Ancestors

Written by NNN on 2024-11-24 at 04:49

I've had 2 years on my bicycle with the Enviolo AutomatIQ self-shifting internal-gear hub, and have a few thoughts!

For those not familiar, the Enviolo hub is internally geared, but is continuously-variable (like the volume knob on a radio, which can be set to anything between "soft" and "loud"... NOT like a normal bicycle with which you can choose one of several gears)

The AutomatIQ shifts for you, to keep your cadence consistent up/down hills.

[#]Enviolo #BikeTooter #ebike #ebikes

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Written by NNN on 2024-11-24 at 05:00

I've ridden it only about a thousand miles, most fairly flat; on lots of slushy and snowy days, when I picked the ebike.

I have not noticed any difference in operation at temps down to -25C. (unlike my old Shimano Alfine hub).

Some days, I wanted ride slower or faster. This meant launching the phone app, waiting 30 seconds for Bluetooth, then 3 clicks to get to the screen to change cadence. Not fun outside at -25C! Or in rain.

The optional $50 handlebar control is only orderable from DE

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Toot

Written by NNN on 2024-11-24 at 05:05

There is a problem when I reach a hill to climb: on a normal bike, I'd downshift 2 gears and increase cadence a bit.

But the only way to force a downshift, is by slowing cadence. Then the bike slows way down; pedaling becomes a grind, and the AutomatIQ doesn't ever shift down far enough.

In practice, my hack is: stop pedaling completely for 1 second. This makes the hub reset to lowest gear. Then start climbing the hill; it may upshift a bit as it figures-out what is needed.

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Descendants

Written by NNN on 2024-11-24 at 05:09

On the plus side, I really like not having a shifter on the handlebars. This is especially nice with mittens or pogies/BarMitts in winter; or when my thumbs are in the thumb-loop of a Cleverhood rain poncho.

The AutomatIQ is never in precisely the gear I want; but it's usually close-enough to the gear I want. Kind-of like how it feels to ride a bike with fewer gears than you're used to: part of your brain is annoyed, but also you know that it's still perfectly serviceable.

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Written by NNN on 2024-11-24 at 05:14

One wrinkle is that my AutomatIQ has seemed dead/no-power twice, for periods lasting days/weeks. Being stuck in 1 gear stinks. Cleaning the plug and plug/unplugging it didn't help. I think gently twisting the molded plug on the AutomatIQ fixed it last time (flaky solder inside?).

All in all, would I recommend? For me, I think no: my wife has a Gazelle C380 with manual grip-twist Enviolo, and that definitely gives finer control, at lower cost, and should be more reliable.

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Written by NNN on 2024-11-24 at 05:20

Oh: taking the rear wheel on/off is easier with no shifter cables! Very nice: just unplug the power cable to AutomatIQ, and drop the wheel.

The Gates belt + Enviolo on my wife's is still easier than derailleur or Alfine/Nexus, but I have to fiddle with the little silver barrel on one shift cable.

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Written by baloo on 2024-11-24 at 05:24

@NNN Thank you!

I broke one of the cable on the grip-twist version of an enviolo (1200mi on the bike).

Without the cable the enviolo wouldn't stop shifting to the easier "gears". This is nice for doing cardio, not so much to go back home.

You can get off the bike and manually adjust directly on the hub but that wouldn't stay put and you need to stop every 200 meters to readjust. Going back home was not fun.

You can keep it "in the middle" with a couple of zipties (I now have a set of those with the bike).

I considered installing a retrofit kit to install the automatiq to avoid the hassle, your feedback makes be believe it's not worth it. I guess zipties is going to be the way forward.

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Written by NNN on 2024-11-24 at 15:06

@baloo

Both times my AutomatIQ quit, I put on an Enviolo manual shift for a while. I did prefer that except I seemed unable to reach high gearing, and cadence was too high to exceed 15mph. So I ended up back on the AutomatIQ.

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