djb

I think it's fair to say that there are a lot of people who lack mechanical sympathy, so to speak, either from not having the knowledge of mechanical stuff, or simply from not giving a hoot and are hard on things in general, whether it's a bicycle or a car.

fietsbob

All else fails... RTFM

Ariane

I realise this thread is long dead but feel I must add my comment.

The Rohloff hub is a revelation compared to an open derailleur gear system. It is a precision engineered hub that works faultlessly every time. I have two bikes with Rohloff hubs, one with a Gates belt the other with a chain inside a Hebie Chainglider cover. You simply cannot apply the same high maintenance regime and fragility of components that you have with a derailleur gear system to a Rohloff hub or Pinion gearbox. Both are far far far more advanced in engineering terms. If you like well engineered things such as for example Porsches then the Rohloff is for you. You can then spend more time cycling than being stuck by the side of the road repairing or replacing derailleurs or having to clean and relube at the end of a wet day.

The Rohloff gearshift is precise and effortless every time. The hub has a great range in gears with not too big steps 13.4% between the gears. With a Gates belt drive on one of my Rohloff bikes it is genuinely a zero maintenance bike in the transmission department. You can ride it in all weathers and on any surfaces without it gumming up like a chain, put it in the garage at the end of day and next morning jump on it and it will still perform the same. The Rohloff with chain with the Hebie Chainglider cover is nearly as good as a belt as the cover keeps the chain pretty clean. This means you get a lot of miles from each chain and no oil or muck on your hands, clothing, the bike frame or wheel or anything else. Also with a Rohloff, Pinion and belt drive there is no changing chains after only 3-5k miles as with a chain on a derailleur bike. Derailleur gear bikes really are Flintstones technology.

The haters who rubbish Rohloff hubs and other gearboxes like Pinion are people who cannot afford them. The drag is so much of a non issue as is the noise in gear 7 compared to the clack clack clack combine harvester noise of a derailleur with little lube on it from a few drops of rain washing it off making changing gear a painful hit and miss experience. The Rohloff hub once run in, is pretty much silent and so efficient and reliable. It does not skip, jump or slip gears. With a Rohloff or Pinion gearbox you can change as many gears as you like when stopped or indeed on the move which is great for loaded riding say climbing a steep gradient stopping and getting started again or even when you have to abruptly come to a stop in an urban environment and need to get going again quickly with no fuss. You can't do this with a derailleur transmission. You just can't.


I have used derailleur bikes for 30 years and been through all the pain and suffering of the high maintenance that they regularly require especially in poor weather conditions. I am so glad that I can now afford to ride a bike with a much much better enclosed gear system. In the end constantly cleaning and lubing derailleur transmissions and replacing chains etc and other components when they wore out after a few thousand miles became a real chore which I came to hate. I couldn't wait to fit my first Rohloff hub once I'd bought it and get riding it. And then I bought another a few years later.

Over the long run a Rohloff or Pinion gearbox will save you money as you simply do not need to replace the components every few thousand miles as you would have to with a derailleur transmission.

One of my Rohloff hubs has covered about 30k trouble free miles and the other 10k again trouble free miles. I bought them both new. Derailleurs = Flintstones technology. All you need to do with a Rohloff or Pinion gearbox is to keep up with the oil changes and that really is it. More time to actually spend riding. I would never go back to riding a derailleur bike. Simply no.

GamblerGORD53

So in the 4 years since, my Rohloff14 is only up to 17,200 miles. My SA 5w and 3 speed are just too much fun. But still, neither are defaileurs. LOL. never again. In 2019 I took a 2 month car trip with the CCM 3 speed.
In summer 2018 I loaded up the same 120 lbs again and rode 3,900 miles thru, Calgary, across BC and some of the island, Seattle, Astoria, Portland, Spokane, Coeur d' Alene, Sandpoint, Cranbrook, Pincher Creek and home. Yawn ... NO problems. Actually in Seattle I finally got a DIY disc brake mount welded and installed. Can slam on the rear brake now. Cable TRP Spyre with resin pads.
Darn, I broke one rear spoke with my lock in Vancouver. Took 3 hours to fix, but I had a nice cement bench under a bridge. Then some flats and troubles with my pumps.

