My new Trek Super Commuter - Nuvinci hub

[Denis99]

Just come back from my first ride on my new Trek Super Commuter ebike.

Bosch motor, but chose the Nuvinci 380 hub geared version.
I have owned Rohloff hubs in the past, and always thought they were a good idea, having said that I'm fine most of the time with conventional gears.

I'm 5' 10" tall and have the 55cm frame, which is spot on for me.
Changed the stock seat pillar and saddle for my spare carbon post and my preferred saddle, added clipless Time pedals and went out for a hilly 50 km ride.

Came back home with 3 bars out of the five showing on the Purion display, so looks like I could get about 80 km from the 500 w battery.

Changing gear is very easy and totally smooth and seamless, absolutely no steps in the gear transmission / hub at all. Very quiet also, above 25km speed the bike is very quiet ( without the battery assist whine).

Very solid feeling ride, will experiment with lowering the tyre pressures, but quiet comfortable, will make some minor adjustments to bar grips, brake reach, but overall really good fit with top class components.

 

[Ducknald Don]

Nice bike, I did look at it but it was a bit pricey for me so went for a Cube instead.

 

[Rohloffboy]

Wow that's a great looking ebike Dennis99.

So good that more bikes are comming through, without those pesky derailleur gears, which only serve to keep bike repair shops in business.

Anyway that is definatley my type of ebike, will have a look at the motor spec, is it the CX motor? I would guess not but would be nice if it is, although for me it would not be a deal breaker if not.

I am also a convert to the Rohloff igh, and have been since 2004, I have thought of using the Rohloff on an ebike, but in reality the closeness of the 14 gears is probably a little overkill.

The Nuvinci seems ideal for Ebikes, and I like the idea that Continental are building the Nuvinci into the actual motor, although I think that may be a concept ebike, and if it does come to market, may end up well out of my price bracket.

Will check out the Trek, it could be the one for me, all rigid with no suspention, is just the ticket for me, thanks for sharing.

I have already got a set of SpeedPlay Frog Stainless pedals ready and waiting.

 

[Denis99]

Cheers,
Yes, I was actually put off with ebikes that had low end front suspension forks for road / commuting/ touring use. A rigid fork with fat tyres and low pressure is more than adequate and requires no servicing etc.

Yes, its the CX motor.

You need to have a ride with the Nuvinci hub, really smooth and absolutely no noise. The ability to make very small changes to the gear ratio is also quite useful for finding the right gear for climbing and is very easy and intuitive to use.

In fact, I recently had the SRAM gripshift system fitted to one of my mountain bikes, I like the gripshift style and prefer IGH for most applications.

I beginning to wonder if the NuVinci could withstand aggressive mountain bike riding.

 

[spinellino]

fat tyres and low pressure

what's your tyres pressure?

 

[Denis99]

I pumped them up to 40 psi front and rear for the ride yesterday.

Next time out, will be 30 psi, front and rear though.
Would ideally like to run tubeless, will try the front wheel first to see if it is possible with the tyre and rim combination.

 

[T42]

Nice bike Dennis 99,
The wife and I are both running Nuvinci hubs and enjoy the virtually infinite gearing and ease of use/maintenance these hubs offer.
I agree with you that they are an ideal hub for commuting on ebikes. We have also enjoyed riding on woodland and 'packed' trails but they fall short on on serious 'off road' trails.
Enjoy and ride safe

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I have a Nuvinci N360 on one of my bikes. At first, I loved the novelty and I was filled with enthusiasm for the first 100 miles, but after that, I found it sort of tedious. With a crank-drive bike, you're continuously twisting the damn thing to keep your cadence just right. In the end, I was using the Nuvinci more like a throttle than a gear-changer.

I can imagine that it would work a bit better with a hub-motor, where you don't get so hung up on cadence, but then you can't have a rear motor.

I don't know about the 380, but the 360 is reluctant to change under heavy loads, so you have to do very slow gear-changes when going up steep hills, which disrupt your forward motion.

I really wanted to like the Nuvinci. It sounds like a really good idea, but in the end, I couldn't help being pragmatic, and decided that it's just not worth the weight penalty considering that it doesn't really have any practical advantage, so the bike sits sadly in my garage while I have fun with my derailleur equipped bike.

 

[Crockers]

Surely a CVT style of transmission is suited more for automatic rather than manual gear changes??

 

[Denis99]

Had another ride on the bike today.

Lowering the tyre pressures front and rear, to 30 psi. Made quite a difference, in a better way.

The CVT is fine, very easy to use, I always liked the gripshift method anyway.
Very smooth, even under load. Very quiet and clean.

I like it.

 

[RobF]

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