Enviolo NuVinci CVP Hub Review, Stepless Continuously Variable Planetary Transmission for Bikes

This or Specialized turbo como 3.0 igh ?

Why don't they pair this with a planetary geared bottom bracket? You could run a thinner belt/chain and a lighter geared hub by turning the low speed & high torque of your cranks into high speed & low torque that only gets converted back to low speed & high torque by a final drive planetary set in the hub. Lighter hub and chain means less unsprung mass and less chain slap for mountain bikes.

For me it skips gears when in high pressure. Would rather have the manual shifting for fast riding, or standing while riding

I bought one of the ancient first generation NuVinci hubs, way back in around 2006ish. I spoked it myself, tensioning it by plucking the spokes till they all "sounded" and "felt" right. It was paired to a rusty old Huffy 314 with magenta mountain bike handles and an inverted set of speed handlebars... It was truly Frankenstein's bicycle... But I loved that bike. I rode it till I cracked the frame (broke the main crank bearing off the seat downtube, and started cracking the rear fork). I was gonna weld it, but then the bike got run over... I still have the mangled mess in a storage shed, NuVinci still intact, fortunately... My little hill guy cracked, but it still works.

I'm a decade older now, and a little more creaky... Maybe I could fit that hub to something like a comfy recumbent someday...

I really appreciate all the data you have supplied me in my search for a new ebike. I’m sold on the maintenance side of the cvt/belt drive but a little worried about the not shifting while pedaling aspect. My question is can I decrease my input but not stop pedaling change gears and then pedal hard again? I think I need to go test ride a cvt because I’m just so used to gears.

On this system, you can create an automatic transmission. It will be just an explosion in the bicycle industry. It is only necessary to install a sensor that measures the angles of inclination and speed, a controller that will control the servo drive that tensions the cables and changes speeds in auto mode.

Pretty sure at the end you coulda turned around and sold two of the bikes to those ladies fat-thigh waddling up the sidewalk at 0.5 MPH.

You do a great job I thank you for this! Please keep it up! You need a TV series about utilitarian cycling….do it!

Don't buy NuVinci products! In case you loose traction fluid which is inside (i had two leaking hubs from them) you can throw it to the bin, even if the hub looks like a new one, because NuVinci will not provide you with new traction fluid!!!! You can't buy it. So they are effectivelly forcing you to buy a new one from them and they are making more and more polution. This approach is against ecology, against environment. F*ck companies like this.

I am looking for an aftermarket internally geared rear wheel hub for my 1000 W belt driven bicycle.
As the Internally geared hub that came with it from China is garbage.
Can you recommend an easy to install quality product thank you.

I'm 77 retired and love the quality of your bikes. Here in the beautiful Napa Valley they are developing trails for jogging or walking and now I see e bikes more every day. I will by a E bike but the selection you have are peddle only that won't work for me. Come on guys I want one of your great bikes but not untill a throttle model. Give us old guys with bad knees. Have a great day.

I just got into biking like a month ago, riding upwards of 15-20 miles a day. I'm saving up for a Priority Continuum Onyx (Enviolo hub, belt drive, but not electric—I'm not into it). I've been riding a borrowed WalMart bike—something new breaks every week. Can't wait for my own sturdier, nicer bike.

Piñon has two cables but it’s central hub

I love the idea of the cvt and most aspects of it, but I’m turned off by the lower efficiency. If someone made one that was closer to 90% than 80% efficient, I’d get one. I did recently read that efficiency was greatest in the middle gears, but I don’t know how great. I’m wondering if I might get a larger chain ring so I can mostly use the middle “gears” and still be going 20 mph, which is my usual speed. Any details about cvt would be great!

This is absolutely wild, automatic CVT on a bike!

I have a bike with the NuVinci N360 hub. I'm interested in converting the bike to electric drive. The bike also has Gates belt drive. The Bafung dealer tells me this mid-bike motors do not work with Gates belt drive. (They wouldn't tell me why not). Is there an add-on electric motor that works with the NuVinci hub and Gates belt?

Great video, thank you! Do you know if cold weather (like minus 20 celcius) could create problems with these systems? Thanks!

One thing that I'd like to mention in regards to not just the Enviolo hub but other internally geared hubs is how the wheel is laced when compared to a conventional cassette setup.
If you imagine looking at a bicycle from the rear, you'll notices that the spokes are offset on a bike featuring a conventional cassette and derailleur. Essentially, the relationship between the hub, spokes and rim forms an acute triangle. This results in a lot more stress being put on the spokes on the cassette side. This makes the wheel significantly weaker and more prone to buckling. On older, less well maintained bikes, spokes invariably break on the cassette side of the wheel.
When viewed from the rear, you'll see that the relationship between the hub, spokes and rim on an internally geared bike form an isosceles triangle with the tensile stress evenly distributed across the left and right spokes. This makes the wheel much stronger.
In my opinion, it's worth consideration if you are a heavier rider or if you plan on carrying a considerable amount of weight in your panniers.

Great review. Seeing two experts play off each other’s knowledge Maybe you and Chris do more together.

Theses bikes are going to replace cars.

Sounds like a noisy hub. You didn’t address that.

used a 360 on my eb for about 11 months before it failed, I have a cyclone setup, would have been fine for a standard 750 watt it would have held up fine. Now using an old 171 3 years now without fail.

