Originally Posted by base2

^^^

Agreed. What he said.

All IGH's have some cost. But, so do all the other types & styles of drivetrain as well. I've never known any of my IGH's to make a meaningful difference over my conventional derailleur drivetrains. Well, any difference I could locate specifically to the hub once properly broken in. There is just too many variables to account.

It's not like any difference between bikes couldn't be made up elsewhere. Like switching to tubeless, getting good tires, or (gasp!) doing both, for example.

Oil bathed IGH's seem to do best, IMO. It's not hard to squirt in a bunch of Phil's Tenacious & hold it in the hub by packing the cap with marine grease. But, I don't know that this isn't simply placebo effect either since I do all my own maintenance.

My Nexus 7 Dahon "feels" slowest of all. But it's on a 20 inch folder, with Marathon tires, driven by a Schlumpf drive in overdrive most times. My Pugeot with the same hub & Rene Herse 26x1.75 tires is a completely different experience than that of the Dahon. It offers every bit same experience as any drop bar bike "should" give. Apples to apples: It's not the hub. It's the bike.

Maybe my experience suffers from sample bias. Who knows?

Good luck learning the in's & outs of the scientific method.