Friday morning found Frosty & myself sitting outside of Starbucks at 8am waiting to meet up with the local NuVinci rep, Dave Rosen; technically he works for Fallbrook Technologies. Of course the day I take off to go ride turns out to be a bust as it’s literally in the 40′s out and just raining. We cancel our ride plans & instead, focus on experiencing the NuVinci hub.

If you haven’t read anything about the hub, it works on something a lot like planets traveling along their orbits. Adjusting the orbits is the key to the inner-workings of Nu-Vinci.

Because it doesn’t rely on gears with specific teeth counts and chains having to be coaxed up & down the cassette, you essentially get infinite adjustment. In fact, you can shift while standing still. A clever visual indicator using what’s so lovingly called the inchworm gives you a graphic representation of how you’re currently utilizing the system’s capabilities.

The lowest gear is really low…like mtn bike granny gear. The highest gear could probably be higher but not crit/track/circuit racing higher…that would be ridiculous.

All you need to set one up is preferably a single-speed frame with a 2:1 gear ratio.

Strengths:

• completely sealed from the elements
• infinite gear choices
• ridiculously quiet
• little to no chain/chainring wear
• “clean” look
• shift while stopped (you can dump massive gears!)
• no cable stretch
• 1/2 the price of a Rohloff

Weaknesses:

• you’ll need to route 2 cables to the hub
• the tested hub was heavy…like 7-8lbs
• must rotate the shifter 1.5 rotations to go from small to big, vice versa
• shifter grip was slippery
• shifting is slightly harder under load
• hard to get at rear wheel, flywheel mechanism sits outside of drops

Final thoughts:

If I had this hub right now on a dedicated commuter, I could ride anywhere. It was the most fascinating thing I’d ever experienced. It wasn’t simply learning about a new way to shift but more like riding a bike with endless possibilities. Dave Rosen told us they’re product testing the new hub on mtn bikes which is exciting news since Frosty & I (as well as the rest of the Oregon Crossniacs) are avid off-road riders!

Frosty really wants to see it get smaller as he’s definitely more competition-focused than your average 20 yr-old. Rightly so as a bike with no derailleur to get damaged, no noise to give away your sprinting intentions & just one shifter will revolutionize biking.

The current incarnation of the NuVinci is definitely at home on commuters, hybrinds, tandems & maybe even recumbents. But the new hub (and future hubs) could be the next big thing in All-Mountain, Down Hill, and dare I say Cyclocross? Move over Hammerschmidt, here comes the All Mtn NuVinci! Or say goodbye to the Shadow series of Shimano derailleurs! The possibilities are endless.

Wanna learn more?

David Rosen,

NuVinci Evangelist

drosen@fallbrooktech.com

-will aka buddhabelly