Shaft drive Ebikes?

[tillson]

i got 22 gears soon to be 24

Similar, if not the same overall gear range but lots more tiny little steps in-between. Good luck.

 

[flecc]

i got 22 gears soon to be 24

No you haven't.

Enter your sprocket sets into a gear comparator and you'll find that many of your front to rear pairings are duplications, sometimes exact, sometimes so close that they can't be thought of as separate.

True of all derailleurs as they increasingly exceed 15 nominal gears.
.

 

[soundwave]

i have 15t and 18t at the front 2 is better than one tho have to change buy hand.

 

[Gubbins]

i have 15t and 18t at the front 2 is better than one tho have to change buy hand.

Be honest tho.. I understand the double front but you need the dongle to make the bigger ring of any use, but a 12 speed cassette? What will you gain? Is it just that, Like me, you want to have the latest kit?

 

[anotherkiwi]

I would like a 7 speed cassette or freewheel equally spaced from 12 to 40 teeth. That would cover the whole range from the +20% ramps in Navarra to the flat Landes (oh a pun!) with 32 and 48 tooth chainwheels. I asked DNP to make me a freewheel but they only go up to 34 teeth. You could probably make your own cassette from several disassembled ones.

 

[soundwave]

Be honest tho.. I understand the double front but you need the dongle to make the bigger ring of any use, but a 12 speed cassette? What will you gain? Is it just that, Like me, you want to have the latest kit?

the price is the same as i have now to replace the cassette and also my mech has had a fair few bashes and seems to suck everything up like a hoover so will see if the gx mech is any different.

the 12spd chain also grips the teeth more so should get less wear but time will tell on that one.

and why not lol not many have 12spd and the ones that do are high end prices on new bikes.

 

[flecc]

i have 15t and 18t at the front 2 is better than one tho have to change buy hand.

My gear comparator only goes to 10 sprockets, but I've used that on a typical 10 to 50 teeth 12 speed cassette using only the 10 to 36 teeth 10 sprockets. The front rings I've made 16 and 18 teeth and used a 700c for the gear inches.

As you can check below, three of the pairings between using the 16 and the 18 tooth front are very close and six close enough to be little different. So effectively there are only about 8 to 14 gears with usable differences, rather than 20:

 

[Gubbins]

My gear comparator only goes to 10 sprockets, but I've used that on a typical 10 to 50 teeth 12 speed cassette using only the 10 to 36 teeth 10 sprockets. The front rings I've made 16 and 18 teeth and used a 700c for the gear inches.

As you can check below, four of the pairings between using the 16 and the 18 tooth front are identical.

So instead of 20 gears there are only 16:

View attachment 23952

Yes but he could use 4 of them twice...

 

[georgehenry]

Yes, my bike is a crank drive to an 8 speed Shimano Alfine hub gear. I think this is the ideal setup for an ebike. The hub gear has done about 30000 miles without a single service. The chain, being nice chunky 1/8, not flimsy 10 or 11 speed stuff, lasts about 7000 miles, maybe longer and is cheap. Same regarding the sprockets.

I’ve had this bike for 10 years and it still rides beautifully. In the time I’ve owned my bike, I’ve seen ebikes become less reliable and more expensive to maintain. This is mainly due to motors becoming unnecessarily powerful and breaking components and the number of gears becoming unnecessarily high, resulting in the use of chain which is unsuitable for ebike use. Most of this is evident in the posts made within this thread.

I nearly added a hub gear bike, as a bike that could easily be an exception to chain longevity on a crank drive bike for the reasons you mention. But if you want to go off road and can't or decide not to extend yourself to a 14 speed Rohlof hub then its a cassette and a chain.

Maybe the Raleigh Motus Hub Gear Bosch with new active line motor might be one that fits the bill for a road rider today looking for low maintenance longevity .

