Rohloff Speedhub

ALAN 1130 said:

🙂 H a s a n y o n e o u t t h e r e h a v e a n y e x p e
r i e n c e w i t h a R o h l o f f S p e e d h u b . A r e
t h e y e a s y t o f i t o r i s i t a \ " s h o p j
o b \ " ? I m c o n s i d e r i n g f i t t i n g a S p e e
d h u b o n t o a n o l d ( b u t s t i l l g o o d ) s t
e e l f r a m e d m o u n t a i n b i k e . I a m p l a n n
i n g t o r i d e t h e w h o l e o f S u s t r a n ' s R
o u t e O n e a n d w a n t a m a i n t e n a n c e a n d
w o r r y f r e e g e a r s y s t e m .

I have heard that the Rohloff hub suffers from EXCESSIVE SPACES between
the gears. 😉

--
Tom Sherman - Rock Island County Illinois
Tetrahedral carbon lattices are not forever.

ALAN 1130 said:

🙂 H a s a n y o n e o u t t h e r e h a v e a n y e x p
e r i e n c e w i t h a R o h l o f f S p e e d h u b . A r
e t h e y e a s y t o f i t o r i s i t a \ " s h o p
j o b \ " ? I m c o n s i d e r i n g f i t t i n g a S p
e e d h u b o n t o a n o l d ( b u t s t i l l g o o d )
s t e e l f r a m e d m o u n t a i n b i k e . I a m p l
a n n i n g t o r i d e t h e w h o l e o f S u s t r a n
' s R o u t e O n e a n d w a n t a m a i n t e n a n c e
a n d w o r r y f r e e g e a r s y s t e m .

S p a c e d m u c h ? ? ?

ALAN 1130 said:

🙂 H a s a n y o n e o u t t h e r e h a v e a n y e x p
e r i e n c e w i t h a R o h l o f f S p e e d h u b . A r
e t h e y e a s y t o f i t o r i s i t a \ " s h o p
j o b \ " ? I m c o n s i d e r i n g f i t t i n g a S p
e e d h u b o n t o a n o l d ( b u t s t i l l g o o d )
s t e e l f r a m e d m o u n t a i n b i k e . I a m p l
a n n i n g t o r i d e t h e w h o l e o f S u s t r a n
' s R o u t e O n e a n d w a n t a m a i n t e n a n c e
a n d w o r r y f r e e g e a r s y s t e m .

S p a c e d m u c h ? ? ?

Alan 1130? said:

Has anyone out there have any experience with a Rohloff Speedhub.
Are they easy to fit or is it a \"shop job\"? I'm considering
fitting a Speedhub onto an old (but still good) steel framed
mountain bike. I am planning to ride the whole of Sustran's Route
One and want a maintenance and worry free gear system.

That depends on what you call a shop job. Frame spacing and dropout
slot must match the axle. That's about it. What do you mean by
"maintenance free"? What sort of problems do you foresee with other
good quality gearing? The way you say that, it sounds like you have
an aversion to caring for your bicycle. In that case, I'm not so sure
you are up to the installation of this hub on your bicycle.

Jobst Brandt
[email hidden]

I suspect that the learned Mr Sherman would not have agreed with what
he 'claims to have heard', had he ridden on of these fine hubs himself.
Respectfully.

Lewis.

*************************

ALAN 1130 said:

🙂 H a s a n y o n e o u t t h e r e h a v e a n y e x p e
r i e n c e w i t h a R o h l o f f S p e e d h u b . A r e
t h e y e a s y t o f i t o r i s i t a \ " s h o p j
o b \ " ? I m c o n s i d e r i n g f i t t i n g a S p e e
d h u b o n t o a n o l d ( b u t s t i l l g o o d ) s t
e e l f r a m e d m o u n t a i n b i k e . I a m p l a n n
i n g t o r i d e t h e w h o l e o f S u s t r a n ' s R
o u t e O n e a n d w a n t a m a i n t e n a n c e a n d
w o r r y f r e e g e a r s y s t e m .

Dear Alan,

Sheldon Brown sells 'em and uses 'em and has lots of pages
on his web site about 'em:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/rohloff-impressions.html

I sincerely hope that he tells you that it's as easy as
rolling-off a log.

Carl Fogel

Quoted message said:

I suspect that the learned Mr Sherman would not have agreed with what
he 'claims to have heard', had he ridden on of these fine hubs himself.
Respectfully.

Limey Lew,

I was making a joke about there being a space between every letter and
three spaces between every word in the posting by "ALAN 1130" - that and
the smiley at the end should indicate it was not to be taken seriously.
Mr. Bill Sornson noted the same thing, and replied accordingly. This
weird spacing also appeared when Mr. Carl Fogel quoted the original
post. Strangely, the odd spacing is gone in Jobst Brandt's quoting of
the post- did Jobst take the trouble of reformatting the post, did his
software do it for him, or did it appear with normal spacing on his
newsreader.

