Any further verdicts on these, now that people have been riding them through the winter.

I am going to get an internal geared hub for next winter and wanted to see what people thought of the options.

I have been running rim brakes, and honestly they work pretty darn well - but wondered what feedback people had on disk brakes and if it is possible to get a drum/coaster brake set up on an alfine/nexus.

Oh, and if any one has a 26" 7 or 8 speed hub/wheel for sale - let me know - I know you want to upgrade to the 11 speed!

I've put about 1500 miles on my new winter bike (a Giant Transend EX) this season. Alfine hub and Hayes mechanical disk brakes. Specs here: http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-US/bik ... tions_id=4

It all worked well enough for me. I initially had problems where the cables ran into the housings, but got a sleeve that stopped the crud from getting in. When the temps were below zero I had some trouble down-shifting but it wasn't cold enough long enough for me to debug the problem. I suspect the grease in the shifter was the cause.

Because of winter crud the brake pads have been wearing fast and have needed monthly adjustments to recenter the pads. I used to use V-brakes and they worked well. The best I have used in winter is roller brakes (a kind of hub brake). Almost flawless for riding and stopping but very fiddly to remove the wheel.

Alfine/Nexus can be had for disk and drum brakes. I've not seen a version for coaster brake and doubt one exists.

This is my favorite potential winter bike ever:

http://www.torkerusa.com/bikes/commuter ... 0-graduate



Oh, and Shimano does make the Nexus with coaster brakes in 3- and 8-speed models.

So that comes with the Sturmey Archer 5 speed. What about the sturmey archer 8 speed w/drum brakes?

X-RD8
http://www.sturmey-archer.com/products/hubs/cid/5/id/7

Well that would knock up the price to probably close to $600, while the Graduate retails for under $500 with everything you need (sans rack if you need panniers). Pretty good deal IMHO, and another reason it's a good winter bike: it's fairly inexpensive. The only way it could get better would be to add a S-A X-FDD (ask Daniel Ph. how he likes his).

So what makes drum brakes rule so hard?

nothing! Drum brakes are far worse than other options.

but they look interesting and are rare

What makes roller brakes different than drum brakes - and why do those rule so hard?

Aren't they the same thing?

I personally loathe drum brakes,

the power is weak, and the action is shitty.

They're annoying to connect/disconnect too..

They are not as strong as V brakes, but are stronger than calipers.

They are annoying to disconnect and reconnect. For me this is the major downside.

The major upside is that they are impervious to the weather. They always work.

Got it. I have been using Cantis this winter - and they are working great. At one point I had some ice on the rim/brake - little scary but was cleared up after one rotation. Don't know why people are so "anti-rim brakes" in the winter. Seems like just about anything will fail when it gets hit with some water in 30 degree weather and then given a little 12mph wind chill.

Talked to a guy who rides a Trek all year round with a shimano roller brake and he had the same freeze up issue with his.

My primary commuter has a Rohloff IG hub with a BB7 mechanical disk brake.

My backup commuter has a Nexus 8 Redband hub with a Shimano drum brake.

I _hate_ getting rear flats as changing them can be a hassle.

I've not put a lot of miles on the Nexus 8/drum this winter, but they worked fine. I've had troubles with the Nexus 8 in very cold weather in the past and find it very sensitive to adjustment. The drum brake definitely gave me stopping power when my front rim brake was slopped up and slipping and has enough power to skid under every condition I've tried which is enough stopping power for me.

The disk brakes have been solid all winter. On occasion, a big splash of something or freezing drizzle crap will make them slip for a little bit, but one or two hard brakes takes care of it.

Technically, the same approach helps with rim brakes as well, but it seems like the rim-brakes reslop much quicker and take more effort to clean using this method.

IMO, the main problem with IG hubs in very cold weather is the grease getting too thick and the hub not shifting well. I've had much less trouble with the Rohloff for the past couple years than I did with the Nexus 8 when it was my primary commuter.

I've heard that the NuVinci does not have the cold trouble of other IG hubs. I've also heard that they're coming out with an improved NuVinci that weighs less than an anchor and has a bit better efficiency. However, these are just things I've heard.

I've had freezing at the cassette joint several times on very cold and sloppy nights with my nexus 8. Over at the mtbr.com igh forum I've seen suggestions to run petroleum jelly slathered on the cassette joint to prevent gunk from getting in and freezing. Seems like it'd make quite a mess to me, so I never tried it.

I was also just looking at the Nexus 8 today as well as a possibility to run on the puglsey next year - not too happy with the performance of the standard derr setup...

So what about prolonged periods of serious sub-zero temps and one of these hubs, or the Rohloff? Anyone ever take one apart, remove all the grease, give it a light coating of something like Mobile1 and reassemble? How complex would that be? What do the guys in Alaska do?

I was out last year at 20 below with the Nexus and had no problems with the hub (we won't talk about the shifter). This year hasn't been as cold so I can't give such a report on the Alfine, but it has worked well in the 1 or 2 days at 10 below (again, we won't talk about the shifter).