 

[Gubbins]

I had an Alfine 11 on an unpowered MTB and it was useless. The lowest gear was far too high, no way of lowering it enough to make it useable and it was always problematic so why this was sold as an MTB is anybody's guess. I did consider motorising this bike but decided it would only make things worse.. It would seem that the older Alfine 8 is a more robust gearbox..

 

[tillson]

I had an Alfine 11 on an unpowered MTB and it was useless. The lowest gear was far too high, no way of lowering it enough to make it useable and it was always problematic so why this was sold as an MTB is anybody's guess. I did consider motorising this bike but decided it would only make things worse.. It would seem that the older Alfine 8 is a more robust gearbox..

I've not heard much about the 11 speed hub, but suspected that it might be weaker than the 8 speed.

 

[Gubbins]

This is the bike, which on the surface helped my arthritic left hand problem with just the one gear lever on the right, but I had to push it up any steep inclines and it was always skipping under load however the dots were lined up and at £1500 it wasn't cheap! I vowed never to buy another hub geared bike but the Rohloff seems to be a good box of bits..
https://www.tweekscycles.com/Product.do;jsessionid=c6e21cda314e30672d7e985c2728?method=view&n=3282&g=244708&p=260627&c=215

 

[tommie]

I had an Alfine 11 on an unpowered MTB and it was useless. The lowest gear was far too high, no way of lowering it enough to make it useable

Similar problem, simple solution,
there`s a range of interchangeable cogs, about a fiver a piece for the Alfine, 16-18-20-22 etc, my Alfine8 came with the 20T as standard, it`s now on a 16T
as you say the 11 isn`t as robust as the Alfine8

 

[spanos]

I had an 18 rear sprocket and changed for a 16t. It was exactly the ticket

May have been Tommie who suggested this. An hour or so and a couple of you tube videos to follow.....job done and bike is a different beast . Brilliant , effective cheap solution (mine is an alfine 8). My sprocket came from an lbs for a tenner . Cheaper online. Do note that it is a nexus 16t not alfine but totally interchangeable even if not recommended by shimano. You be searching a long time for a 16t alfine (as I discovered the hard way!)

I will be doing the same job again to flip the sprocket 180degrees for a better chain line

 

[Trevormonty]

I had an Alfine 11 on an unpowered MTB and it was useless. The lowest gear was far too high, no way of lowering it enough to make it useable and it was always problematic so why this was sold as an MTB is anybody's guess. I did consider motorising this bike but decided it would only make things worse.. It would seem that the older Alfine 8 is a more robust gearbox..

The Alfine was designed for road use,never intended for MTBing.

I don't think any of the IGH were designed to be driven by electric motor. Because some are more over engineered than others they get away with it.

 

[anotherkiwi]

The Alfine was designed for road use,never intended for MTBing.

I don't think any of the IGH were designed to be driven by electric motor. Because some are more over engineered than others they get away with it.

Not designed for, but with it taking 130 nM torque the Rohloff is more than adequate. Quite frankly the Nexus/Alfine 8s don't have enough range to be useful on anything but rolling hills and if you gear them low enough for mountains they are outside the torque limit...

 

[rower]

A hub-motor will sort all that. No need to go for complicated expensive solutions, which will certainly bring new problems.

Mine has a hub motor.

 

[tillson]

Not designed for, but with it taking 130 nM torque the Rohloff is more than adequate. Quite frankly the Nexus/Alfine 8s don't have enough range to be useful on anything but rolling hills and if you gear them low enough for mountains they are outside the torque limit...

My 8 speed works extremely well over very varied terrain and has an ample range of ratios. The problem seems to be with the newer 11 speed hubs and the newer motors.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Mine has a hub motor.

Try doing what I do then. Buy the cheapest chain. Don't clean it, but give it a squirt of gear oil every time it starts making grinding noises. My chains last about 5000 miles. I wore one chainwheel at the same mileage, but it was well-used when I installed it, so it might have done a huge mileage. I've never worn any cassettes yet.