Internal Gear Hubs
Gordon Hobbis September 20, 2007

Bonjour! Montreal was the point of convergence for the bicycle industry earlier this month as hundreds of manufacturers and suppliers showed off their new bobbles to thousands of retailers and journalists. The annual event is put on by the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada (BTAC). Next weekend, Las Vegas will host the biggest bicycle trade show in North America, Interbike. Between these two shows us bike dealers will see what products the manufacturers think people will want next year. This is a time of serious crystal ball gazing.

If I may be permitted, I would like to pat myself on the back for how clear my glass orb has been. I, along with my staff, have been praising and promoting the benefits of internal gear hubs for the past few years. An internal gear hub is what used to be called a three speed which means a bike with gears on the inside rather then the outside, like most bikes today. Having the gears on the inside means the gear mechanism is protected from dirt and being banged about. It also means that the chain isn’t being moved around so the possibility of a chain falling off is virtually eliminated. These are all the things my customers had been telling me they wished for. Oops! I guess I don’t have a crystal ball because I just listen. Well after years of asking, the industry has responded and now almost all bike makers, big or small, are showing a model or two with the internal gear hub. The best one of the bunch for a city commuter or all around pleasure rider is the Specialized Globe 4.1. This bike combines internal gears with the external type to create an easy to use changing system with an enormous gear range. In true Van Trapp fashion you can “climb any mountain.”

I’ve mentioned in past columns that my dad had predicted that the next trend in bikes after the mountain bike would be balloon tired bikes. Balloon tires are wide tires that smooth out the road without the need of suspension. This idea looks to be gaining traction as there were a couple of manufacturers showing ballooners off. Most significantly, Benno Baenziger, the brains behind the hugely succesfull Electra bikes, has designed new models using ballon tires. If I was a bike manufacturer I would be paying close attention to what Benno does. In my opinion, he has the Midas touch as far as figuring out what people are looking for. Electra’s Townie line of bicycles, with Flat Foot Technology are extremely popular. Not because they are made from carbon fibre and have had every part weighed to the gram, but because they are fun to ride and satisfy people’s expectations. Flat Foot Technology is the term Benno used to describe the bike he introduced in 2003 that is designed to make a rider can feel safe and stable by putting their feet flat on the ground and also by getting a full leg extension when pedaling. Electra’s motto is “bikes for people who don’t ride bikes” Among those people are Paris Hilton and Jenny McCarthy.

If internal gear hubs of Flat Foot Technology aren’t for you don’t worry, the bike biz has more types of products to fullfill any niche any rider can think of. The buzz word is “experiences”, designing bikes to satisfy whatever experience the rider wishes to have. What does that mean? You ask. Well the answer came clear to me on a test ride that one company took a group of dealers on. We were all handed a top of the line road racing bike to ride. A real dream come true event for some of us. The group went out for a 30 kilometer spin. At about five kilometers I was dropped, left in the dust, wondering if I had even been given the same bike as the others. I finished the ride and afterwards heard the other bike shop guys talking about how “sweet” the tires rode, how they “killed it” on the last climb and how the frame “sucked up bumps” like feathers through a vacuum hose. That was their experience. I decided not to share mine with them because I was certain they wouldn’t have been interested in how spectacular the St Lawrence river looked or the awesome old mansions as we rode by. That was my experience and to each your own as long as you keep those pedals turning.