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Bicycle Adds Reliability With Second Chain
(hackaday.com)
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this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
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Yeah, adding a chain creates one more failure point, but an internally geared hub adds at least two. One at the hub and another at the shifting mechanism. Additionally internally geared hubs have to be lubricated, adding to the maintenance items, and lubing a hub is certainly more difficult than a 2nd chain.
As I understand it, the bike was designed to make maintenance and repair as easy as possible. I don't see anyone being able to disassemble & repair a 3 speed, internally geared hub on the side of the road with minimal tools.
Lubing a 3 speed internal hub is actually pretty easy, if you have the right oil injector valve to match the lubrication nipple on the hub.
I'm laughing my butt off just imagining the designers having this exact conversation. I wonder what their final answer or considerations were when they made this choice. Maybe failure mode? If the chain breaks you still have a cart, but if the hub breaks/seized you'd be stuck?
It would be kind of neat if Seth could do some testing to see what happens if one chain breaks, but he seems to be riding a little less dangerously lately