My eye has caught the Nuvinci N360 hub gear. Is there anywhere in Edinburgh or Glasgow where I can have a look at/try/buy the hub gear?
I suspect LaidBack may be able to help, but I thought other people might be able to too.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help
Nuvinci continuous hub gear
(13 posts)- Started 10 years ago by i
- Latest reply from i
- This topic is
not resolved
-
Posted 10 years ago #
-
I believe the Urban Arrow comes with a NuVinci hub (not sure if there are several), however that may not be a fair demo.
I tried it without electric assist and found it to be a bit highly geared, but then the beastie is designed to be geared appropriately when assisted!
The shifting was good and continuously variable as advertised, and I'm sure the chain wheel and/or sprocket could be tuned to the planned (unassisted) application.
Robert
Posted 10 years ago # -
Incidentally a peculiarity I noticed (which may or may not be real!) was that one couldn't shift the whole range when the bike was stationary, just most of the way. A pedal stroke was needed to shift the final bit - possibly only of notice if one stopped in the highest gear and then wanted the lowest for setting off.
And yes, there is only one NuVinci hub, so it must have been the one fitted to the Urban Arrow.
Robert
Posted 10 years ago # -
I've been looking at these too, they also look incredibly good value. But big and heavy, over 2.5kg for the hub as opposed to 1.6kg for an Alfine for example.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I've had a spin round the block in a LaidBack trike with one of those. It's a twist shifter and they give me the scrumbles, but the just-so-ness of the continuous thingy was very pleasant.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I guess the extremes of the gear shifting require some pedalling.
@ Baldcyclist, do you mean the Alfine 8 or 11? Mind you, even the Rohloff is 1800g.
Sounds like I need to drop by LaidBack and see for my self.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Urban Arrows are all sold (four in Scotland - one in Edinburgh).
I can ask the Edinburgh customer to come round though. Send an email or pm if you want and can arrange - ta.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Sent pm, will let you know how it goes.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"There is also a slight play in the steering due to the nature of the ball joint at the end of the steering rod"
At the demo at Bruntsfield Primary this was extremely irritating, perhaps pronounced by having an uneven load (as would be required if you only needed to transport one item which couldn't be split up and spread out, such as a child, unless you could adjust the belts/straps to allow it to be placed centrally) as the play (area of zero steering control) occurred just at the point where I was need to make little adjustments to counteract the imbalance. I was concentrating such on that that I never got round to experimenting with changing gear.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"Errata: Since I wrote this post the bike has had some work done and the steering issue has resolved."
Posted 10 years ago # -
Now owning two ball jointed/steering rod bikes, I can confirm that such slight play isn't inherent in the design - although it clearly feels stranger than the usual steering!
Robert
Posted 10 years ago # -
LaidBack has sorted me out with a back wheel with the NuVinci 360 on it. I now have a bike with wonderfully swooshy ratio changes. Its rather satisfying!
Gear changing does feel slightly different without an electric assist motor, but its still smooth and I'll find out if it does have a different feel to it after long term use. It doesn't stop it being any less awesome.
Posted 10 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.
posts
