Has anyone here heard of the Shimano nexus hub? Are they still being made?
I haven’t found much info on it yet but it seems to be a planetary gear
system with up to 7 gears… its kind of heavy, at 2 pounds, but building a
unicycle around it would be a cool idea for cruising at higher speeds 
Sheldon Brown has some info on it here:
And another great one with purchase info:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/nexus.asp
Or try a Google search:
Christopher
It’s on the Bianchi Milano and Auto-Milano models which I’ve ridden:
http://209.217.20.46/site/bikes/cross/03_milano.html (7 speed) and
http://209.217.20.46/site/bikes/cross/01_automilano.html (4 speed
automatic)
They’re both pretty nice, but last Sunday I was riding the Auto model
(down Mt Diablo setting up the car shuttle for a unicycle ascent!) and on
a short steep uphill section, I stood up to pedal harder. But I slowed
down enough so that the automatic transmission shifted me into a lower
gear. There is a momentary period where you are in neutral which is
disconcerting on a bike, but might be worse on a unicycle.
—Nathan
“Someone” <something@example.com> wrote in message
news:Q_d%7.18421$rs1.2845910@news02.optonline.net…
> Has anyone here heard of the Shimano nexus hub? Are they still
> being made?
I
> haven’t found much info on it yet but it seems to be a planetary gear
system
> with up to 7 gears… its kind of heavy, at 2 pounds, but building a
> unicycle around it would be a cool idea for cruising at higher speeds
I think harper’s (designed) epicyclic geared hub is just a fixed 1 to
1.5 ratio. To me it would be much more interesting if the gear ratio
could be switched while riding. But without a chain drive, the hub is
difficult (if at all) to reach mechanically to operate the gear shift.
An automatic shift might be the answer, if the “neutral” period is
short enough.
Klaas Bil
On 10 Jan 2002 21:00:11 GMT, “Nathan Hoover” <nathan@movaris.com> wrote:
>It’s on the Bianchi Milano and Auto-Milano models which I’ve ridden:
>http://209.217.20.46/site/bikes/cross/03_milano.html (7 speed) and
>http://209.217.20.46/site/bikes/cross/01_automilano.html (4 speed
>automatic)
>
>They’re both pretty nice, but last Sunday I was riding the Auto model
>(down Mt Diablo setting up the car shuttle for a unicycle ascent!) and on
>a short steep uphill section, I stood up to pedal harder. But I slowed
>down enough so that the automatic transmission shifted me into a lower
>gear. There is a momentary period where you are in neutral which is
>disconcerting on a bike, but might be worse on a unicycle.
>
>—Nathan
>
>“Someone” <something@example.com> wrote in message
>news:Q_d%7.18421$rs1.2845910@news02.optonline.net…
>> Has anyone here heard of the Shimano nexus hub? Are they still
>> being made?
>I
>> haven’t found much info on it yet but it seems to be a planetary gear
>system
>> with up to 7 gears… its kind of heavy, at 2 pounds, but building a
>> unicycle around it would be a cool idea for cruising at higher
>> speeds
>
>
>
–
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked
automagically from a database:” “Area51, Asset, mole”
It’d be cool to have a 3 or 4 speed Giraffe with a hand mounted gear switcher on the seat… anyone else thought of this crazyness yet?
“Klaas Bil” <klaasbil_remove_the_spamkiller_@xs4all.nl> wrote in message
news:3c3e1be5.7607804@newszilla.xs4all.nl…
> I think harper’s (designed) epicyclic geared hub is just a fixed 1 to
> 1.5 ratio. To me it would be much more interesting if the gear ratio
> could be switched while riding. But without a chain drive, the hub is
> difficult (if at all) to reach mechanically to operate the gear shift.
> An automatic shift might be the answer, if the “neutral” period is
> short enough.
A kickshifter through the crank nut is used on MountainDrives to switch to
the other gear.
Joe