Norco Indie IGH Commuter

After last year's bike shuffle and modernization, I ended up in a situation where I was riding quite nice race bikes to work each day.  I'm fine with that - our building security is as good as one could expect, and in fair weather that's fine.  However strapping on fenders and dragging nice components through grey muck slush at times of year isn't that smart.  So I talked to Bow about the Norco Indie IGH commuter bike as I'm a fan of internal hubs, lower cost options.

Its beautiful in a sublte way.  The Alfine 11 hub is excellent.  I've got it with a 39t chainring and a 18t cog - for hills a larger cog would be better (especially with winter clothes and a backpack probably amounting to well over 10lbs).  I can do Edworthy hill with a backpack, but it's not at a "commuting" effort.  They offer cogs up to 23t, and with a different crank you could do what you wanted with the chainring.

Fenders and lights are in place, and I've converted it over to clipless pedals.  The issue here is the chain stay flares out for the hub, inducing some heel rub.  I've put in eggbeaters with 5mm longer axles which has taken care of this issue.  Also some Bar mitts have helped with the cold.