"How does it work? I dunno: It's all inside."- gonna use that line a lot from now on.

Couldn't agree more about internal geared hubs, especially for kids bikes. I see so many kids with bikes that are de facto one speeds because the deraileurs are out of adjustment and the parents don't know how to fix it and they can't afford to take it in for a tune up.

"Maintenance is a breeze. I've had this one for years and I've never had it serviced". He said that with a straight face and all sincerity whilst his chain is so slack it's flapping in the breeze. 3:17.

In the city traffic IGH is the king of transmission. Much faster, much more convenient gear changes. Super silent. Less maintenance. True joy of cycling.

This is a no-brainer: unless you have a performance racing or mountain bike the internal gears are superior, this is over 50 years of experience speaking

From a mechanical point of view, I absolutely love the Sachs/Sram T3 hub. Had hubs made in the 1930's in for service. Clean the parts, grease, put back together and you have a hub good for decades still, with minimum effort.

The second bike I had was a 3 speed on a 10 speed frame. I loved it. The gearing was perfect for steep hills and full on downhills. When I got 10 speed it felt like a downgrade. I was always and still am fiddling with the derailers. I hate forgetting to down shift at a stop on a 10 speed. I loved shifting at a stop with my three speed. I still only really use 3 speeds. High medium and low. The rest is just a waste.

Love that you keep saying you don't have the time to ticker with derailleurs and bike maintenance, and then spend a huge chunk of all your free time running a youtube channel that discusses every little aspect of bike commuting! (thanks for doing this!)

Dude, take care of that chain slack on your 3-speed! :D

internal hub with carbon belt. a bit expensive but these two are the best for commuting.

I have a Priority 600. By far, the best bike I have ever owned. I rode it from Nashville Tn. to Natchez MS. the last week of Oct 2020. Not one single issue. It was fantastic!

And now we're seeing more (in the UK) internal hubs on e-bikes with carbon belt drives. A really good mix for commuting. Now I just need them to complete the new road that runs from my home town to my work town. It has a really wide cycle lane. Awesome!

I've got a 3 speed hub geared bike and so far I'm quite impressed with it. Ideal for commuting over mainly level terrain. I would be interested to try one with more gears to see it tackle some steeper hills.

Thank you for this, you've got yourself a subscriber! Very informative, especially as I'm looking to buy my first commuter bike - the Marin Presidio 3.

Internal hubs are a no-brainer for city cycling. Love being stuck in 14th gear with your derailleur at a traffic light? yeah, me neither

Tension the chain my dude!

Hello from the UK! I use a bike to get to work, and got fed up with the derailleur getting fouled up with dirt and needing regular attention. Then the chain kept slipping which resulted in me being deposited on the ground and quite badly derailleur, I figured that I only regularly used 7 of the gears, and some of those very briefly. I believe the popularity of the derailleur is down to ignorance, cost, and also the fact that 21-speed sounds better than 3-speed! My perfect bike= hub gear, chain guard, proper mud guards, parcel rack with semi-rigid bag (oxford c14 bag), 700c wheels with road tyres (not too skinny) Thank you for your video :-) PS - tighten up that chain!

In the early 1950s I had a Schwin with a 3 speed internal gear set, right here in the chew ass A. Loved it!

My Priority Classic Gotham has an internal 3-speed hub. I wish it was at least 5 speeds, but I love it so much more than having a derailleur. The Gates carbon belt drive helps too!

One of the advantages of internal gears is that it's easy cover it protecting your clothing and the chain and mechanism itself. It's hard to find a city/touring bike in the Netherlands without such a cover. A must have for any commuter bike I would say

My first bike was a stick shift 3 speed hub. It was awesome. I don't know why kid's bikes aren't all like this today.

I’m a regular cyclist. I use my bike for everything, work, shop etc. I used to ride a pretty normal setup- a 2x11. I started to realise that I’m not like the Lycra clad weekend cyclists with the carbon bikes who seem to think they’re Lance Armstrong. First I noted that I rarely used my front derailleur, so I got rid of that. Then I noticed that whilst I do go through most of my gears I don’t stay in a lot of them. So I switched from a 1x11 down to a 1x8. Now I’ve bought an Priority Apollo belt drive drop bar bike with an internal hub gearbox. Best bike I have ever bought although I’m gonna change the crank and rear gear when I can to handle the hills near me better.

