I've just had my rear wheel rebuilt — with a new rim as well since that was getting worn, but largely to replace the hub. And this post is mostly about hubs, about whether getting a Shimano Nexus hub serviced is a good idea, and whether a premium "redline" Nexus hub is actually any better.
My bike (a Kettler Spirit) came with a Shimano Nexus 8 hub, one of the current SG-R831 models, and I had been very happy with that. It was a bit rough in 4th gear and rattled a tiny bit in 8th (more about this below) but was otherwise nearly silent: I could almost always hear the bicycle in front of me much more clearly than my own (though that may say more about the unmaintained rust-buckets being ridden around Oxford). And it was totally maintenance-free - I had had the shifter cable replaced, but had never touched the hub.
But I'd had the bike for three years and done over 4,000 miles on it (twenty miles a week commuting, plus other trips and a few thirty mile rides out of town), so I thought about getting the hub serviced. At Reg Taylor, the bike shop near home I use for most things, I was advised not to - the modern hubs didn't need it and might never be as smooth again if serviced. But at BikeZone in town, where I get work done when it's convenient to have somewhere near work, they recommended a service.
The Shimano user manual says:
"In order to maintain proper performance, it is recommended that you ask the place where you purchased the bicycle or your nearest Pro shop to carry out maintenance such as greasing the internal hub about once every two years starting from the first time of use (or once about every 5,000 km if the bicycle is used very frequently)."
And a search online found people advising preemptive weatherization (admittedly in more inclement climes than Oxford's). Their example is of an older SG-8R20 hub, but "we still recommend an initial weatherization / overhaul at 1000 miles. After that, every 3000 miles or 2 years is fine. Daily commuters should have their hub overhauled once a year regardless of milage."
So in the end I had the people at BikeZone service the hub. This is not a full disassembly, but involves taking the cassette out of the outer casing, cleaning it out with oil, and then regreasing it (writeup with photos).
And, lo and behold, just as I had been warned, the hub was suddenly noisy: a slight noise whenever being driven, a bit like chain noise, but also a much more perturbing noise like gravel, or perhaps like a continuous chain change on a derailleur, when in 5th or higher gear. I wasn't terribly happy about this, and then the hub actually locked up on me - I pushed off one morning and my feet just stopped half way down. A bit of fiddling with gears and it was ok, and when I took it back they checked the indexing and took it on a test ride said it seemed ok. But then it locked up again, this time while I was at a gentle cruise. They reserviced it, and I used it for two weeks without any more lockups, but it still made the same noises and at this point I just didn't trust the damn thing.
They said new cassette would be £170, but at Reg Taylor I was advised that it was better to get a complete new hub because a new cassette might not mesh so well with the old casing, since they wear together. So I bought a premium SG-8R36 redline hub, from a German shop online, which had been part of a wheel but was unused ("eingespeicht aber nie benutzt") for £80 including shipping, and had Reg Taylor rebuild my wheel with that (and a new rim).
The noises have gone away. There's nothing like the gravelly noise at all, and though there's still an almost imperceptible drive noise in 5th-8th, I'm thinking that might go away with wear-in.
The next question is, is it any better than the old hub? Is the SG-8R36 worth the premium over the SG-8R31? A description of the differences between the models contains this chart of the relative efficiencies of different gears.
There's no scale on that, but the overall shape of the SG-8R31 curve certainly matches my intuition. I rarely used 8th, usually just spinning faster in 7th, and spent as little time as possible in 4th, staying in a slow 5th or dropping to 3rd when weaving around pedestrians and switching down to 3rd quickly when climbing. As well as being more efficient, the direct-drive 5th gear was also much smoother than 4th. (My actual praxis defied my theory here: for a long time I was under the misapprehension than 4th was the direct gear - because it's the gear the indexing is set in and is marked on the shifter - but that didn't lead me to actually use it much!)
I've only had the new SG-8R36 hub for a week or so, but some improvements are clear. Most obviously, 4th gear is now just another gear, which I can see myself using on a regular basis: it's definitely smoother, with no rough feeling, and (though I may have been primed to expect it from looking at the graph above) it seems significantly more efficient. There's no rattle in 8th now, and that may also be a bit more efficient, though it's hard to tell at those speeds. More useful to me would be improved efficiency in 1st, but it's hard to tell if there are any from the few runs up the hill to nursery (the only time I regularly use 1st).
It wouldn't have been worth rebuilding a working existing wheel just for these improvements. But given I was replacing my hub anyway, the premium model was definitely worth the extra €20 I paid for it. And if I were buying a new bike I might consider paying more for one with a better quality hub.
