Rohloff Hubs and Where to get Wheels made for you.

Before this guy

Or this guy

Or these guys!

Bring around the end of the world as we know it. I am planning to cycle around the world next year (I think I should have enough saved up).

I have a Surly Karate Monkey that is tough enough I reckon to do the whole trip. But it lacks gearing and I don't think I could handle doing it SS.

What happens when the internals of the rolhoff hub fail? If it works like a single speed drive chain, that would be okay, but if it fails with no drive then it would likely be impossible to continue to get a repair without help.

They don't fail.

Ask @Velocio...

I know it is the only serious option when it comes to hub gears, but they must fail at the sort of distance I want to cycle.

What @b&d said, they don't fail.

I've put near 8000 km on mine with not a single issue. Granted you want to go further by the sounds of it, but they are the no1 long distance touring choice for a reason.

I've s mate who is woefully bad st bike maintenance and has cycled round the world on his Rohlhoff. Think he said he'd had an oil change done somewhere along the way but doubt it saw much more attention than that.

I've ridden that hub, it's smooth as a buttered Galaxy bar.

I've done about 10k miles on mine since getting it. I've serviced the hydraulic brakes so many times it's silly, but the Rohloff hub... I haven't even done an oil change. It still runs perfectly smooth, flawlessly in all weather and temperatures.

The thing just works.

Why I love it though:

1. Even steps between gears means it's so intuitive how much energy you need each gear up
   
2. The incredible gear range
   
3. Tuning the gear ratio for gear 11 means the thing doesn't even act as a gear when you're cruising (it's perfectly silent then too, obviously)
   

I should also add the one reason I dislike it:

1. The gear shifter isn't compatible with drop bars
   
   

There were no elegant fixes to that when I bought mine, but perhaps there now are. I'd love to go to drop bars, the lack of positions on long rides and various terrains is frustrating.

Oh I won't be using drops on a Karate Monkey. Just need it to keep on working.

I'd rather it fails and I left with drive (whatever gearing that is in) than no drive.

Berthoud do a nice shifter for drops now. Anyway, get a Pinion P1.18 gearbox (and the frame that goes with it).

Link please?

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gilles-berthoud-gilles-berthoud-twister-for-rohloff-hubs-silver-prod27131/[http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gilles-berthoud-gilles-berthoud-twister-for-rohloff-hubs-silver-prod27131/](http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gilles-berthoud-gilles-berthoud-twister-for-rohloff-hubs-silver-prod27131/)

Thanks.

I think there's a couple of options now for drops
there's this
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gebla-rohbox-shiftbox-black-prod38959/
which allows you tweak a few brake/shifters, SRAM and Shimano etc to shift the R hubs. I think you need to alter a pair, one to shift and one for the down.
Then there's this
http://www.en.cinq5.de/schaltsysteme/shiftr-fuer-rennlenker/
Not STIs but work on drops
All pricey but everything is with Rohloff.

I've read a few stories about Rohloff hubs packing up whilst on long tours and Rohloff sending wheels to get you moving and I think SJS do the same.

@Velocio

electronic shifting for your hub

http://www.edsanautomation.com.au/EdsanProducts.htm

Quite tempted by the Gebla system and reading good reports on it. I have a co-motion drop bar shifter currently, and it is good, but I don't like having to move off the hoods to change gear.

The only issue with the Gebla is you won't know what gear you are in, whereas with the co-motion, I know I have X gears 'left' when climbing etc.

For the OP, Rohloffs are pretty bomb proof (poor choice of words with your photos above!). Internally they seem very robust and even if you break shifters etc., you can always change gear using a spanner.

They do take a bit of getting used to, there's a change between gears 7->6 (from memory) where you need to ease off as the hub will put itself into gear 14 to protect itself if there's too much torque during that change.

On the tandem, ours has not done starship mileage, but we are very happy with it. We use it with Gates Carbon Drive for utterly clean and low maintainence drivetrain. Squeaks a little in sandy conditions, but a blast of water over the belt and all is well again.

I'd rather it fails and I left with drive (whatever gearing that is in) than no drive.

Actually never heard of that happening.

In fact, never heard of a failed Rohloff hub. Neither have Thorn.

Some people have had trouble with installation, especially the retrofitters. But beyond that I researched widely before I jumped for mine and even now still haven't heard of a failure.

You do realise even if everything external fails, you could still use a pair of pliers to set a gear whilst the bike is stationary? So if you did manage (how!?) to screw up the shifter or whatever, you'd still be able to choose a gear.

That cinq5 solution looks really nice, I could consider that.

In fact, never heard of a failed Rohloff hub.

They do, but it's the hub flanges snapping off more than the internals dying.

In either case Rohloff post you out a new hub / wheel, especially if it's a round the world or similar.

wow ... now that is customer service

^ yeah, have heard of some issues with flanges, but those seem very rare (and often on tandems with larger teams). We're a 120kg team and tend to tour reasonably lightly, so no real worries about it from our end.

But, never heard of the hub internals failing in a ride-ending manner.

They have a reputation to maintain :)

@Velocio the cinq looks really good quality kit.

I been googling for a 29er set.

I am assume I will need to get a good wheelbuilder to do this, any recommendations?

You might want to correct the thread title, lucas, to make it more searchable.

I don't know how to do that. How can I?

EDIT: don't worry this forum software calls "threads" "conversations".