Rohloff

This copied from their web site:

Speedhub 500/14

The Speedhub 500/14 is Rohloff's flagship product. It is a 14 speed planetary geared hub that is
suitable for many cycling applications. It's gearing range is the same as that of a 27-speed
mountain bike drivetrain, a 526% increase in gear ratio between the lowest and highest gear. Some
of the outstanding features of the Speedhub are listed below:

14 unique gears that cover the same range as a 27 speed derailleur drivetrain.

Operates with a single grip type twist shifter.

Simplifies the geared bicycle drivetrain to that of a single speed.

All gearing is sealed inside the hubshell in a lubricant bath.

Virtually maintenance free, no shifting adjustments required.

Shift while pedaling forward, backward or standing still!

Disc brake compatible.

No more torn off derailleurs!

Available in black anodized, red powdercoat, or polished aluminum.

The Speedhub eliminates the redundant and unused gears of a 27 speed drivetrain, the rider is left
with 14 usable gears with a nearly constant change of gear ratio (13%-14%) between each gear. All of
the gearing is sealed inside the hubshell in a lubricant bath where it is safe from contamination.
This provides a single driveline between chainring and hub cog so you always have a perfect
chainline.

The Speedhub is virtually maintenance free. An annual oil change is the only required maintenance
for the hub. The shifting will never need adjusting because the shift indexing mechanism resides
inside the hub, not at the shifter.

The entire hub is manufactured in Germany where it is held to the tightest tolerances. This makes
the Speedhub the most mechanically efficient planetary geared hub available. The mechanical
efficiency of the Speedhub rivals that of a clean, well-lubricated derailleur drivetrain. When
conditions become severe a traditional drivetrain loses quite a bit of efficiency while the Speedhub
with its sealed transmission loses considerably less. Only the single driveline chain that is
exposed contributes to the increased efficiency loss.

The Speedhub is retro-fittable to any bicycle, recumbent, trike, tandem, etc. It is suitable for
downhill, cross country, trekking, etc. It is also compatible with all popular disc brakes, a
special rotor is required. Different variations of the Speedhub exist for different applications,
depending on if your frame has, horizontal, vertical, or specially designed dropouts to accommodate
the Speedhub torque arm. To help you determine which model of Speedhub required for your application
Rohloff provides the Speedhub Advisor.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Dh
I just came back from a bike fair in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and was introduced to a 14 speed hub
gear set up (sorry for my description) made by Rohloff (by a Riese and Müller dealer). All 14 speeds
are done internally in the rear hub.

rohloffusa.comframe.htmOpen ↗ Is this common knowledge? Just passing this on. Dave Horne

Very common knownledge.

Top of the line as far as internal gear hubs, both in quality and price.
Reliable, and slightly more efficient than other internal gear hubs. A local ride leader has over 25,000 trouble free miles when he was wearing out dual dirves every 3000-4000 miles.

Downside (besides price and weight)- looks like the ratios were designed for mountain biking rather than road bikes. Maybe someday they'll look at the market and come up with a true road/recumbent/folder hub with more overdrive.

DH said:

rohloffusa.comframe.htmOpen ↗ Is this common knowledge? Just passing this on. Dave Horne

I think it's reasonably well known (at least, I know of it, and various people I've discussed it
with know of it). It's not cheap - you can buy a pretty decent DF bike for the price of teh hub.

Also, the manufacturers limits on teh chainring / sprocket size mean teh gearing's not quite where
I'd like it to be for a smallish wheel (it's intended for 26" mtb wheels), and putting too big a
chainring on to get the gears right for (say) a 20" wheel voids teh warranty. Having said that, I
have seen one built into a trike with a 20" wheel, and if I ever find several hundred pounds lying
around with nothing better to spend it on I'd seriously consider it.

regards, Ian SMith
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Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Ian Smith

BOn Fri said:

rohloffusa.comframe.htmOpen ↗ Is this common knowledge? Just passing this on. Dave Horne

I think it's reasonably well known (at least, I know of it, and various people I've discussed it
with know of it). It's not cheap - you can buy a pretty decent DF bike for the price of teh hub.

Also, the manufacturers limits on teh chainring / sprocket size mean teh gearing's not quite where
I'd like it to be for a smallish wheel (it's intended for 26" mtb wheels), and putting too big a
chainring on to get the gears right for (say) a 20" wheel voids teh warranty. Having said that, I
have seen one built into a trike with a 20" wheel, and if I ever find several hundred pounds lying
around with nothing better to spend it on I'd seriously consider it.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \| [/B]

Why does an oversized Chainring (and what size chainring) void the warranty? That's less torque more wheelspeed-chainspeed.

