What are the gear ratios, which hub fits which wheel? Here you can find out which work of art made from sun and planetary wheels will give your next bike wings.
Ten years ago, when Rohloff successfully packed the gear range of a mountain bike derailleur into a "box" on the rear wheel, a mental block was solved: the low-maintenance gear hubs fascinated extreme cyclists. Just three years later, Shimano set about raising its hub gears to a new level. The Nexus eight-speed hub ran more smoothly, shifted more easily and covered a wider gear range than its rather dull predecessors, which had been around for decades.
In its technically and visually polished Alfine version, it is poised to become the centrepiece of a new generation of elegant everyday and touring bikes. Competitor SRAM was the last of the big players to feel the upwind and presented the sporty i-Motion 9 in 2007, a good 100 years after the patenting of its first Torpedo multi-speed hub.
Tested bikes in the special:
Hawk Classic Duncon (Shimano Nexus)
Maxx C-Maxx Roadster (8-speed Alfine)
Sinus Arkansas (Sram i-Motion 9)
Cannondale Trekking Rohloff (Rohloff Speedhub)
Maxcycles Traffix ( Sram Dual Drive)
