Author Topic: To Rohloff or not ?  (Read 23799 times)

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #25 on: 02 February, 2010, 02:45:52 pm »
And linked off one of those pages is a Norwegian company that makes a stem with a Rohloff shifter on it:-

Scroll down to the bottom of this page: Norwid - Komponenten

No idea on prices.

"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #26 on: 02 February, 2010, 02:54:04 pm »
If this guy is intending to use a Rohloff-equipped Thorn for his daft escapade, he must be pretty confident in its ability.

The article didn't say so specifically but the bike in the picture is equipped with a Thorn front rack and it's definitely not a derailleur at the back.

Korea to Cape Town says it is.

Quote
The German-made Rohloff Speedhub was designed for the kind of off-road conditions that destroy a derailleur-bike's drivetrain.

Well, we've successfully destroyed 3 on the tandem with our UK escapades! We also broke one of Thorn's Rigida Andra "Carbide" rims. Robin Thorn told me we were the only people ever to achieve this.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

LEE

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #27 on: 02 February, 2010, 06:09:19 pm »
Why do people say that a Rohloff is less efficient than Derailleur? It's not quite that simple.

The plots I have seen (Human Power Institute) indicate that Rohloff is more efficient in it's direct drive (11th) than a derailleur, not much different in gears 1-8 but less efficient in it's "granny gears".

Gears 8-14 run at 96% - 99% efficiency.
Gears 1-7 run at 95% - 96% efficiency.
Each gear had it's own unique spike/trough

Derailleur ran at around 97% average.
The curve was pretty flat across the whole range.

What it failed to take into account was the cacked-up state of my rear derailleur at the moment.  I suspect that a typical winter derailleur would lose some efficiency.

For a touring or commuting bike I wouldn't let it worry you.

Noise?  It's not noisy.  It's silent in 8-14 and whirrs in 1-7.  Nobody can convince me that derailleurs are quiet and as for Campag and Hope freewheel hubs, let's just say that you don't need a bell if you ride on Hope hubs.  Noise is not an issue.  7th gear is very low, you'll be groaning and wheezing too much to notice.

Removing the wheel.  It's a non-issue.  unclipping the cable connectors takes 10 seconds but there's no derailleur in the way so that cancels it out.

My Thorn Raven is slower due to the nature of the frame and tyres than the hub I feel.  It's a heavy frame and I use 1.5" tyres.  It's a very long frame with huge clearances.  It's never going to be sprightly but I've done my SR (200km, 300km, 400km & 600km) on it.

In 3 years and 10,000 miles it hasn't missed a shift.  By that I mean that 100% of the time, I turn the shifter, there is a click and it's perfectly in gear.  No slippage, no crunching, no chain suck, it's just in gear.

Myth, you can't change gear when pedalling.  Yes you can, you back off a bit (just like I do with derailleur).

Position of the shifter with drops.  It's worse than using STI levers.  It's better than downtube levers. (I have all 3 so I know).
I use an accessory bar but you need space under the bars (not usually a problem with Thorn's short headsets and huge stack of spacers)

You can just make out the shifter (amongst a mess of lights on same accessory bar). It;s on the right and it's only about 10cm from where my hand sits on the bar tops. Much closer than downtube shifters (which I had for 20 years) and about the same as bar-end shifters.



Yes, it's dirty and the chain is slack but it really doesn't matter with a hub gear. They tend to shrug off the worst of winter.

Sometimes (rarely) it looks like this


But mostly it gets used when it's just too fugly out there to use my other bikes and hence gets cacked-up to the gunnels in slurry.


LEE

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #28 on: 02 February, 2010, 06:13:50 pm »
PS.  Any Rohloff owners who curse the cable-connectors when they have cold and oily hands?

Stick a hex bolt (from Stagonset) in the side instead of a grub-screw.  Makes life much easier


Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #29 on: 02 February, 2010, 07:45:23 pm »
Many thanks for the replies folks- lots to think about there.
On balance I'm still tempted to go ahead.
I wasn't too worried about it going "pop" in the middle of nowhere because the likelihood is very low (the likelihood of me being in the middle of nowhere with a bike  ;) ).
You've also managed to re-assure me about the puncture changing and I can see the various options for the changers, some of which have promise (I'd seen most of them, the Norwid stem was a new one though).
So, it really comes down to the efficiency. Depending on which info one reads the Rohloff, at its peak, is either only as good as a poorly adjusted derailleur or it is mid-way between a perfect and a poorly adjusted derailleur.

Tom B- that's an extremely generous offer to try your bike. I'd like to take you up on that if I may.
Do you want to PM me to sort something out ?

Thanks again everyone  :thumbsup:


Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #30 on: 02 February, 2010, 08:12:56 pm »
Mainly for the benefit of Roger, although I've always been interested in epicyclic gearboxes, some pictures of a real 'box:-





Only 5 gears (plus reverse) but there was a splitter version available.

Sorry about the crappy photos, my scanner isn't compatible with Vista  ::-)




Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #31 on: 02 February, 2010, 08:21:39 pm »
I should also add (no, I'm not trying to get my post count up) that the insurance company rang today and gave me the go-ahead to get a new bike. They'll pay up to the insured value of the stolen bike  :thumbsup:

I can heartily recommend my house/contents insurers- they've always been fantastic with me, even if they might not be the cheapest ever.
Usual disclaimers- no connections beyond being a satisfied customer.


