Internal geared hubs that can take abuse?

[Jeffb]

I have a cyc photon that puts out enough torque along with my effort to destroy my cassette. I got about 60 miles until 9th gear started slipping. I have a 9 speed cassette.
90% of the time I ride in 7th to 9th gear on the flats.
I own a Rolhoff on one bike and it's to expensive to put on my home built.
I'm looking at the Alfine or envilio hubs.
Looking for real world use reviews. Other than the Rolhoff that I know can take the abuse what other hubs should I look at? I'm going to use chain drive.
Presently I have a 9 speed microshift and really like the thumb shift. I guess I can get used to twist shift

 

[hsdrggr]

I just built a BBSHD fat tire bike with a Nuvinci N171 CVT Hub. 350% gear range. I’m running 42T front and 24T rear cog right now. Single speed chain. I initially had some skipping issues with the rear cog. But that has calmed down after 40 miles of riding. I believe the skipping was due to me deforming some teeth on the cog trying to remove it with a brass punch because I didn’t have the Nuvinci freewheel remover tool. I have a new 22T cog being delivered tomorrow. As for handling high amounts of power it is the only IGH hub that can handle up to 2500 watts and probably more of mid drive power. I’m running the stock controller, so it’s showing 1400 watts on my display when I use the thumb throttle. No issues it runs great. With that low gearing it goes 28mph.

The newer version of that hub, the Heavy Duty CVT Hub (aka the cargo hub) by Enviolo (previously named Nuvinci) should be able to handle your motor (110Nm torque), as long as the total weight of you and the bike is not much more than 350 pounds. They also have an Extreme version that can handle a 550 pound capacity at 100Nm torque.

The newer Enviolo hubs shift easier and are lighter than the early Nuvinci N171 hub. But the 3 pounds extra weight isn’t that big of a deal if it’s for a road bike. If your building an off road single track e-bike then get the newer lighter hub.

David at Eco-Cycles in Nashville, TN. USA still has a few of the new-old-stock Nuvinci N171 hubs in stock. They are $80, plus $20 if you want the 6-bolt disc brake rotor adapter. The hub kit comes with axle hardware and the shifter with its hub interface. Once they sell out the N171 it will be non existent as new. He is selling them on eBay.

As for the newer Enviolo HD and Extreme hubs they are $350 and up, and do not come with axle hardware or shifter parts.
Regarding the shifter interface parts for these 2 hubs, it has to be 40T spline. Unfortunately it’s almost impossible to find the 40 spline hub interfaces in the USA. I had to order the ones I needed from ebike24.com in Germany.

Also be aware that all these Nuvinci/Enviolo CVT IGH hubs are for conventional 135mm dropout width frames, not 197mm fat tire frames. I had to bent the rear triangle of the Fat frame I used from 197mm down to 140mm to get the N171 to work. Also had to get a special single speed freewheel spacer to move the cog out far enough to get a good chain line. The cog just barely clears the seat stay. Also I’m using the highest offset chainring from Luna on the BBSHD, The Eclipse chainring with 24.5mm offset.

 

[Ericdhvac]

I just built a BBSHD fat tire bike with a Nuvinci N171 CVT Hub. 350% gear range. I’m running 42T front and 24T rear cog right now. Single speed chain. I initially had some skipping issues with the rear cog. But that has calmed down after 40 miles of riding. I believe the skipping was due to me deforming some teeth on the cog trying to remove it with a brass punch because I didn’t have the Nuvinci freewheel remover tool. I have a new 22T cog being delivered tomorrow. As for handling high amounts of power it is the only IGH hub that can handle up to 2500 watts and probably more of mid drive power. I’m running the stock controller, so it’s showing 1400 watts on my display when I use the thumb throttle. No issues it runs great. With that low gearing it goes 28mph.

The newer version of that hub, the Heavy Duty CVT Hub (aka the cargo hub) by Enviolo (previously named Nuvinci) should be able to handle your motor (110Nm torque), as long as the total weight of you and the bike is not much more than 350 pounds. They also have an Extreme version that can handle a 550 pound capacity at 100Nm torque.

The newer Enviolo hubs shift easier and are lighter than the early Nuvinci N171 hub. But the 3 pounds extra weight isn’t that big of a deal if it’s for a road bike. If your building an off road single track e-bike then get the newer lighter hub.

David at Eco-Cycles in Nashville, TN. USA still has a few of the new-old-stock Nuvinci N171 hubs in stock. They are $80, plus $20 if you want the 6-bolt disc brake rotor adapter. The hub kit comes with axle hardware and the shifter with its hub interface. Once they sell out the N171 it will be non existent as new. He is selling them on eBay.

As for the newer Enviolo HD and Extreme hubs they are $350 and up, and do not come with axle hardware or shifter parts.
Regarding the shifter interface parts for these 2 hubs, it has to be 40T spline. Unfortunately it’s almost impossible to find the 40 spline hub interfaces in the USA. I had to order the ones I needed from ebike24.com in Germany.

Also be aware that all these Nuvinci/Enviolo CVT IGH hubs are for conventional 135mm dropout width frames, not 197mm fat tire frames. I had to bent the rear triangle of the Fat frame I used from 197mm down to 140mm to get the N171 to work. Also had to get a special single speed freewheel spacer to move the cog out far enough to get a good chain line. The cog just barely clears the seat stay. Also I’m using the highest offset chainring from Luna on the BBSHD, The Eclipse chainring with 24.5mm offset.

Came across your reply while searching for an igh for my Mongoose Argus fat tire build, got the bbshd from Luna also, the rear dropouts on the Argus are 190mm so a bit narrower to start with then yours was, my question is how did you bend the dropouts to get them to 140mm or did you just squeeze them together? Also, how much more difficult is wheel removal after this narrowing?

 

[Ericdhvac]

 

[hsdrggr]

Came across your reply while searching for an igh for my Mongoose Argus fat tire build, got the bbshd from Luna also, the rear dropouts on the Argus are 190mm so a bit narrower to start with then yours was, my question is how did you bend the dropouts to get them to 140mm or did you just squeeze them together? Also, how much more difficult is wheel removal after this narrowing?

I bent the chain and seat stays by laying it down and stepping on rear triangle near the drop outs until I got the dropout width I needed. Then I put the dropouts in a vise and bent them until they were parallel. No problem with wheel installation and removal. You need to be careful bending 6061 aluminum. It is surface heat treated for hardness and is a little brittle. Only bend in one direction until you get it where you want it. Try not to bend it back, it can crack. I tied string to the dropouts and ran it around the headset then measured between it and the seat tube to make sure I bent it evenly on both sides.