If wheelspeed is the issue several bent manufacturers use a middrive to step up the chainspeed before going to the Rohloff (as option or standard) which is equivalent from the point of view of the wheel.

Are you sure it's not an oversized sprocket that might void the warrantee?

Quoted message said:

Very common knownledge.

Thanks, I should get out more. I was unaware that 14 gears could be packed into a rear hub.

Sorry for the post. Dave

DH said:

I just came back from a bike fair in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and was introduced to a 14 speed
hub gear set up (sorry for my description) made by Rohloff (by a Riese and Müller dealer). All 14
speeds are done internally in the rear hub.

rohloffusa.comframe.htmOpen ↗ Is this common knowledge? Just passing this on. Dave Horne

Go to < groups.google.comgroupsOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

and put "freewheeling rohloff" in the search window.

Tom Sherman - Near the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers

Ian Smith said:

... Also, the manufacturers limits on teh chainring / sprocket size mean teh gearing's not quite
where I'd like it to be for a smallish wheel (it's intended for 26" mtb wheels), and putting too
big a chainring on to get the gears right for (say) a 20" wheel voids teh warranty. Having said
that, I have seen one built into a trike with a 20" wheel, and if I ever find several hundred
pounds lying around with nothing better to spend it on I'd seriously consider it.

Rohloff hubs have been used on Trice Micro's which have an ISO 355-mm drive wheel.

Tom Sherman - Near the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers

Toxy offers it as an option on it's SWB bents. Other than price, it is also said to be noisy. My
sram 3x7 on the same bike isn't working that well. I wonder...

meb said:

Why does an oversized Chainring (and what size chainring) void the warranty? That's less torque
more wheelspeed-chainspeed.

Don't ask me - I didn't create the policy, I only read it. Last time I read it it stated upper and
lower limits on chainring and sprocket size (actually, it had a table of possible combinations) and
said that anything outside this wasn't warranted.

However, I see from a quick glance that they've entirely re-worked the web site, and now sensibly
report simply teh gear ratio of teh hub rather than try and make you work out what it might be from
teh ranges of chainring/sprocket combinations. Maybe the new site describes a more rational rolicy.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

Tom Sherman <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Ian Smith said:

... Also, the manufacturers limits on teh chainring / sprocket size mean teh gearing's not quite
where I'd like it to be for a smallish wheel (it's intended for 26" mtb wheels), and putting too
big a chainring on to get the gears right for (say) a 20" wheel voids teh warranty. Having said
that, I have seen one built into a trike with a 20" wheel, and if I ever find several hundred
pounds lying around with nothing better to spend it on I'd seriously consider it.

Rohloff hubs have been used on Trice Micro's which have an ISO 355-mm drive wheel.

Tom Sherman - Near the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers

My Trice Micro and Greenspeed GTX have Rohloff hubs and 349mm drive wheels. My Trice Mini has a
Rohloff hub and a 355mm drive wheel. My Trice XL-NT has a Rohloff hub and 406mm drive wheel. My HP
Velotechnik Street Machine GT has a Rohloff hub and 559mm drive wheel. The Rohloff hub seems to have
more advantages on a small wheel since it allows one to keep chainring size down and thus minimise
the gear range disadvantage small wheels have typically had over large wheels. However my Trice XXL
takes care of that without the weight, expense, noise and sometimes high twist shifter forces of a
Rohloff by using a Shimano Capreo 9-26 cassette and conventional 52/42/24 crankset. Being able to
shift while stopped or coasting is a nice luxury the Rohloff provides. The big advantages of the
Rohloff is it is a very reliabile, sealed, long lasting system and is at its greatest advantage in
rough weather and dirty environment use. Also it is nice having 14 ratios
13.6% apart accessed by a single twist shifter.

Zach Kaplan

I would say it may be common knowledge in the triking circle, and on some fold up bents. I hadn't
heard about it until around two years ago. The Rohloff is fairly expensive and requires a modified
frame to use though. I have recently settled on using the SRAM DualDrive. Similar to the old sach's
3x8. They are more readily available. I purchased two complete sets from e-bay for a total of 250.00
(new pulls), and they normally retail for 400.00 per set. I have heard good and bad on the Rohloff.
Very dependable is usually what you hear, but noisy and other minor complaints.

Wish I could try one though to see.

