Internal Hub Gear Slip

[DCW]

Just had worst CitiBike ride on my usual commute from Grand Central to Union Square. After a red light stop around 36th st., I stood up on the pedals to get to get moving, and after about 3 strokes the gear shifted down on me. I should have been in a solid 3, but then: POP!

Did the gear slip into 2? or was it chain slip?

my feet completely fell off the pedals. I managed to keep my hands on the handlebars, and the bike straight without eating asphalt, TG. i did my best Fred Finstone, and ran to keep up with the bike until i could get back on the seat. Not fun.

Needless to say, i pressed the wrench button on the docking station when I returned the bike. But my main question is about internal hubbed gears. Is this a common problem with them? is it easy to adjust? I have been thinking about getting a simple three speed internal gear commuter bike when I move to Burlington, VT next month (:banana:), but now i'm thinking about sticking with a simple chainring and rear derailleur or a single gear, depending on the hills in my commute.

[jemoryl]

Back in the '70s, when I was a teenager, there were a lot of Shimano three speed bikes around. There was a coupling on the rear axle (they called it the 'bell housing', IIRC) where you were supposed to adjust the cable tension in the middle gear so that "N" was centered in a hole. If this was way off, you could get slippage like you describe, but the adjustment was dead easy. Don't know what the current setup is like.

[oldpotatoe]

Just had worst CitiBike ride on my usual commute from Grand Central to Union Square. After a red light stop around 36th st., I stood up on the pedals to get to get moving, and after about 3 strokes the gear shifted down on me. I should have been in a solid 3, but then: POP!

Did the gear slip into 2? or was it chain slip?

my feet completely fell off the pedals. I managed to keep my hands on the handlebars, and the bike straight without eating asphalt, TG. i did my best Fred Finstone, and ran to keep up with the bike until i could get back on the seat. Not fun.

Needless to say, i pressed the wrench button on the docking station when I returned the bike. But my main question is about internal hubbed gears. Is this a common problem with them? is it easy to adjust? I have been thinking about getting a simple three speed internal gear commuter bike when I move to Burlington, VT next month (:banana:), but now i'm thinking about sticking with a simple chainring and rear derailleur or a single gear, depending on the hills in my commute.

Fairly common and easy to adjust.