I bought it for me birthday, July 10th and have not stopped riding it! I get lots of compliments!!!

Some current cruiser bikes with a 3 speed internal transmission use a rear coaster brake, but with a front rim brake. Myself, I am done with coaster brakes. But, internal hub transmissions seem to add a lot to the price of a bike over a derailer. Also, if a internal hub transmission does have a problem, I wouldn't want to tear one down and fix it. Now, having a drive belt with a few gears sounds great to me. I live in Hawaii, and rusting chains is a given here.

I’m building a 29” BMX with an internal hub, doing research, thanks for the info!

I"ve got two primary bikes. My year-round, all-weather bike is a belt drive with a Shimano Alfine 11 internal gear hub with integrated dyno hub, lighting, full fenders, and hydraulic disc brakes. It's a dream and nearly maintenance free. My fair-weather bike is a chain-drive single speed, caliper brakes, no fenders, no anything else. It's also an amazingly low maintenance bike. I don't miss dealing with the finickiness of a derailleur (especially a rear one) at all, as they can easily get out of tune being racked up with other cyclists smashing theirs into your derailleur as they lock up or a number of other ways. They get caught on things easily when trying to transport or portage the bike, and it's just more cogs and pulleys to collect excess oil and grime.

My fairly new Moulton SST has an 11 speed Shimano Alfine. My initial impression is that this is really a very good internal hub gear indeed. I've used a few IHGs over the years as well as a hybrid system. As you say the IHG is much less maintenance than a derailleur however removing a rear wheel can be a little bit more complicated with the hub gear. How the planetary IHGs actually work is rather fascinating actually.

I've been cycling since around 1957 (and still ride 10-20 miles most days) and have had many bikes over the years. But only once have I had one with derailleur gears; almost always 3-speed Sturmey-Archers. My mum bought me a 10-speed racer when I was about 13 and I didn't like it at all; (1) couldn't down-shift after stopping at a traffic light and (2) this was when the gear levers didn't have 'stops' so you could easily be sort of not-quite in gear and (3) the shifters were down on the frame, not on the handlebar.

I think internal gears always make sense for a three speed. Not too much weight penalty. But after my 9 speed Alfine gave out around ~10000K on my folding bike, I replaced with a derailleur and the weight savings was a huge relief. Granted it’s a folding bike so carry weight is much more important than a non folder.

All internal gear hubs I've used have had this nasty tendency of freezing in cold temperatures. Can't move at all when that happens. From experience I can say maintaining them is a pain in the ass compared to derailleurs. Sure, the chain sometimes pops off from my front gear and I've had my rear wheel to eat one derailleur but that's nothing compared to being on the opposite side of the city and suddenly having no gear at all because your internal gear hub freezes again. For warm climates they might be okay.

No doubt about it. The internal hub is the go-to for in-town riding. On my Specialized Crossroads 1.0 I had a 7-gear Shimano derailleur system. I then switched over to a Shimano Alfine 8 internal hub and I can't be happy enough with the change. In city riding which is stop and go sometimes you have to stop on a dime. With an internal hub you can downshift at a stop as opposed to a derailleur where you must be in motion to shift gears. Also, the Alfine 8 shifts so smoothly /that I can almost swear I'm not shifting. And you can ride long distances as well. Definitely, internal hubs for me.

I had a 1965 Schwinn Traveler with the Sturmey-Archer 3-Speed hub, one thing I really liked was you could move the shifter to the next speed then stay in the lower gear until you let off the peddling then it would shift almost like a automatic transmission to the next gear.

Adding to my notes on the bike I'm shopping for, thanks.

