Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
I put a Sram Dual Drive on my Airnimal Joey. That is a three speed internally geared hub that has a standard 8 or 9 speed cassette freehub. Sram took that hub out of production a number of years ago, but it is my understanding that Sturmey Archer makes one like it.
The reason that I mention this is that in high gear on the three speed hub it is in an overdrive mode. You could use a standard 8 or 9 speed cassette with a small sprocket of 11 teeth and get gearing higher than you would with a 10T sprocket on a standard hub.
But since I am ignorant of the Sturmey Archer, others would have to elaborate on that. Not sure what hub spacing you would need, the Sram that I have fits in 135mm dropouts. And this would also be an issue for your budget.
If you are racing with roadies, there is some extra drag in the hub, but I can't feel it. For recreational riding, I think that such a hub is great.
I used to own a Dahon Dash with the SRAM DD. I liked it and it did have exceptionally wide range and the inefficiency|drag was almost imperceptible, but it was not light. Not exactly a porker but not light either. Not sure it would be appropriate for a road speed rig.