some of the gears, especially when you put a lot
of energy into the pedals like when cycling uphill. But in practice where
you usually use a commuter bike you hardly notice the difference between
derailleur and hub gear systems. I was pleasantly surprised by the easyness
of using a 7-gear hub driven bike when I tried it the first time on a visit
to Vienna in 1998. On many Austrian railway stations they rent these,
usually equipped with a gear hub.

Would I be better off going for the Disc?

No. Hydraulic brakes offer more precision control than cable-operated
brakes, which is important for very technical mountain biking; and
hydraulic brakes are also lower maintenance. Disk brakes are better in
extremely muddy conditions. But for urban commuting they aren't going to
give you any advantage at all.

It can also be a disadvantage if someone comes up with the idea to kick
your bike - or if it happens to fall onto something hard, say when parking
in the city and it's blown over by the wind. Then the disc is very easily
bent slightly, which makes it nearly impossible to adjust correctly. I
should say that this is not based on my personal experience as i'm
perfectly happy with my Deore V-Brakes, but on user reports about disc
brakes on commuter bikes.

Andreas

Thanks all. I'm buying the bike tonight. Cheers for the advice.