Amy-

Good to hear that you are confident regarding the hubs.

Gear inches have never been very useful to me as I've never spent
time on a high wheeler ;-). Therefore I make up my own spreadsheets
and develope crank revolution vs. MPH charts that tell me what I need
to know. The hard part is predicting how fast the cruise will be and
how low of a gear I will need when I ride with full gear, I'm an
experienced commuter but not tourer.

Thanks for the reply.

Tim Greiner

--- Amy Lauterbach wrote:
>
> 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
>