Nuvinci - Installation Notes

A few notes from fitting my new wheel with the Nuvinci hub and its controller.

1. Fitting the wheel itself was pretty straightforward, but having to use a 21mm wrench to tighten the drive-side nut was a nuisance. There was room to get my adjustable spanner in for a first try, as I didn't have a 21mm, but I bought one for future use. Couldn't find a nice light one, and they don't come as standard on cyclists' multi-tools.
2. The controller takes up quite a bit of handlebar space. I ended up buying a new set of brake levers, as the ones I was replacing had a fitting for gear levers which prevented a snug fit. I got long levers to reach past the controller. (Interestingly, the LBS produced a set of Sachs 5000 levers in yellowing packaging. They must have sat on the shelf for about 10 years! They feel great, and much better than the money would have bought me in 'new' components.)
3. The controller sticks up quite high as well, which means that when I flip the bike to work on it I scratched the finish. Not a major, but a shame when I did it before the controller ever hit the road.
4. Very few bikes are likely to have fittings for dual rear gear cables. This was my first go at picking a cable path, and I felt uncertain about selecting the length to cut the sheathing to. Everything is stuck down with electrical tape for now, and seems to have worked out okay.
5. Put quite a bit of slack in the adjuster screws at the controller end before fitting the cables. I almost got stuck with slightly too-tight cables that made it hard to fit the pulleys into the housing. It took me 15 minutes to ease them in without losing any loops from the cable that was round around the outer pulley.
   
6. Don't cut short the wires until just before putting the cover on the controller. That seems convenient to do once you've got each wire positioned, but limits your options if you're having trouble fitting everything together. It also exposes your fingers to more sharp bits.
   

No pictures, sorry, as I got all absorbed in my work and my hands were very dirty.

Continuously Varying Single-Speed

Our flatmate is away, and I've had the luxury of littering the carport with bicycle components. Yesterday I dragged out my brother-in-law's old bike¹ from under the house and fitted in the NuVinci hub I ordered in October². I haven't had time to install the gear controller, so it functions as a single speed with a knob on the back to change the ratio whenever you care enough to hop off and do so. It seems that without the controller installed the adjustment screw slowly turns while you ride and the going gets harder, hence the 'Continuously Varying' label.


In order to fit the hub I had to respace the frame to 135mm from 126. This turned out to be really easy -- so easy that my first effort was too strong and I had to adjust it back some. The spectre of getting this part wrong has held me back from getting started when I only had a short period to work in, so I was particularly pleased with myself when I had done it. I tried to use the string method Sheldon Brown describes for checking that the two sides are adjusted evenly, but found it hard to know if I was taking square measurements. I guess it gave me peace of mind that everything was near enough.


The hub went in easy enough, although the drive side nut is quite unusual. There is a disk mounted on the outside³, then inside that is the nut which you would expect to see. Unfortunately the nut is a 21mm fitting, so I didn't have a proper spanner and had to use my adjustable. I'll have to buy a tool, as I don't want to carry the heavy wrench around in case the wheel needs to be adjusted.


Needless to say I'll let you know when I've had a chance to wire in the controller and give the hub a proper try.

[Update - After riding this setup to work today, I can report that the self-adjustment mostly happens when you apply a lot of torque. That makes sense, I guess. Unfortunately it means that just when I'm working hard to top a rise the gearing gets even harder on me! Hopefully I can fit the controller on Wednesday, which is Waitangi Day.]

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1. This bike was probably last ridden in 1991! Heather remembers trying to use it as a fallback in 1996 and finding it unrideable. The rear wheel was dead (but I didn't need that) and the brake pads are as worn as they must have been 16 years ago, but other than the abundant superficial rust it is quite rideable. And people throw their old bikes out...
   
2. I received the hub in November, had it built into a wheel just before Christmas, but wasn't able to collect it in time to do anything further during the break. I've been itching for a chance to play with it.
3. It keeps the ratio adjustment knob from coming too far out, and the controller latches to it.