I am well aware that this is an older video. I just built a schwinn Kluncker. 1979 26" beach cruiser. I had a very great set of araya 7x hoops that I added a 7 speed internal gear hub. Powered coated the frame and added other new components. I loved it. Friends love it. People I don't know love it. I'm mechanically inclined, so I am good with repairing my bike. Ride on ... 👍

With the derailleur my bike repairshop advised to have the gears (and chain) check every ~4000 km and replaced if neccessary. With an internal gear maintainance is usually limited to a once a year check to see if the cable still fits (as it stretches a mm or so). I even have a problem using a derailleur as I always forget to gear down when I approach a traffic light. With internal gears I just gear down when I stopped.

Just bought a 3 speed dutch bike to use in winter. I'm definitly not it's first owner, so I bought it at the shop to give it a full maintenance. Can't wait to use it!

I like internal hub gears, but they have one disadvantage over derailleurs that you haven't touched - efficiency. A roller chain is just about the most efficient means of transmitting power that exists, and in terms of efficiency a derailleur is in essentially the same as a single speed (OK, plus a couple of tiny extra chain guide sprockets) because it only uses one sprocket at a time. The hub gear though, still has the chain but then adds a lot of complex mechanism in the form of gears, which leads to greater transmission losses.

This was really helpful thank you

I have an internal 8 gear on my Recumbent trike, with a Bafang mid drive e-assist motor on the front. Speed is not an issue for me. Constant speed is, and getting up hills is, and with this combination, riding is fun again. Love those internal gears.

I love three speeds. They are perfect for NYC. One of mine is a fixie conversion, but both of my bikes use the Sturney-Archer S-RF3 hub. Great hub, alloy shell, not too heavy.

Great video, thanks.

I so much prefer internal hub gears because they are easier, faster and more resilient. I will never go back to an old fashion derailer

I love the Alfine 8 and Gates belt on my commuter except that huge 5-6 speed gear ratio jump which gets me every time. That said, for mountain biking, the 1x derailleur based drivetrains are just so good these days. I am interested in trying one of the Pinion based gearbox bikes though. Speaking of commuting, I've also been really happy with the Busch and Muller IQ-X lighting system with a Shimano Alfine dynamo hup I upgraded to recently.

Thank you Sir Tom

Best part about internal hub..... no ka chunk sound when you change gears! So smooth. First time I experienced this was on an old beater rental in Amsterdam. Got home from my holiday and bought a 3 speed internal hub commuter immediately!

The most outrageous number of gears I'm familiar with was the 105 speed Quetzal recumbent. Triple chainring and 7 speed rear cluster connected by a 5 speed mid-drive. For my next bike I'd like a Nuvinci or an Alfine. I've heard the Nuvonci is sluggish at low speeds because it's not turning fast enough to lock up, but I haven't tried it so I'm not sure. But it looks promising.

My favorite bike: '73 Raleigh Sports, 3spd IGH Sturmey-Archer model "AW", Brooks B73 saddle (3 coil springs!), original self adjusting rim brakes, 37×590 Schwalbe's. I've had the hub apart twice; 2nd inspection looks as clean and unworn as when I reassembled it ten years previously. Added bonus: Shimano 3spd is a drop-in replacement for these S-A hubs, and is equally bombproof 😊

I date back to Sturmey-Archer gears (4 speed), and my experience was that the hub was great, until things went out of adjustment, then fixing was a real pain, so, only less maintenance in the sense that you can't easily fix the bloody thing if it does fail. Oddly I preferred derailleurs after I changed over, and yes you do have to baby them, but the mechanism is easy to understand, so fixes tend to be trivial (of course, until wireless electronics and actuators take over, ugh)

Yes, the traditional 3-speed internal hub is easy to use, durable. However, fixing a flat tire can be much more difficult. To remove the rear wheel one must take a number o0f mechanical steps, some of which are very confusing. If it is a small puncture one can leave the wheel in place, partly remove the tire to game access to the tube to patch.

The derailleur system isn't just better because of weight savings, but also because of efficiency. A well-maintained derailleur system, even a cheap one, wipes the floor with any internal hub in that regard. Only the most expensive gear hubs come anywhere close (and even then still not quite), like the Rohloff hub. However the key word here is "well-maintained".

