| Last year my partner and I rode the GDR using Rohloff hubs. When I came home, I found the old cassette and derailleur system so "clunky" that I replaced the drive train on my road/town bike with a Nexus-8. I think I might be a convert to internal gearing. As to the original question ... what range of gears is best. That is entirely personal based on your strength, riding style, preferred RPM, whether you will be more frustrated spinning out at high speed, or walking up hills when you can't quite pedal. I'd recommend figuring out what gear-inches you use most often on your current bike, and base your Nexus gearing decision on that. If you aren't fluent in gear-inches and the calculations that go into it, here's what you need: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/ Sheldon, bless his soul, will be gracing us with his infinite wisdom for many years after his untimely death. I never studied the reliability issues regarding the Nexus-8, since it wasn't very expensive and I'm just using that bike locally. I did a lot of research about the Rohloff, and I couldn't find any claims of serious failure, which is consistent with the Rohloff marketing material. I think of my Rohloff hub as being like the transmissions in all the Toyotas I've driven... cost about the same as a Toyota transmission and should last a 100,000 miles with the only service being fluid replacement. If anybody is thinking of a Rohloff hub, be aware that it can take many months to get a hold of one, due to the way they are imported into the States. Harris Cyclery was extremely helpful to us in tracking down a couple of Rohloff hubs, but even with their help it took six months. And about light weight touring... It's fun to look at photos of the Tour Divide and Great Divide Race racers for inspiration about super-light packing systems. Unfortunately the TourDivide site removed the photos due to problems with the site. But you can look at the GDR photos here: http://greatdividerace.blogspot.com/2008/06/meet-racers-correction-from-earlier-18.html One rider, Andrew Genco, dropped on the second day of the race because his Old Man Mountain rack broke and he couldn't repair it. There were OMM rack failures in the race last year too -- not a very good testimonial to the durability of those racks, in spite of the ACA and OMM claims. Many TD and GDR racers are using packing systems from Jeff Boatman at www.carouseldesignworks.com I used one of his custom frame bags for the GDR ride last year and thought it was terrific. Amy, Palo Alto, CA |
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