Are hub gears & roller brakes as awesome as I imagine?

Ive always secretly kind of longed for one of them 'urban/commuter' type bikes with 8 speed hub gears and roller/drum brakes.

They appeal to me for a number of reasons, I guess one of them being that I simply like trying out different sorts of bikes and these remain untried. They also seem low maintenance & super practical.

But are they as awesome as I imagine?

Anybody had one?

Generic Shimano and others like it i.e reasonably priced, are good, they work, but are heavy, and not entirely as robust as a Roholff or Strumney (spell ?).
When they break they break... normal gears can be fixed much easier.

Hub gears: greatly underrated in this land. They're smooth, maintenance-free and I don't understand why one would prefer a derailleur over a SA or an Alfine on a city bike.

Drum/roller brakes: low maintenance but feels spongy and the performance isn't great. Not for me.

).
When they break they break

Yes, but they don't!

I ran a Nexus 4 speed equipped cruiser with roller brake for 13 years and a Sachs Super 7 (no roller) brake on an mtb street hybrid for 12 years before selling both bikes this summer. Never had a problem with either.

They make the back of the bike heavier than the front, but that & the nano-thin chance something might go wrong when you're miles from a bike shop who knows how to fix em are the only potential issues.

ps: I haven't run a derailer since I traded a Clockwork Orange for the cruiser & probably never will again. Rohloff next.

Ive always secretly kind of longed for one of them 'urban/commuter' type bikes with 8 speed hub gears and roller/drum brakes.

They appeal to me for a number of reasons, I guess one of them being that I simply like trying out different sorts of bikes and these remain untried. They also seem low maintenance & super practical.

But are they as awesome as I imagine?

Anybody had one?

Dunno about awesome but they're pretty damn good.

I'm currently working as a mobile handyman so lugging loads of tools and stuff around with me, and for a year or so (until the company changed hands and new management decided it was a bad idea) I was doing it on a hub gear/hub brake Halfords special.

A colleague was doing the same on a Galaxy and reckoned he was spending ages on maintenance - I spent no time at all on routine maintenance beyond occasionally oiling the chain and making sure the gears hadn't gone out of adjustment.

I blew up the hub gears after about 3 months but the wheel was replaced under warranty and I had no problems with the replacement: the wheels themselves were crap so I rebuilt the rear with decent spokes, but that's a Halfords issue not a gears issue.

The brakes just work - no issues with them at all, especially in bad weather: the gears had more than enough range to trundle up and down London's famous hills - and bear in mind I was carrying 25ish kilos of tools and other rubbish, plus my own gut.

Getting the wheel out to fix a puncture is a pain in the arse but I solved that with Marathon Pluses (the issue there is that you don't get the practice that would make changing the tube easier) - I really can't think of another criticism apart from the weight.

If you want low maintenance and you need gears, go for it. I was enough of a convert that when my original one got nicked, I bought another (OK, secondhand) with my own money (the first had been paid for by the company).

I have tried a nexus 5 speed out, and the transition from gear to gear was incredible smooth.

I want to build myself a sort of touring bike with a rolhoff on the back and a smidt dynamo hub on the front, with disk brakes.

I LOVE hub gears, but I would take a good set of disc brakes over roller brakes any day.

The Shimano ones aren't crap, put the Alfine is superior to the Nexus in a big way. I think I would take an Alfine over a Rohloff, tbh, the amount better the Rohloff is doesn't justify the price.

Sturmey Archer's are ok for 3 speed, but start getting a bit shoddy after that.
I Have a Sachs 7speed, it's 11 years old, it's perfect.

Hub gears are amazing, no one with any sense would argue that.

I am a big fan of hub gears. The Sturmey Archer 3 speed is completely indestructable and virtually maintenance-free. It's engineered like a locomotive. I've pulled apart and serviced 40 year old ones and they are like brand-new inside.

I've currently got a Sturmey 4 speed with dynamo on my Raleigh Superbe (it did have a 3 speed) which is perfect for the bike, and I have a 7 speed Shimano with coaster brake waiting for me to find a rim and get the wheel built. Then it goes on the famous Blue Quinn.

I don't yet have my new bike, so can't yet speak with a wealth of experience backing me up. But I researched so heavily the pros and cons of gearing, drive trains, and brakes for my new bike and I can't help but feel that a great internally geared hub + good disc brakes and the optional extra of a carbon belt are just the epitome of everything I want from an all-round bike (one that isn't for a specialised task). Throw in a good dynamo hub and you're all set for low maintenance, high efficiency, all-terrain, all-weather, all-season cycling. The utility of it all is just incredible.

This is a good example of a bike with all the utility checkboxes ticked:
http://www.tout-terrain.de/2/products/commuter-bikes/metropolitan/index.html
http://www.tout-terrain.de/cms/upload/produktbilder/Metropolitan/Metropolitan.JPG

I saw these at the bike show and was really impressed with the quality and cleanness of it. Sure it's not your track bike or ultralight racing bike... but for every other need I'd rather have one of these.

Am a huge fan of Sturmey Archer 3 speeds. For city riding, it's not about how many gears, it's the range they cover and how quickly and easily you can change between them. Twist grips with 5 or 8 clicks to get from one end to the other do not appeal, I like the old SA trigger lever which i mount under the bars where i can flick it with my thumb. An AW hub gives ratios of 3/4:direct drive:4/3. I like direct drive around 67 gear inches, giving 50 and 90 with the gears.