Sturmey-Archer also makes a 3-speed hub which has a splined cassette mount. The now discontinued Dahon Vector X27 had that setup with a SRAM hub: 3 speed internal hub with a 9 speed cassette for 27 usable gears.

i love my nexus 7 speed Internal hub gear bike, ive done 700km+ bikepacking trip w it and can vouch for it! all combined ive ridden that thing easily more than 7k over the years. Your right that they are low maintacne thing but you should oil it atleast once a year.

Here in Germany internal hubs are very common, but since 10 or maybe even 20 years 7 or 8 gears are much ore common here than 3 gears. One nice thing about them is, that they work for many years with absolute no maintenance.

There are quite maintenance free derailleur systems, but somehow they never caught on enough to become successful. Sachs Elysee for instance, and there has also been a Shimano variant. The difference is that the derailleur uses no spring, the gears change with a solid cable by manual power in both directions. The solid cable has almost no flex and almost no thermal expansion effect, making it shift properly almost forever, whereas almost all other derailleur systems need almost constant readjustment. My Sachs Elysee bike has six gears and therefore a pretty wide chain and everything is made of high grade steel, so there is almost no wear either, given you are using the right lubricant, like good Dupont dry teflon spray.

Internal hubs are great......until something goes wrong. Better know how to work on it because most local bike shops don't want to touch them. The days of Sheldon Brown (Probably the best contributor of bike commuting in North America) are gone. Great video, thumbs up, ride safe!

I'm a huge fan of the Shimano 333 internally geared 3-speed hub from the 70's. They work beautifully, are easy to set up and adjust, and you can't hurt those things. I like them better than Sturmey Archer hubs, which have spots between the gears where the pedals can break loose if not adjusted right and put you onto the pavement if you are standing up and peddling hard (this happened to me once, face planted onto my forehead) Shimano hubs have their own design for patent reasons and don't have the breakaway points. The old Shimano hub is simple and wonderful to ride. Especially with the twist shifter. I have three 26" bikes with this hub and a 16" folding bike with a Shimano 3-speed hub although not the 333. The 333 hub came on "department store" bikes made in the 70s (Sears, Huffy) which were American made and actually well built and reliable. Although I have several derailleur bikes the 3-speed internal geared bikes are my favorites.

While I have always admired the elegance and robustness of the classic Sturmey-Archer hub, the notion that commuters are better off with just a few gears does not apply broadly, and more nuanced advice would have been better. Most commuters don’t have tree-trunk thighs or elite VO2 maxes, and need lower gears to efficiently climb hills, and sometimes even to fight headwinds. The minor maintenance required to keep derailleurs humming is far less inconvenient than straining your knees or having to get off and walk, and it’s smart to do basic maintenance or have a bike shop do it occasionally no matter what drivetrain you use.

There is also an old story about a woman beating one of the top racers to the top of a climb like Mt Ventoux with an IHG vs the racer's fixed gear. This helped move the racing community to a geared system (apparently). IHG make such great sense for around town it is a wonder that they are not more common. Mostly I believe it is based around the marketing of the derailleur system as the gold standard for cycling. Additionally most bikes with vertical dropouts do not adapt well to moving to an IHG. Still for probably 90% of the cycling population they make the most sense.

thanks for the content :)

I switched to a Nexus 7 speed MEC bike a couple of years ago and I will probably never go back to derailleur gears. I'm a year-round cycle commuter and leasure rider: for me it's a no brainer : )

Awesome & Thanks :)

One problem with internal hub shifting is that neutral gear is between medium and high, where the crank just turns free without turning the rear wheel. My father had a nasty accident on a three-speed bike where the shifter was controlled by twisting the right handlebar grip. He knocked out five of his top front teeth and cut open his chin. He was a mess. The next morning at church he was asked what happened. They thought he fell off a motorcycle and not a bicycle.

Great video, Tom! Internal gear hub makes a ton of sense on shorter rides. When you ride 10+ miles each way, derailleurs make more sense. They have a wider range of gear ratios and the bikes with IGH are usually bulkier and more robust.

I love the internal hub and derailleur combi on my 6-speed Brompton, really ideal for daily commuting, and my upgrade to 60T chainring makes my bike faster.