The end of last year, I tried lower gears, 21 to 109 GI. LOL. I guess that's the way it will be the next tour.

Tourist in MSN

Four year old thread. I looked at all my comments from four years ago and I still agree with everything I previously said, for some things I prefer my Rohloff bike and some other things I prefer derailleur bikes.

Reading through this thead again, I am not sure why people are complaining about slow downhills, it is not a problem for me. There is a little bit of drag when you are coasting, I believe it is one of the seals has a bit of additional friction when you are not pedaling, but that does not bother me.

In the past four years, did one more tour on my Rohloff bike, five weeks long, it functioned great. Photo below, my bike was on the ferry vehicle deck for the trip to PEI from Nova Scotia. I had some Carradry panniers, decided to try them instead of my typical Ortliebs on that trip.





I made one change to my Rohloff bike in the past four years, I mounted the twist grip shifter to the end of the handlebar on the right side with the Hubbub adapter. Some of my bikes have bar end shifters so I am used to reaching down to the bar end position to shift anyway. Very happy with that position, I also used V brake noodles to re-route the cables forward so my knees do not hit the cables, see photo.




And being a non-partisan Rohloff owner, also still riding derailleur bikes too. Last year I added ball bearing jockey wheels to two of my derailleur bikes. And during the past four years, bought one more bike, a derailleur road bike with a Campy 10 speed/compact crank drivetrain.

ADDENDUM:
And as noted below, I added the flange reinforcing rings, described in more detail two posts down.

headwind15

The flanges break. There is a couple on a tandem that posted in their journal on the Crazy Guy On A Bike website that just broke (another) hub flange. (while near Albuquerque) They wrote that they have broken quite a few.

Tourist in MSN

Flange failures are not common, but they are common enough that now Rohloff provides support rings with all new hubs. The rings do not prevent a crack from forming at a spoke hole, but the support rings are intended to support your flange well enough that the wheel will continue to function, allowing a trip to continue if you crack a flange at a spoke hole.
https://www.rohloff.de/en/company/ne...-support-rings

Thus, if you buy a new bike with a new Rohloff hub, the rings should have been built into the wheel without you even hearing about it.

I do not know why some people seem to have multiple flange failures, but a tandem does put a heavy load on a hub. And now that some people are putting Rohloffs on e-bikes, that is an additional stress that the hub was not designed for.

Although they do not recommend adding the rings to a wheel that will continue to be used as is, since I sometimes travel distances far from help, I bought the rings and added them to my hub. I originally built my Rohloff wheel, thus it was an easy task for me to add the rings.

Oops, adding the rings was one more change I made to my Rohloff bike in the past four years, I forgot to mention that.

randallr

4 years on - still enjoying the Rohloff/Gunnar experience. The only downside I have seen is, as others have mentioned, that you have to let up a wee bit on pedal pressure when shifting. If I were trying to race with my Rohloff that would be an issue - I don't enter crits any more. If you're trying to jump after a breakaway, get Ergopower or Di2 tied to a derailleur.

John N

I too have multiple bikes with a variety of drives including traditionally derailleur, Rohloff with chain, and Rohloff with belt. Can't justify a Pinon yet.

If I only did paved touring (not club riding) then I would stick with the traditional derailleur system. However, the more you get off pavement, the more a Rohloff shines. I can keep riding the Rohloff when derailleurs would have been stopped by mud. With the belt drive, I change the oil (simple to do) every 3k miles, about twice per year. Yes, changing the shifter cable is a pain (about 12k miles). I have not found an issue with downhill drag but then since it is downhill, I don't care. Yes, the noise in the sub-8 gears can be annoying at times (I call it blender mode), but the noise really does decrease as it wears. I like how I can stop if need be on a steep up hill and shift if need be. For me, the cost, is secondary. I hate to do maintenance and probably ride 40%-50% of time off pavement.

