We’ve seen it everywhere with bicycle component design recently – parts have to be made stronger to cope with the higher strain of e-bike motors. But in this case, it’s not only e-bikes that will benefit from the new N380x hub from NuVinci. Citing a growing need to outfit ‘Sportive’ bicycles, or what we would probably call a dual sport or hybrid, NuVinci wanted to make their stepless continuously variable planetary transmission a bit more robust. And that’s exactly what the N380x delivers…
The benefit of the NuVinci hub system has always been the stepless gear range which allows you to shift through a range of gearing without any steps or physical ‘shifts’. Add in their Harmony automatic shifting system which keeps the bike in a certain gear range based on preferred cadence, and you may finally have the automatic drivetrain inventors and tinkerers have tried to perfect for years.
In this case though, that same drivetrain is strengthened to be able to handle input torques up to 100Nm while still maintaining a 380% gear range. To put that in perspective, the hub is said to have no problem shifting under full load from a speed pedelec e-bicycle. The same durability makes it a better choice for dual sport bikes that will actually find themselves off road – or for cargo bikes for that matter.
In order to accommodate this new crop of bikes, the hub is compatible with 135 x 10mm, 142 x 12mm, and 148 x 12mm dropouts to allow for use in frames with mountain plus size tires. NuVinci says that the first OEM to use the new N380x will be Scott Bikes on their new E-Silence Evo which will be launched at Eurobike.