Nice technology , now if they could only make it more affordable. Pretty hard to justify when it often costs more than the bike : )

Rohloff E-14 elektro ckeck it

I have been using the NuVinci harmony on my electric bike for a year now, love it fully automatic and no hassle

Thanks for this review. You gave good insight into this CVT and clarified the SE functionality. I just changed my Wish List of parts for my new, home-built e-bike. I will order the SE version. Given manufacturers tend to design their bikes to meet European standards (250-350 watts), DIYers like myself are building much more powerful bikes with Bafang and Tong Sheng motors, for example. I wanted to use NuVinci N380 technology but was initially concerned it would not be able to handle the added torque. Your review helped alleviate that concern by highlighting the torque rating for the N380 SE @ 100 + NM. Another 'read' from today discussed how to reprogram the Bafang controllers to reduce the motor torque lightening the load on the CVT. I think my rebuild goals are firming up...with NuVinci still in the mix.

Thanks for the review, I'm researching what to buy as bikes are expensive. Does it feel sharp from the start? I have driven CVT cars and hate them, feels like a soggy elastic band from the lights. I do love the concept of no maintenance. My traditional mountain bike is clunky and I sometimes forget to change down quick enough before I come to a stop.

I've been riding a Gekko FX trike with a Nuvinci for about 4 years now, and I absolutely love it! I'm 70, have fibromyalgia, asthma, and COPD - I'm a slowby all around. I chose the Nuvinci in order to choose my "speed" minutely, and it has absolutely met my expectations. I also have a super granny on the front (22 tooth) that I added to the regular 2 sprockets rather than down-gear all 3, and they work out very well. I went to Morro Bay this week, and while I had to pedal-rest-pedal-rest, I did make it up the nice, steep hill. (I live in the flat side of Bakersfield - not a lot of hills here.) I'm working on getting into better shape now that the air quality is better - had to stop riding with the Calif fires - covid has been a godsend to the asthma - I've been able to start riding again! Hooray! Anyway - thanks for a great product with the Nuvinci!

Thank you sir. I’ll go with rohloff

Yeah, it’s chuckles from Propel Biles! Such a happy soul.

all thease review nv show or price the next battery needed on top of buying price

Okay now i get it, internal hub shifting is like driving a manual clutch stick shift where you ease off the gas to clutch shift.
Internal hub shift just ease off the pedaling and shift at the top/bottom of the pedal stroke! 👍

Great review! Highly informative.

Thanks for your useful information!!

which transmission can handle 18kw motor?

We want to see the cvp not your ugly face!

Quieter than I expected.

fascinating

Berapa harga

Not many concepts get to this stage. Congratz!

Great interviewer!

As every hubgear the Enviolo is safe from damage and low on maintenance. Right. But the argument that it allows being on the right gearing all the time is not that real. After a couple of weeks using an e-cargo bike with that system I started hating it because in practice I was NEVER on the right gearing but rather always fiddling with the twister shifter to try and find it. So to me it has definitely no advantage above stepped systems, derailers or standard hubgears even more so adding its premium price.

So I can buy an N380SE and install it on my regular NON ebike corerect? My rear wheel has 32 spokes it is a 700C rim.

I built 2 ebikes with banfang fun 8 crankdrive motors and N360 hubs with harmony electric shifting.
Mine is mated to the BBS2 750w motor and has always worked well
My wife's bike is a BBS1 350w hers regularly loses the autoshifting function resulting in rapid peddling stuck in low gear, she has to stop and do a reset to get it working again, something I have not been able to solve.
Having first ridden my bike with manual shifting which feels stiff under load I think the harmony system works better, if I use manual mode the twist shift is very light to use and would suit people with weak hand grip.I never need to lift off the peddling pressure the shifting is buttery smooth, when I had the BBS1 set up with derailuer gear system shifting could be quite harsh and jerky I felt the derailuer and chain wouldn't have lasted very long.
It's fun to ride my 750w in manual mode using the throttle gently to avoid front wheel lifting and get moving to a fast walking pace then rolling on the shifter it actually feels like a throttle giving smooth rapid acceleration up to 28 mph, also running between half and full power on the thumb throttle you can speed up and slow down using the gear shift in manual mode it's good fun off road.

The efficiency of the NuVinci is the biggest problem and is the issue with all spherical ball drive transmissions. They HAVE to pump fluid away from where the balls make contact. Think how your tires have to displace water away from your tires. The only way to increase the efficiency is to decrease the speed. The only way to do that would be the make the unit much larger because the ball contact friction is limiting the torque. All in all it's not worth it unless you have a serious aversion to indexed shifters. Personally, I have a problem imagining the galling of the spheres and races that would happen if the fluid or forces were just a LITTLE bit off. Give me a straight tooth geared transmission and some form of active noise cancelling or a better designed transmission ;)

Hi Court and thanks for this. And now you got me thinking. I'm a fan of and have owned and used IGH systems quite a bit. I know Shimano has had an automatic option with the steps system that integrates with Di2 Alfine kit for some time now. I saw at Interbike 2018 Bosch mentioned they would support that too staring in 2018. Have you seen or tried any of these?


I have a bike with a steps drive that supports it and was thinking of building up a wheel with Alfine 11 Di2. I'm also getting a Benno with a new Bosch CX drive that should support it and am thinking I might want to do the same there. On steps (at least on mine) one can relatively easily switch between manual and automatic shifting. I haven't got to play with a Bosch CX yet so I don't know what the automatic shifting options are, if they come with it "out of the box" like steps or if this would require a firmware update. Do you have any experience on this? Thanks!

Thanks Court and Chris for great discussion. It really clarified my understanding, thus helping my decision to go ahead and purchase a manual shifting NuVinci rather than automatic. Really found all the technical info valuable....Court, no apologies necessary! Very helpful throughout.

Why do they call the gear ratio spann in degrees? Should it not be percent?