But again, if I ONLY did paved touring, I would only use the traditional system, with barend shifters.

Tailwinds, John

Ariane

Which is what you have to do with a derailleur gear system or in fact any manual gear system. Some people lack any mechanical understanding or sympathy. Maybe you can fit an F1 or motorcycle quick shifter and blipper to your bicycle? LoL.

Rick

I have had my Rohloff for over seven years. It does what it is designed to do. I hear about the hub shell breaking on some of them at the spoke holes and think some of that is bad wheel building jobs. I bought a custom built bicycle and I asked for the cliff hanger rim and they built the wheels with a weaker rim. On close inspection of the wheels the spoke bend at the flange had a gap in it instead of being against the flange. The line from rim to hub was not straight either. I rebuilt the wheels with Velocity Psycho rims and Sapim spokes and their Polyax nipples. The fit is perfect with this combo. Ryde makes rims designed for large diameter hubs. I noticed people like CyclingAbout using them.

Trevtassie

I got very close to converting my Troll to a Pinion and flogging off the Rohloff, then the pandemic hit. Had everything lined up, framebuilder was ready to go, could get the box and mount as well. I've got used to the Rohloff, still don't love it, and got an ATS speed drive crank so I could have the gear range I wanted and that adds up to more weight than a pinion.

ricrunner

This is a question I want answered to having a Rohloff hub, How much trouble is it to taking off the wheel, when you have a flat?, simple things like this is what I would like answered

Rick

I have a Co-Motion with quick release style dropouts. and they built the frame specifically for the Rohloff hub and the gates belt drive. I am used to it and it is a little more work. Are you thinking about a bicycle already setup with a Rohloff hub or are you going to add a Rohloff to an existing bicycle. I have had one flat in over seven years and am on my 5th set of tires. How hard it is going to be to put the wheel on and off has to do with how your frame is setup. There are some YouTube videos showing some different frame styles and removing the wheel. If you are running a chain or a belt. Does the frame have an eccentric or sliding rear dropouts. Rohloff has a chain tensioner that replaces were a derailleur mounts or I have seen someone use a regular derailleur. Rohloff uses several different axle plates depending on what you need. The axle plates determine how the torque arm is accomplished. They make hub models for quick release or 10mm bolt on,135mm dropouts and several for thru axle also. Post a picture of the bike you are going to purchase or convert. It takes a little getting use to but I believe the advantages out way the complainers I hear.

Tourist in MSN

No trouble at all.

There are two gear cables to the hub. One cable pulls to upshift, the other cable pulls to downshift. The indexing is in the hub, not the shifter like almost all other bikes.

There are two Rohloff gearing systems, one uses an internal cable and there are two external cable quick disconnects, the other uses an EX Box that has a thumbscrew that you loosen to remove teh EX box from the hub.

I have the EX Box version, I can't describe any details on the other version. The dirty thing that hangs down below the hub that has the round thumbscrew that has a coin slot in it is the EX Box in the photo.




To remove the wheel with the EX Box:

• You put the shifter into a gear that you will remember, some people use gear 1, some gear 14. Or, I often forget this step, in which case I have to be more careful to avoid moving the shifter.
• You may want to put on some disposable gloves if you have them - optional.
• The thumbscrew on the EX Box, unscrew it, the EX Box remains attached to the cables and comes off of the hub. Avoid touching the shifter.
• If you have a torque arm to the frame, disconnect that.
• If rim brake wheel, you may need to open the brake up to clear the tire (same as on derailleur bikes).
• Open quick release (assuming you have that version hub).
• Remove wheel.

To replace:

• Put wheel in frame dropouts with chain on sprocket. There is a lot of torque on the hub in the frame when you ride the bike, there will be something to hold the hub from spinning, when you put the hub in the frame you may have had to line up part of the hub correctly in the process. In my case, I have an unusually long dropout and there is a knob on the hub that stays in the dropout slot below the axle to prevent the hub from spinning in the frame while riding.
• Close quick release.
• If you have a torque arm to frame connection, attach that.
• Refit whatever you did to the rim brake, if fitted.
• If you touched the shifter, put the shifter back to the gear you initially had (some people use gear 1 or 14).
• Reattach EX Box.