Gurgle Gropes [1] shows the same spacing as Netscape 7.1:
<http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.tech/browse_frm/thread/01b3154132bf4131/07017428cc0d5fed#07017428cc0d5fed>.

I have ridden Rohloff equipped trikes and found the ratio spacing close
enough for non-Peterbilt [2] riders.

[1] The G. Danielese translation of "Google Groups".
[2] To use a J. Brandtism.

--
Tom Sherman

Tom Sherman said:

Strangely, the odd spacing is gone in Jobst
Brandt's quoting of the post- did Jobst take the trouble of
reformatting the post, did his software do it for him, or did it
appear with normal spacing on his newsreader.

I think Jobst uses emacs, which you can program to do any kind of
auto-formatting imagineable.

Matt O.

Matt O'Toole said:

Tom Sherman said:

Strangely, the odd spacing is gone in Jobst
Brandt's quoting of the post- did Jobst take the trouble of
reformatting the post, did his software do it for him, or did it
appear with normal spacing on his newsreader.

I think Jobst uses emacs, which you can program to do any kind of
auto-formatting imagineable.

Jobst specifically uses Emacs with tin as the newsreader. I don't
know what the capablities of this combination are. I use Emacs with
Gnus as the newsreader, which includes many tools for repairing badly
done posts which includes the "full-Outlook-deuglify" command and
repairs the most egregious problems that Microsoft foists off as
defaults.

http://www.gnus.org
http://my.gnus.org

RE/

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Has anyone out there have any experience with a Rohloff Speedhub.
Are they easy to fit or is it a \"shop job\"?

"Easy" might be going too far....I always manage to toast at least one shifting
cable before I get the lengths right.

But "shop job", I'd say no - as long as you have the currently-standard 9-speed
hub spacing (134mm?) it should drop right in. Even if the bike doesn't have
disc brake mounts, Rholoff supplies a reaction arm that just hose-clamps to the
chainstay.

I've put Rohloff hubs on a Cannondale Jekyll, an Ellsworth Isis, a Seven Duo,
and two hardtails - no prob.

Only special considerations I can think of are spoke lacing and handlebar type:

- For some reason, Rohloff recommends 2x instead of 3 and the heads are supposed
to be facing a certain way.

- The Rohloff shifter is designed for MTB bars. People have done various
things to use them with road bike bars, but I'm not aware of an out-of-the-box
solution.
--
PeteCresswell

(Pete Cresswell) said:

RE/

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Has anyone out there have any experience with a Rohloff Speedhub.
Are they easy to fit or is it a \"shop job\"?

"Easy" might be going too far....I always manage to toast at least one shifting
cable before I get the lengths right.

But "shop job", I'd say no - as long as you have the currently-standard 9-speed
hub spacing (134mm?) it should drop right in. Even if the bike doesn't have
disc brake mounts, Rholoff supplies a reaction arm that just hose-clamps to the
chainstay.

I've put Rohloff hubs on a Cannondale Jekyll, an Ellsworth Isis, a Seven Duo,
and two hardtails - no prob.

Only special considerations I can think of are spoke lacing and handlebar type:

- For some reason, Rohloff recommends 2x instead of 3 and the heads are supposed
to be facing a certain way.

- The Rohloff shifter is designed for MTB bars. People have done various
things to use them with road bike bars, but I'm not aware of an out-of-the-box
solution.
--
PeteCresswell

Will they fit on any aerobars?

ALAN 1130 said:

🙂 H a s a n y o n e o u t t h e r e h a v e a n y e x p e
r i e n c e w i t h a R o h l o f f S p e e d h u b . A r e
t h e y e a s y t o f i t o r i s i t a \ " s h o p j
o b \ " ? I m c o n s i d e r i n g f i t t i n g a S p e e
d h u b o n t o a n o l d ( b u t s t i l l g o o d ) s t
e e l f r a m e d m o u n t a i n b i k e .

The manual that comes with the hub is clear and thorough. If you feel
comfortable putting a derailleur bicycle together, you're comfortable with
concepts like chainline, and you can cut cable housings cleanly, there's
nothing much in installing a Rohloff that should be beyond you. A few of
the procedures are unusual and require dexterity (winding the cables around
helices in the shifter and click box, for example), but work methodically,
follow the manual, and you should be fine.

If you're building the rear wheel yourself, be aware that it needs to be
built two-cross. The large flanges mean that the necessary spokes are
unusually short (about 240mm for a typical rim) and may be difficult to
obtain unless you order them with the hub.

James Thomson

(Pete Cresswell) said:

- For some reason, Rohloff recommends 2x instead of 3

Because the flanges are so large, 3x puts the spoke at quite a large angle
to the radius, putting strain on the spoke at the nipple.

Quoted message said:

and the heads are supposed to be facing a certain way.

That's because of the eight bolts holding the cap on the left of the hub.
Each spoke has to point away from the adjacent bolt lug. That's also the
reason the Speedhub is only available in a 32h drilling.

Quoted message said:

- The Rohloff shifter is designed for MTB bars. People have done
various things to use them with road bike bars, but I'm not aware
of an out-of-the-box solution.