The transitions aren't smooth, but they don't have to be to work well. Unlike a deraileur you don't have to keep pedalling lightly forwards, wondering when it's going to change. With practice, you can make a hub gear change at exactly the point in the pedal stroke you want it to. A moment of back-pedal (or just zero pressure) and you can get back to putting full power down.

I haven't ridden any shimano hubs so i don't really know about them. I think their fancy roller clutches and change mechanism allows you to keep pedalling forwards while changing, but to me that's poor technique.

My experience with coaster brakes is limited to a brief go on mmccarthy's cruiser. You get enough braking force to lock up the back wheel, but to you need to get your feet into a comfortable place to back-pedal, so transitions from accelerating to braking might sometimes be awkward. I'd worry about heat dissipation on big hills too.

I hanker after a Rohloff but haven't yet managed to convince my wife of the value of the purchase. I have two sturmey archer 3 speeds, an old AW and a new SRF3, they're great for getting about. My commuter has the SRAM I-9 and it's been faultless for over 3k miles. Also very easy to remove wheel though I too have used the M+ preventative method. So only actually removed wheel in practice in garage.

besides the need to have a 120 spaced frame coldset to 130, internal gear hubs like the alfine are compatible with track ends, right?

Drum/roller brakes: low maintenance but feels spongy and the performance isn't great. Not for me.

best thing about drum brakes, they're extremely predictable regardless of the weather condition, even in the most pissant of rain, while they're not as powerful as dual pivot caliper, they're still a lots effective than brakes from the 70's, it doesn't even need to be tweak for years even, unlike rims brakes which wear down as time goes by.

if drum brakes is enough to stop a 40lbs dutch bike (and still able to with just a rear coaster brake), it's more than enough on a lightweight bike (like says a Surly Steamroller, or my missus' porteur bike).

A coaster-only bike defintely make everything simplier than a fixed wheel bicycle, pedal to go forward, backpedal to slow down effortlessly as if you're having a eclair, steer the bike with the handlebar, that's it.

the gears are closer together on 7-8-9 speeds, thus avoiding that horrible jump you get on mr yoshuzos cassttes.that’s pretty desirable if you ride geared too.

that horrible jump you get on mr yoshuzo.

Too much information...

;-/

This is a good example of a bike with all the utility checkboxes ticked:
http://www.tout-terrain.de/2/products/commuter-bikes/metropolitan/index.html
http://www.tout-terrain.de/cms/upload/produktbilder/Metropolitan/Metropolitan.JPG

I saw these at the bike show and was really impressed with the quality and cleanness of it. Sure it's not your track bike or ultralight racing bike... but for every other need I'd rather have one of these.

that remind me of the new Trek Soho which look pretty good, not got all the feature like the Metropolitan thought (rack, light, etc.).

if drum brakes is enough to stop a 40lbs dutch bike (and still able to with just a rear coaster brake), it's more than enough on a lightweight bike (like says a Surly Steamroller, or my missus' porteur bike).

I think the weight of the bike is irrelevant when you consider even a light rider will be 140lbs (and a heavy rider 200lbs +)

But agree drum brakes, coasters etc, are a nice, clean and reliable solution for an all weather bike where weight and ultimate performance are not a concern.

besides the need to have a 120 spaced frame coldset to 130, internal gear hubs like the alfine are compatible with track ends, right?

Alfine is 135, Nexus is 130.
Yes. The axles need to be held at a specific angle.
To achieve this the Shimano Nexus come with tabbed washers/spacers, that are available in different angles to suit different dropouts as seen here
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/category.asp?cat_id=704&pf_id=&jump=0&sfile=1=

I'v never owned a hub gear or roller brake but have worked on plenty, mostly nexus.
My opinion,
Hub gearing = really good concept.
Nexus hub gearing = seals that just aren't upto the job.

Roller brakes idea = really good concept
Roller brake reality = bit of a let down.

Aside from the fact that the Nexus roller brakes don't work and feel and sound horrible I really like the idea that they have no wearing parts and won't need pad changes but it's a cable operated system and cables are a bit of a weak link. Especially on these utilitarian bikes that are likely to get wet weather use and little to no maintenance.
Personally i'd consider changing disc pads an easier job requiring less specialist tools/knowledge than replacing a cable on a roller brake.
Hydraulic roller brake...?

They have cables?

Roller brake = coaster brake, right?
So no cables. just back-pedalling. Or am I wrong?

Surely brake cables are no harder to change on a hub brake than a rim brake?
And probably never need changing anyway?

No, roller brakes and coaster brakes are completely different things.
Setting up the cable tension on a roller brake - or at the nexus - is a pretty fiddly job and there's a very fine line between lever pulling all way to the grip and brake binding.

Rollerbrake is just the Shimano name for drum brake, no?

I am a big fan of hub gears. The Sturmey Archer 3 speed is completely indestructable and virtually maintenance-free. It's engineered like a locomotive. I've pulled apart and serviced 40 year old ones and they are like brand-new inside.

I've currently got a Sturmey 4 speed with dynamo on my Raleigh Superbe (it did have a 3 speed) which is perfect for the bike, and I have a 7 speed Shimano with coaster brake waiting for me to find a rim and get the wheel built. Then it goes on the famous Blue Quinn.

I've got the FG 4 speed dynohub on my Raleigh Superbe too. I have the problem that it drops out of gear into 'neutral' from time to time. Granted it's 45 years old and probably needs a service. Not massively keen, even with Sheldon's instructions to get it in pieces. By all accounts there are very few problems with the later ones though.