I had the chance to go for a quick carpark test ride on this big-dollar Ellsworth Ride cruiser while buying some tyres and tubes for the Cross-Check at my LBS. I like cruisers but it's too hilly in my part of Auckland for this type of bike and I'm always too tall for them anyway.
The bike has some interesting features like the integrated rear fender but it was the rear hub that caught my eye.
I was curious how the NuVinci "geared" hub would ride after reading good reports about them. You just twist the controller and the gearing changes in a completely linear fashion, no steps at all. It was super-smooth and seemed to have a wide enough gear range but you had to twist the controller more than once to go from the lowest to highest ratio. Either that or the grip on it was slipping.
I think these hubs have a big future on city bikes and if they can get the weight down they would be great on all bikes.
Midget photographer's assistant wanders into frame
I like the internal cable routing
One-piece carbon-fibre bar/fork
3 comments:
Kind of crazy looking. What about those bars/fork blades? How did that feel to ride?
I only rode it for a few minutes. They were comfy but creaked when you pulled on them in the higher gears.
That is simply an AWESOME design.
And on a side note... I too have been wondering about the NuVinci hub... they do make great sense on any bike where outward simplicity is valued and external moving parts would attract to much dirt / mud / grime.
I think it'd make a lot of sense on your pugsley in fact... given that you do so much riding in the sand.
I have yet to ride the nuvinci... but this gives me one more huge question regarding it... how does it hold up to rain and even the occasional submersion in water.
If I recall it's a very simple design, but if it can't keep out water or be easily taken apart to be regreased then it's probably not all that practical for me.
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