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Rohloff on Paris Brest Paris???

Old 09-13-21, 11:38 AM
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Every so often I ponder an IGH bike for my next PBP. Likely not a Rohloff but something much simpler (and cheaper) like a Sturmey-Archer 3- or 4-speed. No derailleurs would simplify drivetrain setup, not to mention making it a lot easier to pack. Would I hate the limited gearing by the end, or would it liberate me to have a simpler ride overall? Who knows.
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Old 09-13-21, 12:20 PM
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My opinion of SA hubs is colored by the time my father went OTB riding to work. Seeing your dad with his face all scraped up when you're a kid is something you never forget. Then again, there no doubt have been more PBP's finished on SA hubs than any other kind of IGH. And you can get a SA dynohub

I do think you would be needlessly hampering yourself. I really wanted a lower gear as I was climbing out of loudeac. I didn't remember it getting that steep. And an IGH doesn't get the same kind of respect(?) as riding fixed.
If you want to go simple, single speed is the way to go. I used to commute on a single speed. The bike had been fixed, but then I got tired of spinning down a mountain every day riding to 8 o'clock classes.
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Old 09-13-21, 12:27 PM
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Originally Posted by unterhausen
My opinion of SA hubs is colored by the time my father went OTB riding to work. Seeing your dad with his face all scraped up when you're a kid is something you never forget. Then again, there no doubt have been more PBP's finished on SA hubs than any other kind of IGH. And you can get a SA dynohub

I do think you would be needlessly hampering yourself. I really wanted a lower gear as I was climbing out of loudeac. I didn't remember it getting that steep. And an IGH doesn't get the same kind of respect(?) as riding fixed.
If you want to go simple, single speed is the way to go. I used to commute on a single speed. The bike had been fixed, but then I got tired of spinning down a mountain every day riding to 8 o'clock classes.
Yikes, did it slip into neutral at the wrong time?

I love riding fixed-gear around town, but definitely appreciated having multiple gears and the ability to coast in PBP 2015! No doubt the hills only feel steeper as time goes on...
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Old 09-13-21, 12:45 PM
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Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
Every so often I ponder an IGH bike for my next PBP. Likely not a Rohloff but something much simpler (and cheaper) like a Sturmey-Archer 3- or 4-speed. No derailleurs would simplify drivetrain setup, not to mention making it a lot easier to pack. Would I hate the limited gearing by the end, or would it liberate me to have a simpler ride overall? Who knows.
That is where I started. The old SA hubs spun as well as the best Campy hubs made. I rode them on road bikes quite a lot.

Shimano then came out with their disastrous 11 speed. It really made me wonder if building a road bike around that was a good idea or not. I really enjoyed the resulting bike, but the Shimano reared its ugly design/construction flaws. I felt guilty letting someone have the hub for free at a swap meet. But it did do one thing: it convinced me that a Rohloff was a good idea, since even by that time they had a solid reputation of reliability. I had just been too cheap to pay for it; buying crappy bits like the Shimano (who refused to honor the warranty) has been a valuable lesson.

Rohloff solved a fundamental problem with shifting- all the indexing is in the hub so the shifter is simple; dirt, mud, water just doesn't mess with it. Even though people have won the Tour Divide with a Rohloff, it gets docked a lot, mostly on efficiency. Jones, who built my frame, is really down on them on this account. But once you're out in the field and things go south with the weather and not like you planned at all, the efficiency numbers work in your favor, especially if you hang with it and break the hub in properly prior to your race. It really seems to me that most people give up on it long before that ever happens.

One thing I really appreciate about it is the ability to shift gears instantly. When you hit a downhill you can build up speed faster than people with derailleurs simply on that account. I've done it many times. You don't miss a gear on a climb; I've seen people have to turn their bike sideways or downhill when that's happened to them. I've passed them on that account. Further, you have a progressive shift (its a 1-by after all) so getting in the right gear is always easy, but especially on a road bike you also have a wider gear range. This may well mean that you have taller gears available so if you get in a downwind or slight downhill grade situation you can really move.
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Old 09-16-21, 11:00 AM
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Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
Every so often I ponder an IGH bike for my next PBP. Likely not a Rohloff but something much simpler (and cheaper) like a Sturmey-Archer 3- or 4-speed. No derailleurs would simplify drivetrain setup, not to mention making it a lot easier to pack. Would I hate the limited gearing by the end, or would it liberate me to have a simpler ride overall? Who knows.
I built a bike with an SA 3-speed rear/dynamo front a few years ago. I thought about taking it on a brevet, but it's soooo much slower than my other road bikes.

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Old 09-21-21, 08:21 AM
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I have had an old three speed in storage since the 1980s when I could no longer find the tire size it used for sale in any stores. And that was pre-internet so I did not have a very good understanding of tire sizes either.

But, I finally bought some 650b tires for it now that they are readily available. (The bike is not British, thus it does not use the 26 inch tire used on British three speeds.) I occasionally ride that bike to the grocery store, but I would never want to ride anywhere on it if there were a lot of hills, the total range from lowest to highest gear is quite limited.

Mine has drum brakes front and rear, and they drag a bit, but that is a problem unique to mine, most three speeds do not suffer that problem.

I think you could make a three speed bike that rolled well that uses a Sturmey Archer hub, but you can't really fix a limited range of gears. I listed below the range of gearing on some of my bikes:

Sturmey Archer 3 speed - 178%
Road bike (Campy compact double, Miche 12/29 cassette) - 355%
Rando bike (road triple 52/42/30 and eight speed 11/32 cassette) - 504%
Rohloff - 526%
Derailleur touring bike (half step plus granny triple 46/42/24 and eight speed 11/32 cassette) - 558%
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Old 09-21-21, 09:18 AM
  #82  
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Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN
I have had an old three speed in storage since the 1980s when I could no longer find the tire size it used for sale in any stores. And that was pre-internet so I did not have a very good understanding of tire sizes either.

But, I finally bought some 650b tires for it now that they are readily available. (The bike is not British, thus it does not use the 26 inch tire used on British three speeds.) I occasionally ride that bike to the grocery store, but I would never want to ride anywhere on it if there were a lot of hills, the total range from lowest to highest gear is quite limited.

Mine has drum brakes front and rear, and they drag a bit, but that is a problem unique to mine, most three speeds do not suffer that problem.

I think you could make a three speed bike that rolled well that uses a Sturmey Archer hub, but you can't really fix a limited range of gears. I listed below the range of gearing on some of my bikes:
I have a 3-speed with drum brakes and they don't drag at all! The PBP has been around a while; prior to WW2 if you wanted reliable wide range gears the Sturmey Archer 3-speed was the only game in town. They made them with alloy hub bodies for high end applications...
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Old 09-21-21, 09:24 AM
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I have a 200k this weekend. You guys have got me thinking I should give it a go the three-speed.
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