What’s impressive about this bike is the technology. At first glance, you might be fooled into thinking this is a common city bike. Pretty, yes, but innovative? Maybe not. This is until you start to ride it. On the one hand, the chain traditionally used has been replaced by a belt transmission. It’s great for reducing maintenance and in my case getting oil on the carpets. Plus, you’ll notice that there doesn’t appear to be any external gears – they’re part of the hub, an Enviolo 380 hub to be precise.
The Enviolo gear hub is not like your traditional hub gears. Instead, it uses NuVinci Continuously Variable Planetary (CVP) technology, similar to continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) found in some cars. The Enviolo hub uses balls that can be rotated and tilted, which are positioned between two discs. When the shift lever is turned, the connected cable adjusts the balls on the horizontal axis, thus changing the gear ratio. Thanks to its innovative design, the hub offers a gear range of up to 380%, so you will be able to find a suitable gear for almost any application.
I found these progressive gears to be quite impressive. The Enviolo shift grip is easy to use, even with gloves on, which is essential if you plan to ride in the winter. I never found that I wanted extra speeds with the Enviolo hub; even on relatively steep hills it performed well. Plus, it’s really quiet. I’m used to the drone made by a driveline, but it was a revelation.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-12-15 00:01:00