clubman 

I'm a big fan of internal geared hubs but I found the range of three speeds to be too wide in deep snow. I had a couple of decades of winter riding and I prefer a friction shifted Suntour gear. With a studded Tire on the front and a knobby on the back and a lot of WD-40, it was all very doable although you're obviously going to eat chains and free wheels and cassettes. I have no experience with 8-speed IGH just because I didn't like the price point.

nlerner

I agree that studded tires kinda suck. I actually haven’t used them much at all in the last several years because it seems winter temps have risen a bit and, as you know, they salt the cr@p out of the roads around here so it’s mostly a slushy brine (which is hell on a drivetrain). I’ve also found that studded tires don’t do squat with loose snow; they’re best for icy conditions. In my 9 years of commuting Brookline-Cambridge I usually installed studded tires around Nov and left them on until March. I swear old ladies pushing walkers would go faster than I could.

52telecaster

My experience as well. Except old ladies with walkers push me pretty hard all year round.

smontanaro 

I'll balance out the negativity about studded tires. I used 45NRTH Xerxes tires. They are narrow (30mm) relative to most other studded tires and were designed for commuting. There are no studs in the center section, leaving it free for pavement contact. They thus roll better than other studded tires on dry pavement, but the studs are there precisely when you need them, as your center of gravity drifts away from the centerline and you start to tip. The narrow cross section also helps them sink into snow, allowing them to contact the pavement (or ice) underneath.

jonwvara 

Well, that is good to hear, since it pretty much describes the tires I have (but have not yet used): 30mm wide, no studs along the mid-line.

As far as speed goes, I'm already used to going slowly in the winter--the high gear on my winter bike, as I have been using it for about a decade, is something like 60 gear-inches.

Now that I think of it, I'm also slow at other seasons.

Dirt roads here are almost always covered with a mix of packed snow and sand. There's a long steep descent from my house to the pavement that could never be ridden down without studs. Maybe not even with them--I've never tried. Up to now I've always walked the bike to the bottom, or put it on the car rack.

3alarmer 

...me too. I have been unable to ride some days in the past couple of months, here in California, because of all the smoke in the air. Now I feel better about having moved here. Thanks to everyone.

I have some stories about commuting on a Dunelt three speed, with a SA AW hub, for one entire winter in New London, CT. It wasn't that much fun, but I didn't die.

tricky 

That's a good deal! I was going to post Universal Cycles Shimano hubs page that has a selection of IGHs (Universal Cycles -- Hubs & Parts) but you're right that the hub prices are close to the price of a hub alone. Case in point, The hub on that Amazon wheelset looks similar to this one that is $237 and out of stock. The rims on the Amazon wheelset might not hold up to extreme commuting for very long, but it will get you rolling and you could always rebuild the IGH into a different wheel later. If you buy that wheelset, obviously wise to check the spoke tension so that it better stands up to commuting.

GamblerGORD53

I think a SA RD3 would work fine. I seldom winter ride, but I've done 4,700 miles on mine, with 4 mile centuries. I have oil in mine too, thicker is better IMO.
Gearing is 46/ 19T >> 48/ 63/ 84 GIs. The shift point is at 10 mph. So it's very easy for a fast startup and hills to 10%.
The small drum brake sure doesn't stop like the XL, but it's OK. As for the XL, I have used them both front and rear. The front one has done 28,000 miles on 3 bikes, including 8,100 on a 120 lb tour bike. Absolutely fabulous and zero fiddling. It has gotten soupy mud inside a couple times like said above, but I just don't think it bothered stopping at all. The grit actually helps unglaze the drum. And actually, my XL-RD5w got oil in there a couple times. It still WORKED fine. LOL.

I also have a Nexus 7i this year. It goes nice, but certainly do not use a roller brake in winter. It's hard enough in summer.
For axle spacing, taking the roller off gets it down around 126 mm. Likely need to re-dish the spokes. You'll need a longer axle for a SA 3 speed for 126. I've seen such on a new bike this year.

scarlson 

What's your issue with rollerbrakes in winter? I find they are well-suited to winter, their main downfall being cooling, which is less of an issue in winter, and operating in grease so they can't get full of water from slush and snow.

And as I alluded to above, I used a rollerbrake on the rear of a dedicated winter commuter and it fared much better than the Sturmey XL drum I had on the front. The drum would fill with water and cease to function, while the rollerbrake was about the only thing on that bike that made it through the winter without needing overhaul.

BFisher

I've read that IGH bikes make "sport of winter cycling." Especially Raleighs.

steine13

>> I'll balance out the negativity about studded tires.
Me, too. Not all studded tires are created equal.
I'm on Nokians, and they way they are designed, on dry roads we have both rubber AND tungsten stud contact with the pavement.
The first winter I was riding these, there was a day with pretty heavy snow, and i saw a patch of ice and headed for it, thinking "finally some traction" -- and then I thought, wow, these are some pretty spectacular tires.
Studes alone on dry ground are miserable, absolutely agree. But I've never slipped sideways on mine. I will admit to being chicken careful, though.
cheers -mathias

