The Nexus 8—a mighty fine hub

Getting back to the original purpose of this blog. A man asks the following question in a comment below:

Hi,

I am from across the globe, Singapore. Came across your blog while searching for more information on Nexus 8 hub. Have a Nexus 8 sitting around. So how’s the ride the nexus?
By the way, really cool blog.

regards,
Poland

“I have a Nexus 8 sitting around”? How do you have a Nexus 8 just “sitting around”!? Use it, for God’s sake, man! Use it!

But seriously, it rides great. Shifting is easy and smooth. And the internal rear break is excellent. There is very little resistance while coasting. Noticeably less than the Nexus four-speed. And I assume less resistance than their 7 speed as well (I don’t have a 7 speed, but 4 and 7 speeds are the same older technology, I think.). The only downside is the price. But seeing how you’ve got one, “just sitting around,” that shouldn’t be an issue.

And there have been no maintenance issues with the hub at all. And the Bluebird bike sits outside, only two-thirds protected from the elements. I have not had to touch the hub since I installed it (I assumed I tightened the new cables at some point, but that’s just a few turns on a barrel adjuster).

The manual for the Nexus 8 is available online through Sheldon Brown.

Tight squeeze

I had a tough time putting on the kickstand. Zora's old kickstand turns out to work just fine. I guess new ones just come extra-long to fit all bikes, and you cut it down to size. But, kind of strange for Rivendell to sell them assuming the buyer has a grinder. I mean, I'm building a bike and I don't have a grinder.




There's not much room for the kickstand (you can also see the bottom bracket spindle is a few millimeters too long as well). You can barely see part of the metal stay between the fender and the kickstand clamp. There's a small hole in it for attaching the fender. But installing the kickstand necessitated replacing this little screw with a zip tie. This town wasn't big enough for the little fender-screw nut and the big-ass kickstand screw that attaches the kickstand to the kickstand clamp. So the fender screw had to go.

The clamp attaching the kickstand is actually very rare, but available at Rivendell so that nice bikes can have kickstands. You won't find it in their on-line catalog. But they have them. I'm wondering if I should get a kickstand on my Bianchi. I probably won't.

And I don't have a 14mm wrench (I've got every other size), so I can't tighten it very well. The adjustable wrench is a bit too big to get in there.

You can also see what I consider the only funny-looking part of the bike as a result of the 650B wheels: the large gap near the bottom bracket between the fender and the rear wheel. Oh well.

Here's a shot of the rear cog. I'm showing it because of the two little yellow lines on the shifter. They're supposed to line up in fourth gear. It's a nice little Shimano system for easy shifter-cable adjusting. You can make minor adjustments in the cable with barrel adjusters. It sure as hell beats the guess work of adjusting an old Sturmey-Archer hub (and the no-traction danger of being between gears on a Sturmey-Archer). Sturmey-Archer is the standard old 3-speed hub found on old Raleighs--great bikes, but a bitch to work on with their English measurements, cottered cranks, and their everything-comes-apart-what's-Shimano components.




And, perhaps most importantly, Zora came back home last night. She was very happy to see her bike (though it wasn't a surprise, given this blog and my tendency to shift all conversation to things bike-related)... and me too, of course.

She had to run off to work today and will take the Bluebird for their maiden ride tomorrow, I assume. I'll be there with a camera, like for the first ride after you remove the training wheels.

Build a Better Bicycle

It's not that I don't have better things to do, but I decided to build Zora a bicycle. I've never done this before. There are reasons. Her bike needs repairs. Her bike is too big for her. Her chain is slipping. Her brakes are cheap. She can’t shift except with great effort. And if she had a better and lighter bike, she could bike faster, which is more fun for me when I ride with her.

At the very least she would need a new chain, new rear cogs, and perhaps a new chain ring. That’s what happens when your chain gets too old. It stretches out (actually the bushings in the chain wear down, making the chain a bit longer). When it stretches too much, it starts slipping when you peddle, particularly under force. Annoying at best; dangerous at worst.

Each link in a chain should be exactly 1 inch long. If 12 links are shorter than 12 1/8 inch, you should replace the chain. No harm down. Chains are cheap. And unlike other bike technology, chain technology has actually improved tremendously the past decade or so. New chains are great. If the chain gets longer than 12 1/8 inch, then you have to change the rear cogs as well. Cogs wear down with the chain. If you put a new chain on cogs that ran a stretched chain, the new chain will slip. If the chain is longer than 12 1/4 inch, then the chain ring (where the peddles are) should be replaced as well. All that work is a dirty, pain-in-the-ass.

And it's never fun to work on bad bike because 1) the work is harder, and 2) you wonder why you’re putting time and money into something that will never be that good. For instance, Zora’s brakes and kind of screwy and to get the wheel on and off, you have to deflate the tire first. And then her brake pads fall off when you put the wheel back on. It’s just a pain.

Also, Shimano has a new 8-speed internal hub. I have an older shimano 4-speed hub on my folding bike (AKA: the guest bike). I like these hubs. Unlike derailleurs, they’re virtually maintenance free. And they shift really well (unlike old Raleigh 3-speeds).




So I really wanted to build a bike around the Shimano Nexus hub. The downside, it’s not cheap. About $200. And only one or two bike stores sell them. Harris Cycles, outside of Boston, sells them and almost everything. They’re perhaps the best bike store in America. Not the least of all because Sheldon Brown works there. He’s undoubtedly the most famous person in the world when it comes to strange, technically, and downright nerdy bike issues.

Don’t believe me? Just type in “‘Sheldon Brown’ bike” into google and you’ll get 22,800 results. By comparison, “Mayor of Boston” gets only 20,500; my name turns out 353 (and they’re not all for me). Sheldon Brown is a true professional (as Ali from Kebab Café defined professional): “somebody who does what he loves and makes enough doing it to support himself.” Sheldon’s website is a treasure trove of everything you could possibly want to know about bicycles.

If you have any questions about the bike terms used here, check out Sheldon Brown’s bike glossary.

It is March 9th, 2005.