PH

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #32 on: 02 February, 2010, 08:53:22 pm »
I've had my Thorn Raven for over 5 years and still really like the hub, though I have an itch to try it in another frame.
You'll love it or hate it, if the latter I think your big loss will be on the purpose built Enigma frame rather than the Rohloff which hold thier value pretty well.  You could try the hub in something a lot cheaper, with a few compromises they fit OK in a Surley Cross Check.  

Or find a secound hand bike, Frenchie was trying to sell his a while ago.  Hubs are likely to last forever, do no harm to have someone else run it in for you.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #33 on: 02 February, 2010, 09:23:24 pm »
Barring really bad choices of material, hub gears never die, they just get rattlier and rattlier.  I have a 1940-something Sturmey-Archer AM mechanism in the garage which sounded like a bag of nails all the way to Dunwich last summer, but it worked perfectly.  There is a NOS 1949 mechanism in there now, which I'm running in.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

LEE

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #34 on: 02 February, 2010, 10:54:37 pm »
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/7USVMrg5phY&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/7USVMrg5phY&rel=1</a>

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #35 on: 03 February, 2010, 07:24:47 am »

Personally, only the drop bar thing is a problem for me.  There isn't really an elegant way of combining a drop bar and Rohloff twist shifter.

I would like to differ:-
Members' bikes

Maybe we have a different meaning of elegant in this context.  Mine includes exquisitely functional in my normal drop bar riding position.  I spend too much time on the hoods and drops to consider your (and Mittelmeyer's) arrangement, despite the clean looks.  If you spend most of your time on the tops, you have a great solution but then why have drop bars?
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

robbo6

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #36 on: 03 February, 2010, 09:36:02 am »
On the flat or down hill:- on the flats, hoods or drops depending on mood, tiredness, road conditions or wanting to change position a bit, probably no gear changing required.
Gentle climbing:- on the tops, most likely to need to change gear.
All out, lung busting climbing:- on the tops or hoods depending on tiredness, probably won't have a lower gear to change into anyway.
It all depends on your style of riding, if you're the HDAU sort who has to change gears at every undulation to keep the right cadence hub gears probably aren't for you.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #37 on: 03 February, 2010, 10:14:16 am »
I just want the shifter in the bar-end lever position.  Shouldn't be difficult.
Getting there...

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #38 on: 03 February, 2010, 06:09:29 pm »
I just want the shifter in the bar-end lever position.  Shouldn't be difficult.

Shove a length of MTB handlebar into the end of the drop bars and mont shifter on that?


LEE

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #39 on: 03 February, 2010, 08:18:32 pm »
FYI

A closer look at my accessory bar solution. (Solidlights now gone to a new YACF home).  That's a minoura Spacebar hanging off my SJSC accessory bar btw.



It's actually a pretty convenient place for a shifter on a touring bike

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #40 on: 03 February, 2010, 09:33:06 pm »
I just want the shifter in the bar-end lever position.  Shouldn't be difficult.

Shove a length of MTB handlebar into the end of the drop bars and mont shifter on that?


That's what I did to fit drop bars on an old MTB, using grip-shifters. Worked a treat. I still have the bars in the garage if anybody wants them...
Life is too important to be taken seriously.

robbo6

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #41 on: 04 February, 2010, 01:28:39 am »
I just want the shifter in the bar-end lever position.  Shouldn't be difficult.

It isn't. When you look inside the end of a Roly shifter there's a split ring, remove this and the end of the shifter body fits over the bars (I had old type 65 Cinelli). The grub screws hold the shifter in position. Ideally fit a plug so the screws bite the Al. instead of distorting it.

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
    • Audaxing
Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #42 on: 04 February, 2010, 01:53:33 pm »
It's actually a pretty convenient place for a shifter on a touring bike

Are SJS on a mission to make bikes that look like industrial machinery?

Even my MTB shifters on a drop bar look better than that!

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #43 on: 08 February, 2010, 03:33:42 pm »
So the decision has been made. Rohloff it is.
I had a ride around on a Rohloff equipped bike last Friday night and I liked it.
There was a bit more whirring in some of the lower gears but I'm not sure that there was more power-loss than in the higher gears. Also, I couldn't detect which was the direct gear, even when I looked at the shifter.
I have an appointment with Paul Hewitt on Wednesday  :thumbsup:

Many thanks to TomB for letting me have a go on his bike  :thumbsup:


rdaviesb

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #44 on: 08 February, 2010, 10:45:16 pm »
Why not get
Hewitt to build you a frame?

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #45 on: 09 February, 2010, 06:30:54 am »
Does he actually build frames?
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

rdaviesb

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #46 on: 09 February, 2010, 07:10:35 am »
Yes. Rather fine steel audax frames, but I am sure he can be persuaded to build whatever you want. There's a review somewhere on BikeRadar.

vorsprung

  • Opposites Attract
    • Audaxing
Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #47 on: 09 February, 2010, 10:03:21 am »
Does he actually build frames?

MSeries has a marvellous Hewitt.  When I first saw it and I asked MSeries what type it was he replied "It was made by Ewart".  i wondered who Ewart was.  Maybe a friend of his?

Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #48 on: 09 February, 2010, 11:42:06 am »
I liked my previous Enigma so much that it seems sensible to get a new one.
The Rohloff will be the main difference.


Re: To Rohloff or not ?
« Reply #49 on: 09 February, 2010, 11:46:56 am »
Does he actually build frames?
I don't think mine Ewart was built by Paul Hewitt, mines an off the shelf Chiltern. I don't think Hewitt himself builds the custom ones either. He gets a man to do it for him. Just like my Merckx wasn't built by Eddy Merckx but by one of his men.