Looks like a great rainbike!

Wow, on the ball there BR... this was reported on Velovision over a month ago!

http://www.velovision.co.uk/cgi-bin/show_comments.pl?storynum=978

As pointed out there, by for the most interesting thing here is an STI-style shifter for hub gears...

Would make a great commuter assuming it can take mudgaurds and a pannier rack

It's not for carrying loads, and 28mm tyres look like a stretch. A light-touring/commuter version with more clearance and disc tabs would work a treat, though.

I really am wanting to test one of these hub geared bike either mtb or road, I keep reading that they are great but then you read some people saying the gears feel "draggy" so I would like to give one a go myself and decide. I saw a nice rigid mtb with one in my Lbs but they won't let me try before I buy :(

I was looking for a bike like this recently, despite finding that Thorn cycles sell bikes with hub gears fitted to 26" wheeled bikes they don't seem to do for the standard road bike. Shame, having seen enough derailleur's broken off in the past few months (2 on club runs, another one in Richmond park from a commuter, yet another on a sportive) and having suffered one myself, I'd quite happily go for something lower maintenance and less likely to fail when I need it the most.

ive been running an alfine hub since sept all thru the winter there a great alternative to deralieur very low maintenance id love some sti's hope they sell them soon

what prices are they

According to their website 1300 USD.

Wonder why they didn't put long reach brakes instead of standart reach. The clearence between tyre and brakes looks small to fit mudguards.

Seems pointless to me, a road bike with the same gear gaps as an MTB??!! Prehaps if you live somewhere hilly? But to be honest till someone launches a close ratio gear hub there is no way i'm moving from mechs...

I have a Brodie Ocho with drop bars, an Alfine hub, Jtek bar-end shifter and disc brakes. It's good for foul weather on our gravel trails -- but a "racer", no way. The hub has too much rotating mass and it is much slower than my touring bike.

I love the idea of hub gears but they look FAR too heavy for a normal everyday commute bike. Could they not consider making the internals/gubbins from carbon and titanium and just bump the price up?

For this to seem worthwhile the bike would have to be lightweight hub, matched with discbrakes and space for panniers and mudguards as everyone has already said.

...8 speeds...spread as wide as a triple...How in hell are you going to ever find the perfect conditions where what you are riding, up or down, is perfectly matched to one of the eight gear ratio's? (no rear derailleur means no front derailler can be installed)

Now if someone could engineer a variable drive where the ratio was based upon power output, like in those fancy Nissan gearboxes, make it out of titanium and stick it's power hungry goodness in a rear wheel, THAT would get my attention

...OR, have SRAM, Campag, or Shimano add this new friction busting coating to the chain and derailler bits...(http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16102-material-slicker-than-teflon-discovered-by-accident.html). That would be some major thought provoking new revolution type news.

Oh well, let's just wait and see how it goes. This is too heavy, and limits gear selection heavily. It doesn't do anything for anyone that would race.

I have been racing a Rohloff 14 speed internally geared hub for three years now. Love it. Can't even imagine going back to a regular setup. Never miss a shift, only have to change the oil once per year. Yep, it's a little heavier but no maintenance, what could be better!

Please stop by my website http://www.tandem-bicycle-central.com and upload a photo of your tandem if you have one.

I can see the benefits, low maintenance, direct straight drive from the chain, changing gear when stationary or on a sudden unexpected slope, but the weight, where does that all come from? St John Street cycles claim that their Rohloff Hub weighs less than a derailleur set up.

You don't NEED the 'perfect' gear. Plenty of people manage to commute just fine on a singlespeed or fixed gear. Before modern 9/10 speed systems people still cycled! its also nice to be able to change gear whilst waiting at the lights.

It looks like a great idea for a commuter to me.

Someone already makes a continuously variable hub gear too! its called a Nu Vinci

http://www.fallbrooktech.com/nuvinci.asp

As you say, Sturmey Archer made hub gears for road bikes/racers way back in the early 20th century, back then I think they were more common than derailleur systems so this is hardly a first.