Mountain Bikers: Who uses a Rohloff hub?

[saab2000]

A road riding buddy of mine just got a killer MTB and it got me thinking that it would be fun. But I am worried about wear and tear and having 27 gears when only about 10 or 12 ratios are used regularly got me thinking.

I have been intrigued by the Rohloff thing for a long time and at one point considered a winter road bike with this thing. But they are not optimized for road riding in the gear ratios or shifter design.

Anyone use one? I checked at a mountain biking forum and the riders there who have them say they would never go back in spite of the couple of negatives.

Discuss.

[pale scotsman]

The 27 gears sounds like a lot, but it's just a triple. In my many years of mountain biking I've had drivetrain issues 3 times. Once when I sucked up a stick in the rear derailleur, one killer wipeout on the right side, and a mud induced chain suck from h e double hockey sticks.

Todays paddle shifters from Shimano and the trigger shifters from sram, not to mention lower cost, for the middle of the road stuff, far outweigh the rohloff cool factor for me.

Get you a good used MTB and see if it's what you think it is... then jump in to a new world of lung bursting pain.

[old_school]

A builder friend of mine has been riding Rohloff for a number of years now and swears by the Speedhub. From what I have seen, it is very reliable, requires little maintenance, and certainly has stood up to some abuse. I remember originally he was using an eccentric bb to deal with chain tension, but has since switched to Paragon's sliding dropout which seems to work very well for this application. The Rohloff isn't cheap, but from what I have seen, I am impressed.

[saab2000]

What I read on the MTBR forum is that the intitial cost is high, but that it pays for itself over about 2 years of use because you don't have to replace cassettes, rings and chains nearly as often. Shift quality is not chain dependent, so you can pretty much run the chain 'til it's really shot.

Supposedly, these things get better with wear too.

[Dustin]

I'm not sure if it counts as a mountain bike, but I have a Rohloff on my Blacksheep allrounder, and I do a lot of offroading with it, including trails. Before that, I had it on my Surly Cross Check. You can see the new build in the custom bikes forum:

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=29187

I have about 3000K on the hub so far, and I'm pretty darn impressed. The shifting is reliable, precise, and equally spaced. It requires very little maintenance. And since no one really knows the upward life span on these things, with some folks having logged well over 100,000Km, I think it will pay for itself over time. The initial sticker shock is a deterrent though, no doubt about it.

The lowest gears are a little less efficient than a regular (perfectly cleaned and tuned) derailleur system, but I geared mine rather low (38x16), so that I spend 95% of my time in gears 8-14, which are the most efficient ones. There is no limit on how high you gear the thing, so hammerheads with huge quads could create a gearing range that works quite well for the road if desired.

The Rohloff shifter is solid and well engineered and it works quite well with the hubbub bar extender, if you want to run drop bars. (of course, a more elegant solution for drop bars would be welcome and I'm sure Rohloff could do it if they felt the market was there).

The one complaint I have is that you would think that with as much as they cost, you could get a more precise freewheel mechanism similar to a king hub or white industries freewheel.

They are supposed to be working on a much lighter version of the hub, which will likely come with a rider weight limit, but it is also expected to be much more expensive. That’s getting expensive enough that I can’t imagine too big a market for it.

And yes, they do get smoother and quieter with age. I noticed an improvement after about 1500km. Kind of reminds me of those old Volvo engines that weren't even broken in until they had 100,000 miles on them. :D

One thing I should mention for people sensitive to Q: the Rohloff is designed around a 54mm chainline, which more or less corresponds to the third ring of an MTB triple. For those of you who like LOW Q-FACTOR, you may have to hunt a bit for a crank that satisfies both your Q-factor needs and the Rohloff's chainline requirements. (not a problem for me as I like wide Q).

[gdw]

Are you planning to actually ride off road? I ask because the major drawback with the system is that it is proprietary. You taco a rim and you're not riding that bike until your wheel is fixed because there won't be any Rohloff spares to barrow. The only rider I know of who tried one went back to a standard drivetrain in less than a season because of that.

[saab2000]

First, I am not really very close to getting anything at the moment. Lack of $$$ at the moment. Second, yes I do plan to ride the thing off road. But I tend to be fairly light on equipment and will do my own maintainance. If I were to do this, I would probably get a bike specifically designed around this system.

There is no perfect solution I am sure, but this one seems to offer a lot of benefits.

[Dustin]

Are you planning to actually ride off road? I ask because the major drawback with the system is that it is proprietary. You taco a rim and you're not riding that bike until your wheel is fixed because there won't be any Rohloff spares to barrow. The only rider I know of who tried one went back to a standard drivetrain in less than a season because of that.

Or just suck it up and run a singlespeed wheel until you can lace a new rim to your Rohloff hub. Most good Rohloff setups already provide for single-speed chain tensioning. :D

[musgravecycles]

saab,

We helped David Bohm prep a couple of frames for the 'magic show' last spring. He's a big proponent of the Rohloff. He's sold/installed dozens of them in the last several years and has nothing but good to say about them, this is what I got from him.

They do take approx 1000 miles to break in, which means an excessive amount of friction over the first 1K, apparently the gears aren't lapped so they take some time to lap themselves, but this process yields tighter tolerances than if they were done ahead of time at the factory. I believe that Dave said the gears are cut by a machine at the Mercedes Benz factory, anyway he's never seen one wear out and personally has several units with approaching 40k miles on them...

