Tourist in MSN

Since Alan S owns both a derailleur Troll and a Rohloff Troll, I am looking forward to his comments to see if his experience is different than mine.

Not owning a Troll, my comments are generic. And my only IGH experience is with a Rohloff or with a three speed, I have never owned a 7 or 8 or 11 speed IGH.

A couple years ago someone on this forum asked me for comments on the Rohloff since I toured on a Rohloff and also toured on derailleur bikes. I dug out those private messages and pasted below, except that I edited out a few off topic comments that were unrelated:

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I like stuff that is reliable and works. Before I bought my Rohloff, what I had read suggested that Rohloffs met that criteria. There were a very small number of reports of flange cracks at the spoke holes or of needing to send it back to factory for changing a shim, but those failures were generally in teh first few hundred miles. Thus, once worn in, it should be pretty reliable.

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You might have to buy your own skewers. For riding around town I use quick release, but on a bike tour I use skewers that use an allen wrench (5 mm) to remove a wheel. I assume most thieves are opportunists and do not walk around with a 5 mm allen wrench in their pocket. I do not want a skewer that uses a special key like a pitlock, I would likely lose the key.

I use rim brakes, the Rohloff I think uses a non-standard disc mount but I will let you research that if you want a disc.

I have no idea if you want flat bars or drop bars. The hub was initially designed for mountain biking, so the shifter is a flat bar type shifter. I use drop bars. After trying several options, my preferred option is the Hubbub adapter for the end of the handlebar.

My expedition bike is what my Rohloff is on. It is a heavy bike (40 pounds) with extremely robust frame. I have also taken the solid front fork off and used a 100mm suspension fork on it for mountain biking. One thing I really like about the Rohloff is how fast I can downshift in rough terrain. But there are people that will say the opposite. I was biking before index shifting was invented, I have always let up on pedal pressure before shifting and that is a must for Rohloffs. Younger kids that are using to pedaling hard while shifting will complain about Rohloffs not shifting properly.

I like the range of gearing and that each gear upshift is roughly 13 percent higher gear. Thus, the gears are all well spaced from top to bottom. But, 13 percent is a pretty big jump compared to some derailleur bikes. This past February I did a bike tour for two weeks in Florida Everglads and Florida Keys. Flat as a pancake, except they have bridges that are their version of our hills. I was very happy I brought a derailleur bike there because I have a lot more gear choices in that range where I spend most of my time when I am on flat ground, there I could slightly change gear for changes in windage, etc. The Rohloff would have been bigger gear changes.

I have three touring bikes, the Rohloff bike (Thorn Nomad Mk II with S&S couplers, 2013), and two derailleur bikes. The derailleur bikes are both 8 speed with triples, one is 26 inch wheel (Thorn Sherpa, 2010) and the other is 700c with room for 37 mm tires (Lynskey Backroad, 2017). I had a 2004 LHT, that is gone.

I like all three. For rougher terrain I would take the Rohloff and for an all pavement trip I would take a derailleur bike. (Exception, anything on a airplane and I am taking the S&S bike, meaning the Rohloff bike.)

Rohloff gearing, I wanted the lowest gear I could get for hill climbing with a load of camping gear. I figured I could pedal at 3.5 miles per hour with a cadence of 72 as my slowest practical speed to maintain vertical and horizontal stability, so I calculated out what chainring I would need for that gearing. I use that for touring and mountain biking. If the hill is too steep for me to maintain that speed and cadence, I walk. I am 63 years old (now 65), I do not run a heart rate in unsafe zones for the steeper hills, instead I wimp out and walk. But for around town riding when I have less weight on the bike I have higher gearing so I do not spin out on the downhills. If you get a Rohloff, you will need to think about your chainring size that you want.

I have chain, not belt, it is easy for me to change chainrings and add or subtract a few links.

One more thing I like about the Rohloff. When I was mountain biking with it, when I needed to downshift I twisted the shifter one way, the other way to upshift. I did not have to think about what I was doing. If I was on a derailleur bike with a triple or double, I would have had to think about which shifter to shift each time I shifted, and if I screw up that is a missed shift that might mean I come to a halt.

Rohloff uses two shifting cables. Normally both cables are slack, but you pull on one cable to upshift and the other cable to down shift. The indexing is in the hub. This means you need a lot of play in the shifter so expect a shifter to feel sloppy, that is the way it is supposed to be.

It looks complicated to remove a rear wheel. It is a bit harder than a derailleur wheel, but not that hard. You just have to disconnect the shift cables.

My Thorn uses a bottom bracket eccentric for chain tension, I have no clue what your bike would use.

Would I buy another? One is enough. But I would rather have one instead of zero. So if I lost my Rohloff bike I would probably replace it.

I am an engineer by training, now retired. I worked in a bike shop before college. I do all my own work on bikes, built up my wheels, etc. I do not know if my engineering background means I am more prone to liking or disliking Rohloffs, but I thought I should mention it.

Budget is not an issue for me, I can own any kind of bike I want, so cost is not a big factor in my decisions.

Good luck.

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You asked about multiple chainrings, I have never seen a Rohloff bike with more than one chain ring installed. But, for touring I use a 36T chainring, around home I use a 44T chainring. When I use the smaller chainring to get lower gears for taking a heavy load up a steep hill, that means I lose my higher gears and spin out on the downhills. But for riding around home I never carry more than a load of groceries up shallower hills, thus do not need the low gearing around home. For touring if I have a choice of giving up the high gears or the low, I will keep the low gears and lose the higher ones.

I also mentioned above that I have used my Rohloff expedition bike as a mountain bike. My frame is designed so that I can either use the solid fork that came with it or I can use a 100mm suspension fork. I do not own a mountain bike and do not do enough mountain biking to make it worth owning one.

My comments above about pulling out the wheel are for my Nomad, not a Troll, so that is not applicable. My Nomad does not have the horizontal dropouts like the Troll.

I bought my Rohloff from Germany instead of from USA. I think I saved something like $500 USD in the process. But I build up my own wheels, so I often buy a hub from one vendor and spokes from another.