How many miles and/or commuting seasons will a modern internal geared hub last?

Question

I've been considering drive trains on a utility / commuter bike.

The Shimano Alfine internal 8-speed hub is on several bikes I've liked. I've also heard good things about SRAM and Nexus hubs.

• I ride in a wet / nasty winters / fairly flat environment here in Minnesota.
• I'm partial to lower gearing if it meant more reliability or lower cost.
• I don't need max efficiency
• All other factors are secondary to durability in my eyes.

As I’m not current on how much maintenance can I expect a modern internal hub to require, and how long will it last before needing to be replaced.

What are expected or actual lifetime / maintenance needs of modern internal hubs?

Answer 1

I bought a 700c Jericho hardtail in 1997, which came with a Rohloff 14 speed internally geared hub. I used it as a commuter for five years, at least 150 miles per week, 50 weeks of the year. That's 37500 miles. Even assuming I took a week or 2 out in there for whatever reason, call it 35000 miles. After that, I continued to ride it one or 2 days a week, for less strenuous rides. I have just sent it back for its first major service, other than lubing and cleaning the external components.

The Rohloff is a ridiculously burly hub. The Alfine, or the i-Motion9 would do well to match half that performance. But I'd say based on people I've sold bikes with Nexus or Alfine hubs, and how rarely we see them for service, and how much more rare it is that they need major service, that 20000 miles is not too much to expect.

The Shimano and SRAM hubs are both user serviceable, unlike the Rohloff, which should extend the useable life significantly also.

I was trying to find any formal service interval information, but both SRAM and Shimano say that aside from cleaning off the external parts, the hubs are "well sealed" and the service interval should be "long".

Sheldon Brown's site also says, "Service should be quite rare on these well sealed hubs."

Answer 2

Pure anecdata from my experiences. The Rohloff is substantially cheaper as well as more reliable. I don't know how long a Rohloff lasts because I haven't worn the first one out yet.

Three Nexus 8 hubs failed at 5000km each. I had a Shimano Nexus 8 in a single-speed MTB fram that I commuted on for a few years. I only did about 5000km/year, the the hub only lasted a year. Fortunately Shimano replaced it under warranty - new internals only, so it was an easy swap. Unfortunately that one also failed after about a year. Even worse, Shitmano said "warranty replacement items have no further warranty" and even though I was still inside the original two year warranty, refused to replace it. Fortunately my LBS agreed to replace it at their cost. Unfortunately... that one also lasted a year. At that point Shitmano no longer made the exact hub that I had, the new Nexus 8 had the same name but different internals and I would have had to rebuild the wheel. So I sold the broken hub to someone who wanted it for parts.

In a bike shop I worked in we regularly maintained old two and three speed Sturmey-Archer hubs from the 1950's (and other similar hubs)and some of those had been ridden regularly for more than half a century. We were known as having a good supply of parts and knowledge so we saw a lot of them - people would travel some distance to bring their bikes in. Some of those hubs had worn parts that I didn't think would wear much at all, so they'd been used a lot.

The SRAM 3x8/3x9 hub gear with cassette is also fairly reliable, I've only seen one failure and that was major rusting caused by immersion in salt water. I do that to my Rohloff periodically (riverine bike paths with tidal flooding) and haven't had a problem, but I suspect it would be an issue for any of the non-sealed hubs.

My Rohloff has now done over 80,000 km and it's still making that slightly rough sound characteristic of the early Rohloffs. So much for "it'll wear in and get quieter". Maybe in another 100,000km? I bought a newer Rohloff for my partner's bike a couple of years ago and that one is quieter and shifts more easily.

I swap the Rohloff between my touring and load bikes (406 wheel rather than 559). Initially I was only doing about 2-3 thousand kilometres a year on that wheel round town, plus a tour, but they were hard on the hub - I regularly had rolling weights over 250kg and I'm a fairly powerful cyclist. Later I built a commuter bike and I use the Rohloff in that for my usual 6-8 thousand km of commuting as well as touring. I bought that hub in about 2001 and in 15 years I doubt I've ever done less than 5000km/year on it.

That's a metal tool chest weighing about 80kg on the back of a loadbike, with my Rohloff wheel under it. The burly guy riding it found it hard to hold upright... it was heavy.

There's my touring bike with the same Rohloff in it. Two large panniers, a backpack, 20kg of camera gear and assorted other stuff, all on that rear hub. I've probably done 10,000km like that.

Answer 3

A quote from this answer to the "How much maintenance?" question:

Those numbers are why people often end up with a dedicated commuter bike that costs a fortune up front. New Rohloff Oil every year at $20 compared to a new Shimano hub every three years at $800 makes the $2000 up front cost of a Rohloff seem cheap (a Rohloff will last 100,000 kilometres or more... no-one really knows because there aren't many hubs that have done that distance yet, Rohloff only started about 10 years ago).

Answer 4

Well, about a year ago, I got A shimano Alfine 11 Speed . . . thing didn't even last 700 miles!!!!! (Several of the gears don't even engage . . . at first, thought the chain broke.) And Shimano doesn't even service it. Also have a Rohloff, with nearly 19,000 miles, no problems so far. 'Nough said!

Answer 5

I bought a CRX City Commuter bike in 2007, with a Nexus 8 hub gear.

I've riden it 18kms (approx 11 miles), 4 days a week, since then, excepting holidays. A bit over 20,000km in all.

It's not particularly fast or mechanically efficient, but very reliable. In terms of maintenance, Ive had it packed with grease once and that's all. In contrast, my brakes wore through the rims and I needed new wheels in the same period.

Answer 6

My Alfine 8spd has lasted about 6 years of light to medium city commuting in Seattle (all year round) maybe averaging about 25 miles a week. That's about 7,500 miles. I have done absolutely nothing to it. However, it is completely shot now, and needs to be replaced. I feel like that's pretty good service. Clearly not a Rohloff, and clearly the Rohloff is a better value in the long run...but I don't feel like laying down a grand.

Answer 7

I regularly ride a 1971 Raleigh Twenty with a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub. I do not maintenance the hub, and it continues to work fine, 40 years later. (Although I presume there were some years before I bought it a few years ago in which it wasn't ridden).

I have also regularly ridden a Shimano Nexus 8 hub for the past 4 years, year-round in snow and rain in Indiana. I don't recall doing any maintenance on it yet, either.

UPDATE: After about 5 years of regular use without maintenance the Shimano Nexus 8 hub eventually failed. Had I oiled and maintenanced it a bit, I presume it would have lasted longer.