All of this has been pointed out to bob time and time again, but he persists in the Rohloff mantra. To be honest, though, the most objectionable part is the psychology of Rohloff, a psychology of odd rationalizations. And don't get him started on Bike Friday. Same type of spiel.
Originally Posted by
Kapusta
I find it a bit inconsistent to claim to buck the "1x with more gears in the back" trend and then spend $1300 on a 14 speed rear hub so you can run 1x14.
Say what? you can get a SRAM 10-42t 11 speed cassette for $100. A Rival 1 RD can be had for $100.
For the price of a Rohloff, you can burn through 8 cassettes and trash 4 rear deraileurs and still come out ahead.
If you are looking at flat bars and go with mtb components, it is even cheaper.
Yes and No. Yes, the cog sizes do increase exponentially, but the % difference in the ratios do not.
The table below shows the tooth counts of a 10-42 cassette. The column next to it shows the % increase in gearing ratio from the next cog size down.
11
13---18.2%
15---15.4%
17---13.3%
19---11.8%
22---15.8%
25---13.6%
28---12.0%
32---14.3%
36---12.5%
42---16.7%
The Rohloff does do a better job of keeping the ratios more consistently spaced. And if Gaps over 13-14% bother you, then the 10-42 does have three jumps you won't like, but in practice, I think the one in the middle is the only one I would care about. 42 is a bailout gear, and at the top end I seldom care about cadence, I am just topping off my speed on a DH.