Internal geared hub question

[willy in pacifi]

I have a 24" wheeled single speed mountain bike frame/fork coming for my 9 year old daughter. The rear is spaced at 120mm so we figured we would just be running it as a single speed like her mini BMX bike.

However, the thought came to me that if I can find a 3 speed internal geared hub it may make all the difference in the world to her getting up some hills.

There is a new Sram i-motion 3 speed hub that I have been told is 124-126mm but I cannot find anything on-line that verifies this.

Anyone out there with experiance with internal geared hubs?

She will be riding trails, etc so I am thinking the old SA type hubs with the chain gizmo hanging outside of the dropout may not be a smart idea if she crashes.

any help is appreciated,

willy in pacifica

[Ken Robb]

my bikefriday has 3 speed Sachs internal x 7 cogs and it works great.
The middle gear is direct 1/1 with low .66 and high 1.32 if I recall. the chainline is the same in all 3 and the overall range is wider than my Ultegra triple w/12-27 cogs.

[hansolo758]

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/sturmey-archer-hubs.html

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/sram.html

You could probably get even more info. if you looked up more links on Sheldon's site -- these are what I found in a quick search.

It seems to indicates rear hub spacing, depending on what nuts and spacers ones uses, as low as 115 mm. Certainly 123 mm is feasible.

Good luck.