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I ride a 3-speed with a belt drive, and I've been thinking that I could use a few more gears to better cope with the hills along my commute. Would it be practical to replace my Shimano Nexus 3-speed hub with a 7- or 8- speed version? Is this something a novice can tackle, or is there a shop that would do a better/faster/cheaper/less hair-pulling job of it?
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Are you replacing just the hub or the entire wheel?
If it's the entire wheel, it's pretty easy -- swap the tire over to the new wheel, put the new wheel on your bike, swap your shifter (you probably have a new shifter with the new hub), then connect the cable to the wheel and adjust.
If it's just the hub, you'll have to rebuild your wheel before you do that -- which is much more involved.
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The other thing is that the 3-speed is much smaller than the 7- or 8-speed, so that wheel rebuild will need to include new spokes. If you were using a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed, I have it in my head that those are available in a wider range of spacings, so you'd need to check compatibility with your frame... but I don't know that that's the case for the Nexus 3.
By the way, if you're changing it out anyhow, I'd suggest also looking at the SRAM i-Motion 9 -- which I'm currently using and a big fan of -- and maybe even this year's version of the NuVinci, about which I've heard nothing but good things. (My favorite folding bike manufacturer (Bike Friday up in Oregon) has been thinking about using the NuVinci on their upcoming top-of-the-line belt-drive folder rather than waiting for Shimano's Alfine 11 [which itself looks to be an outstanding hub -- copying many of Rohloff's features without their pricetag]). Among things to consider is ease-of-removal -- I've never liked having to play fish-the-bolt-out-of-the-grease to disengage the shifting mechanism on a Shimano, whereas SRAM and Rohloff both have mechanisms for engaging and disengaging that linkage; also, if your shift cable breaks, Rohloff's external shift mechanism can be removed and the gear selected using a multitool, which is a lot better than being stuck in highest/lowest/whatnot.
Best of luck finding something right for you!
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I was searching for XYZ on Google and I found this thread, I would like to ask
Which bike should i get?
Planning on buying a new commuter/transport bike. i have around $2500 to work with. no matter what bike i get i will upgrade the brakes and drive-train components. Which bike and/or component-manufacturers would you recommend. local bikes available are:Cannondale Bad Boy 1, 2012
Specialized Crosstrail Pro Disc, 2011
Giant Accend, 2012
i have Shimano XT parts on most of my bikes and never really dealt with the other component manufacturers
currently ride 100-150 miles per week year-round. getting bored of internally-geared hub. i tried many types of bikes, mostly hard-tail. too aggressive for road bikes. the bike will be exposed to any type of weather.
If you're willing to try something different, I'd recommend a variety of recumbents. You could head to Easy Street Recumbents which is in Hyde Park area. I find them infinitely more comfortable than an upright and I do between 75 and 100 miles per week right now.
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