A derailleur is lighter and more efficient, needs more maintenance, can smudge your trouser leg, and is a pain to change gears when stationary.
An internal gear hub, during a commute I’m taking it easy anyway to not show up all sweaty, is definitely my favourite.
Also: being less efficient you spend more effort/energy during your exercise race back to the home shower.
Unlucky_Purchase_844 on
Depends on the gear inches attained in both systems. My commuted hybrid 3×8 can make 19 to 107 gear inches, while my MTB 1×12 can do 17 to 79 gear inches.
The Pinion 600 seams to span the range from 17 to 102 gear inches, making it a blatantly awesome bike for urban hills and for going fast.
Internal hubs all day, every day, every year, every decade. I’m not in a race, and I don’t need more than 8 gears, even in my super hilly area (and you can still get as many as 11 speeds, I believe). To be fair, I did put a bigger rear sprocket on, to lower my ratios, but it was a 3$ cog, and 15 minutes of work to swap it on, and now it climbs hills quite well. You’re not going to hurt it if you go down on the drive side, and the maintenance is *almost* nonexistent. It just works and works, and works. Ever since I switched, I’ve had no desire to go back, at any point. I absolutely love my internal hub.
My only complaint with my particular setup is that it has a twist shifter instead of triggers (Not sure if that’s the common parlance. I’ve never had to refer to them before).
CaptinRedFox on
I have both setups but no expert (belt and hub gear)
Hub gears you end up having a more limited range of 8 gears or so with a lower gear that is no where as low as a derailer system.
I always wished I had a lower gear on my hub gear bike like my derailer one. I would say my hub gear is a standered one of the shelf. My hub geared bike is belt drive so slightly less efficient, but you can realy feel not having a lower range to change to on steep hills.
If it’s an electric assisted bike then you would be fine with hub gears in a hilly place.
Realy comes down to how steep is your town/city. Mostly flat hub, flat with some gentle hills hub, flat with steep hills derailer, gentle hills up and down hub
SpiritedCabinet2 on
As a road bike commuter that loves speed and the efficiency of derailleur-based systems…. internal gear hub.
The past winter wreaked havoc on my drivetrain. Road salt, rain, sludge … it requires constant, CONSTANT maintenance and cleaning. Given the chance I’d be willing to give up some efficiency and speed for the substantially reduced maintenance of an internal hub. There just aren’t a lot of drop bar bikes running it.
FroggingMadness on
Been commuting with a gear hub for the last five and a half years, no real issues, only had it properly adjusted at the beginning and got the oil changed a while ago, love the low maintenance and protection from weather and damage, wouldn’t wanna miss it at this point, in fact my new commuter also has a gear hub but this time with a belt drive as well. Pedaling efficiency might be a little lower than with a derailleur but without a direct side by side comparison it’s difficult to even tell.
But if you went gear hub in a very hilly place you might wanna pick something with a little more gears and range, Alfine 11 or Rohloff (also the most efficient gear hub), I run an Alfine 8 in a somewhat hilly area and I’m having to use the entire gear range (possibly in part on account of lugging groceries around sometimes). Derailleurs tend to have more gears and a higher range anyway.
However I do still respect anyone’s opinion that says they have a longer commute with a higher average speed and want maximum pedaling efficiency and don’t mind the extra care a derailleur demands.
Zerguu on
Any bike shop should be able to fix derailleur. Good luck finding someone to fix Rohloff.
7 Comments
A derailleur is lighter and more efficient, needs more maintenance, can smudge your trouser leg, and is a pain to change gears when stationary.
An internal gear hub, during a commute I’m taking it easy anyway to not show up all sweaty, is definitely my favourite.
Also: being less efficient you spend more effort/energy during your exercise race back to the home shower.
Depends on the gear inches attained in both systems. My commuted hybrid 3×8 can make 19 to 107 gear inches, while my MTB 1×12 can do 17 to 79 gear inches.
The Pinion 600 seams to span the range from 17 to 102 gear inches, making it a blatantly awesome bike for urban hills and for going fast.
Reference:
[https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html](https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html)
Internal hubs all day, every day, every year, every decade. I’m not in a race, and I don’t need more than 8 gears, even in my super hilly area (and you can still get as many as 11 speeds, I believe). To be fair, I did put a bigger rear sprocket on, to lower my ratios, but it was a 3$ cog, and 15 minutes of work to swap it on, and now it climbs hills quite well. You’re not going to hurt it if you go down on the drive side, and the maintenance is *almost* nonexistent. It just works and works, and works. Ever since I switched, I’ve had no desire to go back, at any point. I absolutely love my internal hub.
My only complaint with my particular setup is that it has a twist shifter instead of triggers (Not sure if that’s the common parlance. I’ve never had to refer to them before).
I have both setups but no expert (belt and hub gear)
Hub gears you end up having a more limited range of 8 gears or so with a lower gear that is no where as low as a derailer system.
I always wished I had a lower gear on my hub gear bike like my derailer one. I would say my hub gear is a standered one of the shelf. My hub geared bike is belt drive so slightly less efficient, but you can realy feel not having a lower range to change to on steep hills.
If it’s an electric assisted bike then you would be fine with hub gears in a hilly place.
Realy comes down to how steep is your town/city. Mostly flat hub, flat with some gentle hills hub, flat with steep hills derailer, gentle hills up and down hub
As a road bike commuter that loves speed and the efficiency of derailleur-based systems…. internal gear hub.
The past winter wreaked havoc on my drivetrain. Road salt, rain, sludge … it requires constant, CONSTANT maintenance and cleaning. Given the chance I’d be willing to give up some efficiency and speed for the substantially reduced maintenance of an internal hub. There just aren’t a lot of drop bar bikes running it.
Been commuting with a gear hub for the last five and a half years, no real issues, only had it properly adjusted at the beginning and got the oil changed a while ago, love the low maintenance and protection from weather and damage, wouldn’t wanna miss it at this point, in fact my new commuter also has a gear hub but this time with a belt drive as well. Pedaling efficiency might be a little lower than with a derailleur but without a direct side by side comparison it’s difficult to even tell.
But if you went gear hub in a very hilly place you might wanna pick something with a little more gears and range, Alfine 11 or Rohloff (also the most efficient gear hub), I run an Alfine 8 in a somewhat hilly area and I’m having to use the entire gear range (possibly in part on account of lugging groceries around sometimes). Derailleurs tend to have more gears and a higher range anyway.
However I do still respect anyone’s opinion that says they have a longer commute with a higher average speed and want maximum pedaling efficiency and don’t mind the extra care a derailleur demands.
Any bike shop should be able to fix derailleur. Good luck finding someone to fix Rohloff.