[christian]

You taco a rim and you're not riding that bike until your wheel is fixed because there won't be any Rohloff spares to barrow.

With no dish and widely spaced flanges, a well-built Rohloff wheel would be very hard to taco. Not saying it couldn't be done, but it would take both ambition and strength.

[I Want Sachs?]

Slight drift, but relevant question about the Paragon sliding drop-outs. It seems like many on this forum make a huge deal about the fit of the bike to the millimeters, because the small variation in length/weight balance seems to change the characteristics of the bikes.

So my question is with the sliding of the drop-out to tension the chain of a Rolhoff hub, wouldn't that change the handling of the bike tremendously? I would imagine the climbing and stability would be altered comparing to the designer/builder's intent.

[jpw]

Isn't it time for the evolution of the internal hub gear for.... the bottom bracket? It would solve almost all the issues raised in this thread and some that were not, like the heavy rear end.

Basically, just put a Rohloff type hub in an enlarged bb shell. End of story.

[William]

Just reviving this thread to see if any of the players (or others willing to chime in) are still running the Rohloff or Alfine set ups and how they have been performing and holding up?





William

[witcombusa]

Slight drift, but relevant question about the Paragon sliding drop-outs. It seems like many on this forum make a huge deal about the fit of the bike to the millimeters, because the small variation in length/weight balance seems to change the characteristics of the bikes.

So my question is with the sliding of the drop-out to tension the chain of a Rolhoff hub, wouldn't that change the handling of the bike tremendously? I would imagine the climbing and stability would be altered comparing to the designer/builder's intent.

You're kidding right? Are you familiar with traditional Campy horizontal road dropouts (both long and "short")? Lots of room for change there on what has been the standard for decades. (I like vertical dropouts myself)
Or track ends which are designed to allow for gearing changes and chain tension.

[jr59]

Well I rode a Rohloff on a 29er for about 500 miles.

I didn't like the way I sat on the bike, as I am a road bike kinda guy.

The system works, once you get the chainline set up correctly.

I'm in the process of setting the road bike up to use the Rohloff now.
I didn't care for the hubbub set up. I am going to try a thorn accessory bar set up. http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/thorn-accessory-bar-t-shaped-105-mm-extension-0-deg-prod11040/

If I don't like the way this looks/works, I will try the berthound shift system, as his is suppose to fit on the drop bars. http://www.gillesberthoud.fr/anglais/gazette/lire.php?identifiant=41&categorie=INFOMATION#ancre41

I also use the chain tensioner that came with the system. Works good!

[Kirk Pacenti]

I always wondered why the system wasn't more popular with DH racers. It seems it would offer some advantage in that application, and the weight penalty would be less of an issue.

I've heard some trying to incorporate them into a "gearbox" assembly near the BB. This makes even more sense on a DH bike as it would greatly reduce the unsprung weight as well as [potentially] lower and move the mass closer to center of the frame for a better CG.

But with a cost of almost $1500 and weight increase of about 700g over a similarly equipped XT/XTR drivetrain, I just couldn't see using one on any of my bikes. ymmv.

Cheers,
KP

[DogpawSlim]

I know a guy who had a Rohloff explode on the GDR. He had to send it to Germany to be repaired. It is a transmission, so it is reliable until it breaks, then you're walking.

I don't have any personal experience with them. If I had the money, I would love to try one.

[saab2000]

Thanks for the dead thread!


Here's what I want.

1. A road version, for winter/commuting.
2. Some kind of better shifter. Or at least one which could be better worked onto a road bar.

That's about it. I still don't have one because I still don't have a mountain bike.... Otherwise I might think about getting one.

[csm]

I thought about one of these for my fargo... kind of a do-everything set it and forget it bike.

[beungood]

Just reviving this thread to see if any of the players (or others willing to chime in) are still running the Rohloff or Alfine set ups and how they have been performing and holding up?
William

I've thought of this for my Stumpjumper FSR 29er..

[William]

I've thought of this for my Stumpjumper FSR 29er..

What are you thinking Big Guy?




William

[neiltron]

I toured and did some light fire trail riding on a cross bike with a Rohloff rear wheel. The gear range was wonderful, the shifter setup with drop bars was ugly but functional, and my biggest complaint?

Weight distribution was difficult to get used to, and it was still hard for me to... maneuver with grace (heh) off-road with a ~5 lb rear wheel.

If I were to build a bike with a Rohloff rear wheel again, it would be a touring bike.

[jamesutiopia]

I'm in the process of setting the road bike up to use the Rohloff now. I didn't care for the hubbub set up. I am going to try a thorn accessory bar set up. http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/thorn-accessory-bar-t-shaped-105-mm-extension-0-deg-prod11040/


Works well, though I hit my knee on shifter when out of saddle. Fortunately it's a grocery getter, so I am almost never out of the saddle.

[jr59]

Works well, though I hit my knee on shifter when out of saddle. Fortunately it's a grocery getter, so I am almost never out of the saddle.

I see what you did there!

The thron extends a good bit farther than that.

Bot what you did is a very good idea!

[jamesutiopia]

I see what you did there!

The thron extends a good bit farther than that.

Bot what you did is a very good idea!

This arrangement is only a few mm shy of the shorter Thorn bar-- I have both Thorn accessory bars (anyone need one? I doubt they will see service in another project).

The Thorn bars work great (and have less stack height than a stem) but why use that when there's already a nice old Thomson BMX stem in the parts bin with the same shiny anodizing as the other parts? :)