Fallbrook Technologies

[indalo]

After noticing an ebike utilising the Nuvinci hub, recently discussed here, for sale on ebay, I swiftly ran a search of "Nuvinci n360" and discovered the manufacturer's web page. Now, although many of you may be aware of this type of transmission for bikes, I had never actually seen a bike so equipped before happening upon the one I mentioned on ebay.

Looking at the blurb on Fallbrook's web page, I was struck by the number of bicycle makes who have taken up this hub. There are some big names there many of us would recognise and some I have never heard of previously. It may be an inefficient transmission fitted to a bicycle but I'd love to hear some feedback from long-term owners just to hear what they think of it in regular use. It's certainly an interesting bit of kit which I'm guessing might be pleasant to use around flatter territory, (which on reflection makes it a bit unnecessary as a single-speeder suffices for that!) but somebody must buy them?

There's only a few hours left on the ebay auction if anyone might be interested in buying a bike so equipped and here's the link:

electric bike | eBay

Also, here's the link to Fallbrook's website:

Cycling | Fallbrook Technologies Inc.



Indalo

 

[Davanti]

After noticing an ebike utilising the Nuvinci hub, recently discussed here, for sale on ebay, I swiftly ran a search of "Nuvinci n360" and discovered the manufacturer's web page. Now, although many of you may be aware of this type of transmission for bikes, I had never actually seen a bike so equipped before happening upon the one I mentioned on ebay.

Looking at the blurb on Fallbrook's web page, I was struck by the number of bicycle makes who have taken up this hub. There are some big names there many of us would recognise and some I have never heard of previously. It may be an inefficient transmission fitted to a bicycle but I'd love to hear some feedback from long-term owners just to hear what they think of it in regular use. It's certainly an interesting bit of kit which I'm guessing might be pleasant to use around flatter territory, (which on reflection makes it a bit unnecessary as a single-speeder suffices for that!) but somebody must buy them?

There's only a few hours left on the ebay auction if anyone might be interested in buying a bike so equipped and here's the link:

electric bike | eBay

Also, here's the link to Fallbrook's website:

Cycling | Fallbrook Technologies Inc.



Indalo

Hi Indalo ... Sorry to have high jacked your thread ... but transferred an off-shoot to The Charging Post

Don

 

[eddieo]

There are Bosch powered bikes appearing in Germany with the Nuvinci, so must have something going for it.....

 

[amigafan2003]

It may be an inefficient transmission fitted to a bicycle

Why do you say that?

 

[flecc]

Why do you say that?

Since they are reported as inefficient, that's probably why Indalo said it.
.

 

[flecc]

Looking at the blurb on Fallbrook's web page, I was struck by the number of bicycle makes who have taken up this hub. There are some big names there many of us would recognise and some I have never heard of previously.- - - - - somebody must buy them?

It's because they are a good marketing tool, something doesn't have to be good to appeal to the market. The use of knobbly tyred, dual suspension mountain bikes for normal road cycling is a good example, a very poor choice but a huge selling craze over three decades. Toothed belt drive is another example creeping in.

Of course there are countering benefits as always. For example, many would regard it as a big benefit to never crash a gear change again on derailleur or hub gear, and having continuous drive while changing ratio helps during variable climbs. So if one isn't worried about inefficiency, especially if using e-power to cope with that, it may be a good choice. Not for me though.

One member who no longer contributes (Fecn) equipped one of his three family Agattus with a NuVinci and I've been out riding with him in the North Downs area where we both live.
.

 

[hech]

Cant imagine it being any use at all on front hub powered bikes like the one featured. But I can imagine it being of great value on a high powered crank driven setup. The proof of de pudding will be how well the concept can be made to work in practice, so it's good that some manf are attempting this.

 

[flecc]

The proof of de pudding will be how well the concept can be made to work in practice, so it's good that some manf are attempting this.

It definitely works well from a gearing point of view Hech,and can take more drive power than hub gears. Apart from the relatively high weight and cost, the main disadvantage is the efficiency loss and the fact that grows as the transmitted drive force increases. The harder it works, the less efficient it becomes, due to the method of securing grip between the drive components. Put another way, the harder the balls are gripped, the more painful cycling becomes.
.

 

[NRG]

There where a couple of PDF's kicking around a while back regarding the efficiency of the Nuvinci but I cant locate them at the moment, lots of previous discussion...very little hard info though as Fallbrook are not very forthcoming on the figures (read into that what you will) but I seem to recall from the lost PDF's that the Nuvinci is no better than 90% efficient at best and the derailleur system no worse than 90% but typically 98% or more efficient when correctly adjusted...

 

[flecc]

Yes, derailleur 98 or even 99% efficient, and they have to be in a real mess to get below the mid 90s. However, the comparison is a nonsense since derailleurs have no gears, they are just parallel chain drives. Hub gears including the NuVinci are measured without any chain inefficiency, so on that basis derailleurs are 100% efficient once the chain and sprockets are excluded.

I think the NuVinci will struggle to get as high as 90%, considering it has very obviously more drag than any hub gear I've tried and they never get above 90%. Hub gears when independently measured tend to record from 84 to 89% efficiency across their whole gear set. Only one has recorded more, 91% on an SRAM 3 speed, but 3 speeds are greatly assisted by the direct drive middle gear being 100% efficient lifting the average of the 3 gears substantially.