Shimano Nexus 8 hub gear questions? Hills?

[downfader]

OK went down the LBS with Mum and showed her the bikes and my ideas. Thanks to the fella in there who had to put up with us, LOL! He pulled out everything and gave his opinion, I put forward mine to try and guide her into a bike she is comfortable on and isnt too complicated (mind you I dont think any that we looked at were complicated).

I myself liked these, I think she's swayed by this for the fact it has guards and rack, as well as dynamo lights as a back-up:

Pioneer Jaguar Womens (Raleigh)
The 18 inch was too big in the end, but they're getting a 16 over from their other store for us to try. It looks well constructed.

The other option is a Giant Tourer CS1 W 2011 model. It is pretty much the same but red, slightly different dynamo set up, however this one is a hub gear 8 speed.

So the question is how good is a Nexus 8? Will it get her comfortably up hill (I worked out that her last bike was on a 30t on the sprocket and a 28t on the front, and this was what she used)? The Raleigh should be a lot better with its 34t/28t combo than her last.

I'll be honest, I dont know how to work it out, ratios etc mean nothing to me, LOL.

 

[MacB]

you take the gear inches from the chainring and sprocket combination if any given hub gear.....say for example it's got a 36t chainring, 20t sprocket and 700x37 tyres...that would be a 49.3 inch direct gear. The range of an Alfine is 0.527 to 1.615 so:-

49.3 x 0.527 = a 26 inch low gear
49.3 x 1.615 = a 79.7 inch high gear

The 36/20 is a 1.8 ratio, a lot of MTBers run an Alfine/Nexus with a 1.6 ratio, ie 32/20 to give them better offroad gears, that would be 23.1 to 70.8 inches.

If her last bike had a low of 28/30, if it had 700x37 tyres, then that would be a low of 25.6 gear inches, so the 26 to 80 inch range of a 1.8 ratio would sound about right.

 

[downfader]

Cheers for that!