The reason that you did not want to touch the shifter is that if you accidently turned the shifter while the EX box was detached, your shifter might not shift to all gears. Example, if you can only shift from gears 3 to gear 14 on the shifter, you know that gear 3 on your shifter is the lowest gear which is gear 1. Put the shifter in the lowest gear, detach the EX box, turn shifter to gear 1, re-attach EX box, everything should be good.

I do not have a chain tensioner that is spring loaded hanging down from my drive side dropout, so I can't comment on how that may affect wheel removal or not, I assume it is just like a derailleur bike.

It takes me maybe 30 seconds more to remove my wheel than it would on a derailleur bike. Another 40 seconds to install, 10 seconds to line up the knob in the dropout and 30 seconds to attach the EX box. It looks complicated, but it is really quiet simple.




The cable guides in the bike frame dictate which version hub you need, my frame was designed for the EX box cables.

The gear cables are normally slack, not tight like a derailleur bike. I have maybe a half gear of play in my shifter in each direction. Avoid the temptation to have your gear cables tighter or you might have some missed shifts if your hub only goes half way into the next gear when you shift.

If you get a bike with a Rohloff, if the bike shop builds up your rear wheel, make sure that the wheel builder reads the Rohloff instructions. A 26 inch, 650b or 700c wheel is 2 cross, not three. I was glad I read the instructions before I ordered my spokes.

***

Oil change, once a year or if you are a high distance rider, more often. That is more complicated, here is a youtube video.

***

An important note here if you use disc brakes - Rohloff hubs use a 4 bolt disc, not 6. You need to buy the Rohloff version disc for your brake. But, my Rohloff bike is rim brake so I am ignorant of any other special considerations for disc brake users.

John N

Easy. It is just like normal except you have a thumb screw on the external shifting box. Adds maybe 30 seconds. Shifter cables on the other hand are a bit of a pain to change. More nerve wrecking as it is fairly detailed and if you are off by just 5mm, it can effect the shifting some. Be sure to run entirely enclosed cables. A major flat in my older Co-Motion Americano is that it has partially enclosed cables and they definitely wear out much quicker than my Thorn MkII which is fully enclosed. If you buy a high-end custom bike, be sure to have the shifter cables fully enclosed.

Tourist in MSN

One more thing. If you fly with your bike with a Rohloff, there are air pressure changes in the aircraft hold and some oil might get forced out of the hub.

My Rohloff bike has S&S couplers, I pack my bike in a S&S Backpack case. I suspect that the airline baggage handlers put my case on the side. On this trip, I did an oil change at home just before my trip, so my hub was topped up with fresh oil.




And I think that the hub being loaded into the plane with non-driveside down was I had so much oil leakage after my first international trip with my Rohloff.




My next trip, I drained and rinsed my hub at home before the flight, but left the hub empty for the flight. Added oil at my destination. I had a lot less oil loss on that trip.

If your bike is in a large bike box, the bike probably flies upright, I would expect less oil leakage.

You do not need to check for oil loss in a hub like you do in a car engine, some oil drips out but enough oil is left in the hub to be adequate until your next oil change.

The good news is that I do not have a derailleur hanger to worry about getting bent in transit.

skookum

That is a good tip, thanks.

Ariane

The few times I've flown with my bike, I've used a bike box and there has been zero oil loss from the Rohloff hub. Personally I wouldn't bother with SnS couplers as dismantling the frame and packing the smaller sections into a regular sized case encourages baggage handlers to treat it like any other piece of luggage and possibly chuck your bike around meaning it gets damaged or no regard to how it is stored so it could have 30 other bags on top of it bending the frame sections. At least with a large bike box with the picture of a bike on the side and a huge Giant logo or other manufacturer this will mean it is treated with more care. One hopes .............