I had nothing but trouble from my Nexus hub. Left me very disappointed. In the end I decided that the extreme pain required to get the wheel off to repair a puncture wasn't worth the reduction in maintenance.
Also had a new rear wheel built for myself recently as a birthday present to myself. It wasn't cheap but it's superb! Super strong.
PS: What's with "Miles"? You gone bloody native in the worst possible way?
I've never had a puncture with this bike - it came with puncture-proof tyres, and when I replaced the rear one I got something similar - and would almost certainly just take it to a bike shop if I did.
The UK is pretty much entirely metric (older people still use pounds for things like birth weights, but that's changing) except for anything to do with road speeds and distances. I don't know why that's such a holdout, but when all the signs and car speedometers are in miles it starts to become the default.
Shimano's entire business model is based around marketing tactics. Having having basic components for the large number of people who only occasional ride around on weekends and will not wear them out. Then charging more for each marginal increase quality in their branded and more expensive versions. That graph doesn't have scale and has been designed by marketers to push a middle option (between a higher and a lower one to seem more like good value). Given the way its all packaged up and marketed by Shimano and bikeshops its hard for the consumer to pick the right point. The SG-8R36 seems like good value for you.
Car maintenance plans are based around research and replacing everything before it wears out. They are often overpriced but its rare to have major failure in anything if you avoided a lemon n the first place these days. A bike shop has a financial incentive to advise servicing and there are many variables and not many controlled experiments. Hard to tell when professional maintenance or just doing the basic maintenance yourself and getting stuff replacing or upgrading when it wears out is most efficient in time and money. Drive trains do tend to wear together and it gets the point where you just have to replace the whole thing.
Miles are custom in the UK. Miles and Km are not that different in size and as you have found miles are easy enough when talking about get around. You recon both miles and km in 1s, 1/2s and 1/4s. You don't convert Miles into yards, feet or inches much so few efficiency gains from a metric system. Certainly not enough of one to be worth the hassle of them changing over or you maintaining your own system in opposition to the rest.
Hi Danny,
I've got a busted hub too... I was just searching around for more info when I found your blog. Very Interesting.
This is my post I just put up on a forum:
I've got a Shimano Nexus 8 Speed, the markings are SG-8R31
its mounted in a Gazelle Innergy Orange e-bike .. I'm not sure of the age, its a very nice bike but:
I've bought it second hand from eBay, and I think I've bought a bit of a pup :(
It was ok for about 5 minutes but it starting messing around in the gears.
I have it set up as it should be .. yellow spot to yellow line. (and I've twiddled it a whole lot to find a sweet spot)
The problem is that gears 1,2 & 3 are all the same .. 1 I imagine,
4 usually just does not engage i.e. slips.
5,6, 7 & 8 are all the same, seems like 5.
That was bad enough, but now when I shift up to 5 it just jams :cry:
It looks like this nexus box has had it or needs to be repaired by someone who knows what they are doing.
I have 3 years old bike with Nexus 8 hub. Works perfect, hub never was serviced and never gonna be serviced. Paying $100-150 to service it is ridiculous. I can buy new one for 200 and then pay $50 to rebuild a wheel. It is more expensive but I rather buy new one after 5 years then pay every year for service. I ride daily in New York as long as temperature in above 0C. Usually do 50-100 miles a week on the bike. Changing a tire takes a bit longer then on regular bike but not a problem at all.
I have zero complains about hub performance on other hand BB i had to change after a year. Guess jumping on commuter bike was not a good idea. I own 3 bikes road, MTB both are very expensive and my commuter BMC AC01. Honestly had more issues with GX sram and Ultegra then with Nexus. I do almost all work on bikes myself besides some very difficult things where expertise and experience required as well as some rare and expensive tools.
Hi Danny,
I am desperately looking for a reason why my Nexus SG-8R31 "clicks" very loudly and ominously when the bike is being ridden. The wheel also does the same thing when spun by hand (in the forward direction). I sounds like a paul not operating correctly.
Have you had a similar problem. I can't find any troubleshooting info.
I need to know whether it is a simple fix or I need to buy a new one. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Sorry Brian, no idea what that could be - you need to talk to a proper bike mechanic.
Rear wheel puncture can be mended without removing wheel as tube can be pulled gently through narrow part to locate puncture. I don't remove wheel unless tyre damaged or worn & needs changing.
Thanks very much for the article. I was looking for a comparison to find if it'd be worth it replacing the 8R31 on my Brompton for an 8R36 or C6001/6011 because I'm a bit disappointed by its performance — plain-bearing pinions vs. needle-bearing pinions.
Small wheels already have less inertia, so I don't need to lose more power due to mechanical inefficiencies.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/nexus8.shtml