Aimulator64

Good day, and my apologies if this has been asked before. the last time I posted on Bike Forums was 11 years ago, and I often broke forum "etiquette" when asking previously asked questions. I have been off a bike for almost that long, and have been getting back to it slowly.

I am eagerly awaiting my new Performer JC-70 in sunrise orange metallic to ship from Taiwan, and I tested some other more expensive models from Ice and Catrike before deciding on Performer for a price vs equipment perspective. The performer is untested for me so hopefully it isn't too different from the ones I liked. I plan to post a nice introductory thread regarding assembly and my thoughts if anyone is interested. I decided on a trike at age 30 simply for comfort, fun, and the ability to go more than 2-4 hours without a numb lower half and sore back muscles and wrists. I have no health issues or physical shortcomings, just wanted to mention that so I can squash some of the stigma around the trike rider profile (you wouldn't or maybe would believe just how many people will ask me why I ordered a trike when I have bikes and I'm not old or disabled).

The Performer comes standard with a nice gearing range, or so I believe, for the type of travels I expect to go on with it. It has a 11-32 10 speed cassette and 30/39/50 chainring with Tiagra derailleurs. I am much more interested in properly-paced long distance adventuring over trying to beat my DF lap times for my typical routes so I am happy with the lower range between the first 2 front rings, and will likely never go into the third. New York is very hilly anyway. What I would like some feedback on is whether or not I should consider a Rohloff 14 speed hub over the cassette eventually (assuming I can even swap the components on this trike like that) in order to be able to fill in some gaps in between sprockets and gain more range and to gain the durability of the hub, or if I would be wasting my time and money to not notice a difference.

Does anyone have some input on the benefits of the internal hubs over a typical cassette other than the obvious "it's sealed and more durable" argument, which is strong already? I have never used an internal hub before, but many people who tour swear by them. Trying to do the swap seems daunting and it is incredibly expensive, but I plan to ride this trike until the welds on the frame break or my internal welds do.

Thanks for your time!