Tuesday, February 9, 2010

IGH means Eye-Guuuhhhh!

No, not really. But it does stand for Internally Geared Hub or some such thing. I am totally ready to embrace the future if it includes a viable, wide range, all safely contained within the hub shell, tough and reasonably light system of shifting.

It is no secret that I am a singlespeed fan and I love the direct chainline and nearly indestructible nature of the beast. I have fooled around with a Rohloff 14 speed hub and I found it to be kinda Machiavellian in the shifter and axle mounts (and stinking heavy!) but I saw the appeal. Now Shimano has let an 11 speed version of the 8 spd Alfine hub out of the bag.



Still heavy compared to a high end der. shifted system, it remains to be proven as being tough enough for MTB use. But, someday this technology will be what we are riding on our bikes. If it is embraced by the off road world it will be refined and refined and then it will be ready for the masses. I think a better mousetrap, it will be.

Sign me up for some cheese, please.

1 comment:

Fonk said...

I'm ready for it! Combine that w/ the HammerSchmidt shifting for the front, and it'd be nice to have a system w/ a straight chainline and no external shifting components to bang up against rocks, roots, etc. in a crash. Like you said, though, right now they still have to increase the durability and lessen the weight.