Mike Sales wrote:I suspect that you are right, but the cable/hub connection is vulnerable on SA hubs, and on others I expect.
It's a chain into a tube, often with a hard plastic protector cap. You can plough fields with it and it'll often still work (DAMHIK) when a derailleur would be scattered across the crops. How is it vulnerable and what to?
Adjustment often gives problems too, like groin to top tube impacts.
Not in the last 20+ years of hubs, but even before that, adjustment is simply twirling an adjuster until the rod end is level with the axle end seen through a hole in the nut. It's amazing so many people don't know how to do that and don't bother to look it up, instead doing the sort of trial and error bodging that derailleur setup requires.
Neglect and abuse are always a problem. I see many childrens' bikes with faulty brakes. Perhaps a fixed is the most child proof?
Maybe. One of my young relatives has just started riding fixed. Her father has expressed worries about it so I expect I'll hear how she fares