Tourist in MSN

There are advantages and disadvantages. My last tour, taxi (Prius) from home to bus stop. Bus to another state to airport. Lug my stuff across airport to shuttle pickup. Take motel shuttle to motel. Next morning take the 6am shuttle back to airport. Fly to another country, fortunately did not have to retrieve bike from customs and recheck at layover. Retrieve luggage at destination city airport, take shuttle to downtown in destination city. Fortunately, the shuttle driver dropped me off at the hostel instead of taking me to the train station which would have meant hauling my luggage two blocks to the hostel.

Hostel was willing to store my collapsed S&S backpack for me for the five weeks in their luggage room, but would not have stored a bike box for me.

My trip would not have happened if I had to lug a full size bike box, took 30 hours to get from my condo to the hostel in destination city. It would have just been tooooo hard to get there and back home again if I had to deal with a full size bike box.

It depends on where you are going and where you leave from, for some trips a full size bike box would make a lot of sense.

Photo below is me walking out of an airport on a different trip, I was wearing my S&S Backpack case on my back in the photo.

BoltBreaker

I can't speak to years of riding with a Rohloff, I've barely put 10 miles on mine as I finish building up a new frame, just been out getting various bits sorted and positioned. As to why I had a frame built around an IGH... I was attracted to the reported reliability and strength of the unit. To having a rear wheel with zero spoke dish. To the clean looks of a singlespeed on the drive side. To the perfectly adequate 525% gear ratio span, wider than my current touring derailleur bike's 450%). And, frankly, I was interested in trying out an IGH with indexed shifting. I also got a fair price on a used but never ridden unit. We'll see how it all goes down the road, I'm looking forward to getting in some long rides.

boomhauer

Love mine after 5 yrs of urban riding. (if you live in the east bay I will say a prayer for your bike)
Seriously, there is maintenance but it is minimal.
I just now am now getting a new cog for the wheel
I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm just freaked out about getting it stolen.

elcruxio

I'll probably get one at some point. Derailleurs are fun for more sporty stuff, but having a chain eaten by a front mech when hauling a kid is... well, I don't want that to happen again.

The only issue I have is drop bar compatability. There are solutions I believe, but I just need to find the right one.

Tourist in MSN

If it was new from the factory, there would not be any oil in it. In that case, add oil. But perhaps oil was added before you got it.

I do not know anyone else with a Rohloff, I pretty much had to learn everything from the internet, which was quite helpful. A neighbor is a bike mechanic, he has told me that the only Rohloff he has ever seen was mine, and he works at a major bike shop. So, they are rare in USA and you have to seek out good advice. My first international trip with it, I saw eight other bikes with Rohloffs, they are more common for touring outside of USA.

This was written by a highly opinionated writer, but it does have some useful information.
https://www.sjscycles.com/thornpdf/Th...thARohloff.pdf

Depending on the age of yours, it might have the threaded sprocket, or might have a splined sprocket on a threaded carrier. If the threaded sprocket, that means you need a special Rohloff tool to remove the sprocket. I am not sure exactly when they changed to splined but it was well after I bought mine eight years ago.

Tourist in MSN

I think most new drop bar bikes with a Rohloff sold in USA use an after market shifter on the handlebar near the stem. Co-Motion in USA makes such a shifter, and there is a French company that makes one too, but I do not recall the name. Since you are in Europe, I have no clue what the most prevalent option is. A photo of the Co-Motion shifter is at this link:
https://www.bikeforums.net/22159338-post50.html

I tried several locations for my shifter, and it was while slowly riding up a steep hill on a bad gravel road with more rocks than gravel when I wanted to downshift, but I did not want to take my hands off the bars to reach to my shifter, that I decided when I got home I would buy the Hubbub adapter to mount the shifter on my bar end. That way I would have both hands in positions on the handlebars far from the steering axis for better steering leverage while shifting on a steep uphill.

I have bar end shifters on several other bikes, so that position for a shifter is something that I am used to. I wrote up a lengthy post on the rando board recently, there are a couple photos that that show my handlebar shifter position with the Hubbub adapter.
https://www.bikeforums.net/22155833-post13.html