Bicycle Gearing

Bicycle Gearing

What hub gear bicycle represents the best value for money in England currently?

Don’t like derailleurs. Get snagged up and require continual adjustment and wear the chain out.

Like the idea of a rear drum brake as well, at least one brake totally reliable and little or no maintenance.

I cycle 5000 miles a year, 50% on off-road paths and small hills regularly so wide gears needed.

Also carry loads on the bike (but not up the hills), shopping, goods etc.

Hi! You don’t mention your budget and this is a very important factor with hub gears. You say best value, so I’ll assume a relatively modest budget…

There are 3 main hub gear producers; Shimano, SRAM and Sturmey Archer. Most decent, hub-geared bikes on sale in the UK use the Shimano Nexus 7- or 8-speed hub. This is tried and tested, and is cheaper, but arguably not as robust as the SRAM unit. All of them offer about a 300% range of gears. This should be OK for your needs, but steeper hills may require quite an effort. It all depends on your choice of front chainring and rear sprocket.

One bike that may fit your bill is the Dawes Geneva. I have a similar machine and it does an adequate job, if unexcitingly. It has a hub dynamo, a decent carrier and is reasonably well-protected from the elements. It doesn’t have hub brakes though, but…

…IMHO, hub brakes are very inferior in stopping power compared to modern V Brakes, as I found out to my cost.

If you can stretch to the extra budget, the best vaue bike in terms of performance and quality is the Orbit Orion City. It was on special offer last month and is exceptional value at that price. See if you can find one at the sale price and you will truly have a bargain!

If money is (almost) no object, consider the Rolls Royce of hub gears, the Rohlhoff. Thorn do a wide range of bikes using this hub and they are great bikes, but VERY expensive.

Whatever you choose, good luck with the new bike.

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