Thanks Tom. This was a good summary. I have IGH on a couple of bikes and it’s been bullet proof until it’s time to change a flat on the rear wheel. With IGH, disk brakes and fenders having to get removed to pull the wheel off on one of the bikes. Just something to watch for when selecting a frame.

Some people say the Enviolo hub has the same drawbacks as a CVT in a car, which is motorboaty and imprecise: Sometimes you want to hold a gear.

My first bike age 10 was a Raleigh RSW 16 Mk II. It had internal Strurmey Archer 3 speed gears, and an internal hub rear brake, on the front wheel was an internal hub dynamo. The fat tyres and the low centre of gravity made it a great bike. Wish I still had it.

This is strange for me. I mean I live in Europe (Poland to be exact) but all bikes sold here have derailers. MTB have them, trekking have them, even city bikes have them. The only bikes in which I've seen internal hubs were city bikes for rent, but my guess was it was due to maintaince and the fact those bikes spend their lives outside, rail or snow.

I commuted by bike for 25 years - always with a derailleur-equipped bike - because that was what was available on lightish bikes at a reasonable price. I'm retired now and want something that won't go wrong on my jolly outings - the Enviolo hub with belt drive sounds perfect, even if it will cost me a little more.

My daily rider for the last 15 summers is a 40 or 50 year old Glider (really a Raleigh Sport rebadged for the long defunct Eaton's department store chain) with a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub. The most practical bike I've ever owned by a long shot. As a bonus I got it for $C40 (plus another $30 or so to make it roadworthy since it had been sitting in someone's garage for a couple of decades). I've had to spend money on repairs since, of course, but only once on the hub (second gear wasn't working and I needed to take it to a shop where someone knew the hubs).

I'm a MTB guy myself, but I really walked away with a different perspective here. I want to try an IGH for my next bike now.

I had a Schwinn 3 speed "light cruiser" as a kid. I got laughed at, because it was a "girl's bike", but it was great. We ended up selling it at a garage sale after I got a BMX bike.

I wanted to widen the gear range of my 8-speed folding bike, and looked into my options. While I could add a smaller chainring to the stock 52T, it was less practical to also add a larger chainring. I also wasn't too keen on dealing with a clamp-on front derailleur because the seat tube is quite large in diameter. Instead, I opted for a 3-speed internal hub that also has a 8-speed cassette. I have the a mix of both worlds... and it works like a charm. Went from 29.9-87.1 gear inches to 22.1-116.1 and hills are now rideable! ps. hello from #YQL

I've never ever had good luck with derailleurs. I love my 3-speed. I have the gear ratio setup so that I have a super-low climbing gear I have a flat gear and I have a Tailwind / downhill gear. Most of the time I ride it like a single speed and just leave it in second gear which is direct drive. Plus I like having a coaster brake. I have that coupled with a decent front caliper brake. I do admit though that I would like to upgrade to a disc brake on the front end. Although to be honest 99% of the time I just use my coaster brake.

Derailleur is newfangled! I grew up with the venerable Sturmey-Archer three speed internal.

I've ridden >20k miles on my 2010 Gazelle bike with a Nexus 3 hub. My gears have never been serviced, and am still on my original chain (either original, or at least on the bike since 2012). My bike has been the single most reliable mode of transportation I have ever owned!

Love my Nexus 8 especially now in combination with my electric assisted Bafang Mid-drive 750 watt motor. I thought the motor would shred the hub but three years later still running great although i have had to replace a cog and a chain.

First time I’ve heard anyone extoll the virtues of hub gears. I rode a bike with a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub and it was fantastic for commuting. Being able to change gear instantly anytime, without pedalling, freewheel backwards to set the pedals either for takeoff or just to balance when jumping a median strip or gutter. So versatile. I detest riding with a derailleur for all those reasons. Most people I’ve talked to don’t get it but now I know it’s not just me!

I absolutely hate derailer

really liked the history

I agree with you, right now I'm using sturmey archer 3 speed for my bike, easy to maintain👍. Thanks for your video very informative.