GamblerGORD53

So when was your SA XL made? Mine is an alu hub from 2012. I had a cold muddy week riding in China. Did 30+ miles of wet clay and a few days riding on a slimy shoulder all day. A couple days the useless rear caliper clogged up and froze in damp cloudy 3C temp.
So my front XL FDD was doing ALL the braking on 10% hills. ZERO worries or lack of performance.
Must have been something wrong with your setup or fenders dripping.
My CCM 3 speed barely gets a drop anywhere on the bike after riding spring puddles 20 or 30 miles.

scarlson 

Mine's an aluminum hub from about 2012 as well. I bought it in early 2013.
I don't see how to prevent slush picked up on the sides of the tire from splatting into the forkblade and running down the forkblade and reaction arm, which has to be clamped to the forkblade. From there, it piles onto the inside of the reaction arm like a spoon or funnel and has easy entry to seep into the drum. Maybe it doesn't happen with puddles of liquid water. Maybe it only happens with the briny slush we get when overzealous new england municipalities salt the living daylights out of the road.

Senrab62 

Funny you mentioned the suntour. Last winter was primarily split between suntour cyclone bike with knobby 27" and igh in a fixed variety. Both managed salt, ice, snow, grit very well. Suntour, when clean and lubed worked very well in my opinion and experience.

noglider 

Those pre-built wheels are a deal very hard to beat. I would consider them. Even if they're badly built, you can retension the spokes to make them good.

I say an IGH is a good idea for winter. Like others, I am also annoyed at how gears are so far apart on 3- and 5-speed hubs, so the 8-speed sounds like a great idea.

steine13

>> annoyed at how gears are so far apart on 3- and 5-speed hubs

Horses for courses. A 15-minute snow commute, 3 speeds are plany.
Riding an hour in bad weather, I'd want to be on something more sophisticated.
Like my five speed....car...

cheers -mathias

alias5000

I've been using an Alfine-8 in winter without any issues. If I was to rebuild it and wanted fancy, I'd go for an Alfine-11 for the wider gear range (I use a front double instead, right now) and get the di2 version to keep shifting easy when my hands are frozen and it hurts to push the gear lever. No winter-specific complaints though.

deepgreens

I commuted all year round in Toronto on a Pashley Roadster with a 3 speed SA hub and drum brakes. It worked great and I was amazed at how well it handled in the cold, wet and snowy conditions. I didn't use anything special for the tires: regular Schwalbe Marathons work fine. We had kids so I traded it for a cargo bike but I'm looking to get another similar SA equipped bike very soon.

PaulRivers

All those city bikes they leave outside at racks are IGH's. That seems to be the way to go for low maintenance. The drawback is they're a bit clunky.

I know bikes that come with an IGH usually have different dropours though. Horizontal dropouts? I'm not sure if you can just throw them on a regular frame or not.

alias5000

Often you can, but you may need a chain tensioner.

ThermionicScott 

My winter bike is a fixed-gear. The thinking was/is that it has the fewest number of components that could ice up and misbehave, and it has been utterly reliable (of course.)

But there are times when it would be nice to coast, or have different gearing available. With an uphill or tailwind, it can be nerve-wracking to be locked into a certain footspeed while also managing traction. A Sturmey-Archer S3X would be cool, but some combination of cost/availability/laziness has always stopped me from pursuing it.

A regular 3-speed IGH could also be nice, but then I'd need a rear brake, and would miss the "sense the traction with my feet" deal that Sheldon Brown praised about fixed-gears. So I keep ending up doing nothing to change my setup.

ascherer 

Very happy with the Sturmey 8-speed hub I put on my International commuter/schlepper. Wide range, pretty good spacing.

pastorbobnlnh 

Off topic but related question that I'm certain someone here can answer:

I'm building a Beach Cruiser with a modern SA 5 speed IGH. My frame has vertical dropouts. Will the Shimano Nexus/Alfine anti-rotation washers, specifically the Green and Blue ones, fit on the Sturmey Archer hub axle? If not, what should I be looking for? Thanks in advance!

jonwvara 

This may or may not be of general interest, but after nearly buying a Nexus 8 wheel, I decided to head off in a different direction. I'm building a 3-speed freewheel on a Suntour Perfect 5-speed body, with 15-, 21-, and 32-tooth cogs. With a 34-tooth chainring, that will give me ratios of about 31, 44, and 62 gear inches. Going to shift with some sort of long-cage Suntour RD from my derailleur box, controlled by a simple thumb shifter (I'm using flat bars for an upright posture, the better to see over snowbanks).

Years of riding my manually-shifted winter two-speed have shown me that a high gear in the low 60s is as high as I need. I also need a 30-inch low for the big hills around here. (The need for that low is what decided me against hub gearing--I don't think I could have gotten down to there with most IGH hubs, unless went well outside the minimum recommended input ratio.)The 44 will be handy for moderate upgrades, now that I don't have to stop and get off the bike to shift.

Of course, I could add a couple of cogs to the 5-speed freewheel body, but the idea is to keep things simple, and minimize the number of shifts with numb fingers enclosed in mittens. I'll report back later when I see how this works out in practice.

prairiepedaler

I'm looking at going IGH and belt drive in the future. I like the minimal dish of the rear wheel that way too. Shifting at -25c or so will be the test. Drum brakes would be a good idea too, but have never used them before. For anyone winter riding in deep cold, try MAG-1 grease for your hub bearings. Will try it in the pedals this year too.