Not from Rohloff, but here's an off-the-shelf product that lets you mount
the shifter in a drop-bar end:

http://www.hubbub.com/store/products.asp?id=32

Thorn (house brand of St John Street Cycles in the UK) also have a
prototype separable drop bar:

http://www.sjscycles.com/forumgallery/Rohloff-drop-bar-shifter.jpg

James Thomson

meb said:

Will they fit on any aerobars?

I've had mine mounted on one of a pair of Cinelli Spinaci. The important
diameter is 22.2mm. Some others I've tried (A Scott/Mavic LeMond bar and a
3ttt Bioarm) were too fat.

James Thomson

(Pete Cresswell) said:

RE/

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Has anyone out there have any experience with a Rohloff Speedhub.
Are they easy to fit or is it a \"shop job\"?

"Easy" might be going too far....I always manage to toast at least one shifting
cable before I get the lengths right.

But "shop job", I'd say no - as long as you have the currently-standard 9-speed
hub spacing (134mm?) it should drop right in. Even if the bike doesn't have
disc brake mounts, Rholoff supplies a reaction arm that just hose-clamps to the
chainstay.

I've put Rohloff hubs on a Cannondale Jekyll, an Ellsworth Isis, a Seven Duo,
and two hardtails - no prob.

Only special considerations I can think of are spoke lacing and handlebar type:

- For some reason, Rohloff recommends 2x instead of 3 and the heads are supposed
to be facing a certain way.

- The Rohloff shifter is designed for MTB bars. People have done various
things to use them with road bike bars, but I'm not aware of an out-of-the-box
solution.
--
PeteCresswell

Hi Pete
I am currently mounting a Speedhub in a Cannondale F 2000 (1999 model), and I was wondering if you encountered the same issue with the Cannondale I did mounting the disk brake caliper.( You did not specify if it was a disk brake model.)
The caliper mounting tabs are located too far away from the rotor, and I will need to space it about 4.5 mm to center it on the rotor. My plan is to make a mounting plate as opposed to using spacing washers, the theory being a plate would offer more support. I have discussed this with Thomas at Rohloff USA, and he tells me he never heard of this issue presenting it's self.
I was just wondering if any one else has come up against this and what solutions have been tried.
Dan Burkhart

RE/

Quoted message said:

The caliper mounting tabs are located too far away from the rotor, and
I will need to space it about 4.5 mm to center it on the rotor. My plan
is to make a mounting plate as opposed to using spacing washers, the
theory being a plate would offer more support. I have discussed this
with Thomas at Rohloff USA, and he tells me he never heard of this
issue presenting it's self.
I was just wondering if any one else has come up against this and what
solutions have been tried.

If I'm visualizing it right, the issue sounds like stress on an extended bolt or
on the plate.

I use what Rohloff calls a "SpeedBone" instead of the reaction arm or just the
caliper mounts. I suspect the SpeedBone is Rohloff's implementation of the
plate you're planning. It bolts to both of the caliper mounts and presents
it's own place for the axle plate to push against. To use it, you also need to
buy a slightly-different axle plate.

It's intended for applications where disc brakes are used with the hub, but it
seems to me like it should work solo with a couple of nuts instead of a disc
caliper.

The thing costs about fifty bucks delivered - with axle plate...but it makes a
nice clean install.
--
PeteCresswell

In retrospect I should have included a 'smiley'.

No offense was intended but I just like to jerk your chain
occasionally.

:-) :-)

Lewis.

(Pete Cresswell) said:

I use what Rohloff calls a "SpeedBone" instead of the reaction arm or just the
caliper mounts. I suspect the SpeedBone is Rohloff's implementation ofthe
plate you're planning. It bolts to both of the caliper mounts and presents
it's own place for the axle plate to push against. To use it, you also need to
buy a slightly-different axle plate.

It's intended for applications where disc brakes are used with the hub,but it
seems to me like it should work solo with a couple of nuts instead of adisc
caliper.

The thing costs about fifty bucks delivered - with axle plate...but it makes a
nice clean install.

The Speedbone is only needed if you are using a rear disc brake.

On a frame with a rear disc _mount_ but without a disc _brake_, the
Speedbone is not needed--the standard disc mount can be used with the
OEM2 Axle Plate (item # 8227, $27.95)

Sheldon "http://harriscyclery.com/rohloff" Brown
+--------------------------------------------+
| If you haven’t yet discovered the novels |
| of Neal Stephenson, don’t wait! |
| Start with Snow Crash or Quicksilver |
+--------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

RE/

Quoted message said:

The Speedbone is only needed if you are using a rear disc brake.

On a frame with a rear disc _mount_ but without a disc _brake_, the
Speedbone is not needed--the standard disc mount can be used with the
OEM2 Axle Plate (item # 8227, $27.95)

But it sounded like for the OP, the axle plate was too far away from the disc
mount....or did I misunderstand the situation statement?
--
PeteCresswell