I'm more used to derailleur and it's cheaper, though SRAM X5 is my favorite shifter just for the precise shifts. The 1:1 cable movement means less jumping gears due to less cable tension and more cable motion between changes.

It's why I love the Dutch bikes. Internal hubs, disc breaks and every thing else you can think of to make a bike reliable. You don't want to pull out your bike for your commute and find the derailer is messed up or the break line needs tightened. If you have to be some where on time, you need something that works.

I like the Rohloff internally geared hub, especially on a mountain bike or a commuter.

I have been using derailers for a long time and just purchased an internal gear bike and an not going back they are just so much better.

On my classic derailleur bike I never use more than 3 or 4 of the available 24 gears. In fact I never move the front derailleur at all; it stays on the largest gear 100% of the time. The rear goes between 5 and 8. Up hills, down hills, whatever, these are all the gears I need. My bike has a plastic crate attached onto the rear carrier rack in case I need to haul something, so weight isn't really that important to me. I'd love to have a simple hub shift system, so long as the ratios were set pretty high. Maybe on my next bike.

I just learned about these the other day

I've had derailleur bikes for many years..road bikes and mountain bikes. When they work properly they are great however they can be finicky to tune when they get out of adjustment. Internal hub bikes are perfectly sufficient for most 'leisurely' fun riding and are easy to maintain. I remember when years ago internal hub bikes were the rage before derailleur bikes took over the market. (they used to be called 'English racers'). I recently found an old internal hub 3-speed 26" middleweight cruiser out by the road for garbage..it was in decent shape all I had to do was put new tires/tubes on it, new brake pads, CLA it and she's good to go. It will be perfect for leisurely rides on prepped asphalt and hard pack gravel bike paths. A lot cheaper than the $500.00 plus they want now for 'gravel bikes'.

This video might convince me to keep those sturmy archer 3 speeds on $10 Raleigh/Triumph bikes

I have run into some vintage bikes with internal hubs and they look quite difficult to service compared to rear derailleurs. Also, the parts for them are quite hard to find. That said, all these mechanical parts are getting antiquy. I am reminded of this daily when some grandma drops me on an e-bike with flowers and groceries while wearing sandals and I find myself breathing hard to keep up.

Having a derailleur also means that you've got a little more change over gear ranges. You can easily buy a different cassette if you want a narrower or wider gear range, depending on the type of riding you do. Also, I find the majority of shifting problems I've had are due to the front derailleur. It's super fiddly to get right, so that it runs in all gears, without dragging on the cage, and I find that if I adjust the rear derailleur perfectly on the big ring, it ends up a little off in the small ring, etc. Seeing as most people really only change small to big at one point in the cassette it's only adding one more gear in real world use, even if you're theoretically doubling or tripling the number of gears. I've always preferred 1x setups. Now with narrow-wide chainrings being fairly widely available, you can put one up front, and skip the front derailleur, a 10 speed cassette and shifter, and get most of the same conveniences (with the exception of stationary shifting, and protection from bending and weather), in a much simpler, cheaper way. As far as maintenance goes, if you learn to set it up properly, it probably doesn't need any more than an internal geared hub should have. I haven't adjusted the rear derailleur on my 1x10 setup since I built it 4 years ago, and it still shifts perfectly. I'm not going to suggest that's typical, but I think there's an assumption that they're hard to adjust, when in reality, I think it's a combination of front derailleur hassles, mixed with poor initial setup. I do lube my chain, but unless you're going with carbon belts, you should be doing that anyway (and not waiting until it starts to squeak) Also, few people ever really learn what all the adjustment screws actually do, and how to properly adjust them. If you learn to adjust them properly (look it up on park tools website), then it should actually not need overly frequent adjustment. Usually people who are fiddling with the RD constantly are often trying to fix the wrong problem (badly adjusted FD, or jammed up/damaged cables)

Maybe you should take a look at the Netherlands again. Most have internal geared hubs, the Sturmey Archer 3 speed has been the staple for ages. Though today Shimano is carrying the torch.

Ok I feel like I'm spitting in the soup here but despite having two IGH bikes and loving the simplicity, for me there are 2 big drawbacks and one minor one. 1. Limitation on input torque - Not able to lower the gearing enough for hilly terrain without going well outside the recommended primary ratio. E.g.on my Sachs 3 speed town bike the standard 2:1 input equates to a 41" bottom gear. I've got it running 38/24 (1.6:1) for a more useful 32" gear but the wheel nuts need to be very tight to stop the torque twisting the wheel in the dropouts. 2. The necessity to unweight the pedals in order to change gear can really kill your momentum on a steep hill. 3. The wheel gearchange mechanism on my Shimano Nexus 7 can be a challenge to refit after getting a puncture with freezing hands on a cold dark night... Loving the channel, keep 'em coming!

Well actually internal hubs are less common because the price of good ones is many times those of derailleurs. Also, for constructive reasons, external gears can have more ratios, because the geometry. And the very, very high end internal gear systems, like German Pinion 18 speed, is really, really expensive. Three speed internal hubs doesn't make much sense unless in flatlands (i.e. Netherlands and other blessed regions) because the ratios so obtained can't provide the range of speed x torque needed to both develop some meaningful speed (yes, even in commuting), together with modest slopes. Moreover, internal hubs offer _less_ maintenance, but not zero. At least once a year it would be advisable to change the lubricant. White grease could be replaced by transmission gear oil, but even this should be replaced from time to time. In a nutshell, derailleurs got much lower costs, high end internal hubs got awesome tech specs, however cost the price of a basic car. Yes actually.

Im a big fan and user of IG hubs, but a couple things not mentioned in the video: If you regularly ride on *very* steep hills they may not be the best choice, usually have a narrower gear range than a typical derailleur setup. And you should consider whether there are mechanics where you live who are comfortable working on the internals of an IG hub--there are few where I live, it seems. And they are best used with puncture-resistant tires, as they make it a bit more laborious to fix a flat tire in a hurry. Still those trade-offs have been worth it for me.

Hi from UK here ---> Good video Personally ive never had a bike with Deralleur gearing and always preferred Internal hub gears for lack of maintenance with everything inside back hub of wheel and saves as u said on maintenance plus wont get soaked inside with rain etc ..easy also to use . E bike i have them days though has also internal gearing with 7 speed Shimano Nexus gears , and after a time i like today im hearing a bit of a slight noise movement crackling as i ride along and this tells me its the gears need slightly tightened . Ive never been one to do jobs on bikes apart from tightening gears and removing tyres on normal non e bikes in the distant past ..And i dont want to mess around with the e bike , although the gears need tightened a bit im 100 % sure on that though dont want to open things up i know nothing about re ebikes . But internal gears have always been way for me inc yrs ago with 3 speed sturmey Archer gears AND was non gears i recall before then and tough cycling .

Internal hubs DO need adjusting. Sturmy Archer 3 speeds can stick between gears and do not engage and you spin your cranks riding nowhere. The little spindle needs tinkering with, which is a black art I have yet to master. There are many types of spindle out there and its not easy to determine which you need if you need one. They are extremely durable and last a long time. I have got old Raleigh bike with hubs from the fifties that still work. That said they are heavy and in my experience run about a hundred bucks or more per gear.

Laced in a CVT in my 30 year old MTB. Love it. Would never go back to a derailleur.

I got frustrated with a Sturmey-Archer 5 speed internal gear hub on a 2010 Torker Graduate. I had my wheel shift in the dropout no matter what I tried and that would throw the tension of the shifter cable off. Combine that with needing a wrench to remove the rear wheel for flats I got tired of it pretty quickly. After a year of dealing with it, I switched back to a derailleur equipped bicycle which I had an easier time maintaining and my local bike shop could service pretty easily. I do look at all these new bicycles with a belt drive on a Shimano Alfine and I do get tempted to give it another try though.

I really have a new found love for internally geared hubs Last year I got a cargo bike with one, and now I'm building a new daily/tour bike with an 11 speed Alfine gear hub and Gates belt drive... It's sooo good And only about a 300 gram weight penalty compared to a MTB drivetrain with the same range