"DH" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I just came back from a bike fair in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and was introduced to a 14 speed
hub gear set up (sorry for my description) made by Rohloff (by a Riese and Müller dealer). All 14
speeds are done internally in the rear hub.

rohloffusa.comframe.htmOpen ↗ Is this common knowledge? Just passing this on. Dave Horne

[email hidden] (Zach Kaplan Cycles) wrote in message

Quoted message said:

My Trice Micro and Greenspeed GTX have Rohloff hubs and 349mm drive wheels. My Trice Mini has a
Rohloff hub and a 355mm drive wheel. My Trice XL-NT has a Rohloff hub and 406mm drive wheel. My HP
Velotechnik Street Machine GT has a Rohloff hub and 559mm drive wheel. The Rohloff hub seems to
have more advantages on a small wheel since it allows one to keep chainring size down and thus
minimise the gear range disadvantage small wheels have typically had over large wheels. However my
Trice XXL takes care of that without the weight, expense, noise and sometimes high twist shifter
forces of a Rohloff by using a Shimano Capreo 9-26 cassette and conventional 52/42/24 crankset.
Being able to shift while stopped or coasting is a nice luxury the Rohloff provides. The big
advantages of the Rohloff is it is a very reliabile, sealed, long lasting system and is at its
greatest advantage in rough weather and dirty environment use. Also it is nice having 14 ratios
13.6% apart accessed by a single twist shifter.

I understand that there is a limit as to what size chainring can be used with a Rohloff. Hence, does
this also limit the amount of low gear inch range you can achieve. On the Trice web site, the
touring trikes can achieve a 9 gear inch with help of 3x9 Sram. Can the Rohloff get this low?

On the other hand I have heard that the Rohloff is built stroner than the DualDrive since it is
tandem rated.

Andy

I searched net for the subject Hub. The latest and greatest was quoted at a price over $1000.
Holy Toledo!!

Back to eBay for me.

--
Miles of Smiles,

Tom Blum Winter Haven, Florida Homebuilts: SWB Tour Easy Clone Speed Machine Clone High Racer Clone
www.gate.net/~teblum

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Tom Blum
I searched net for the subject Hub. The latest and greatest was quoted at a price over $1000.
Holy Toledo!!

Back to eBay for me.

--
Miles of Smiles,

Tom Blum Winter Haven, Florida Homebuilts: SWB Tour Easy Clone Speed Machine Clone High Racer Clone
www.gate.net/~teblum

A saw on the Rohloff site a 2.4:1 minimum chainwheel/sprocket requirement.

Plugging into Sheldons calculator with a 406 and a 48 Chainring, 20T sprocket, thats a 70-13 gear inch range-not the dynamic range you expect for tadpoles. OK for a bent bike if you had the ratios more in the 3.5:1 or higher to start with.

On the CRANK-IT web page they achieve from the Rohloff 12.5 low gear inch. With the assistance of
the Schlumpf BB they get 108 top gear.
12.5-108 is wide enough and without derailleurs !!!

"Andy Manuel" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Zach Kaplan Cycles) wrote in message

Quoted message said:

My Trice Micro and Greenspeed GTX have Rohloff hubs and 349mm drive wheels. My Trice Mini has a
Rohloff hub and a 355mm drive wheel. My Trice XL-NT has a Rohloff hub and 406mm drive wheel. My
HP Velotechnik Street Machine GT has a Rohloff hub and 559mm drive wheel. The Rohloff hub seems
to have more advantages on a small wheel since it allows one to keep chainring size down and
thus minimise the gear range disadvantage small wheels have typically had over large wheels.
However my Trice XXL takes care of that without the weight, expense, noise and sometimes high
twist shifter forces of a Rohloff by using a Shimano Capreo 9-26 cassette and conventional
52/42/24 crankset. Being able to shift while stopped or coasting is a nice luxury the Rohloff
provides. The big advantages of the Rohloff is it is a very reliabile, sealed, long lasting
system and is at its greatest advantage in rough weather and dirty environment use. Also it is
nice having 14 ratios
13.6% apart accessed by a single twist shifter.

I understand that there is a limit as to what size chainring can be used with a Rohloff. Hence,
does this also limit the amount of low gear inch range you can achieve. On the Trice web site, the
touring trikes can achieve a 9 gear inch with help of 3x9 Sram. Can the Rohloff get this low?

On the other hand I have heard that the Rohloff is built stroner than the DualDrive since it is
tandem rated.

Andy

meb <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

A saw on the Rohloff site a 2.4:1 minimum chainwheel/sprocket requirement.

Plugging into Sheldons calculator with a 406 and a 48 Chainring, 20T sprocket, thats a 70-13 gear
inch range-not the dynamic range you expect for tadpoles. OK for a bent bike if you had the ratios
more in the 3.5:1 or higher to start with.

Meb, There is also discussion regarding Rohloff and Trikes on the Trike list. Ian Sims of Greenpeed
explained in the following link from Trikes archive on how to use the Schlumpf Mountain Drive with
Rohloff in spite of the 2.4:1 minimum chainwheel/sprocket requirement.

ihpva.org027733.htmlOpen ↗

meb <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

A saw on the Rohloff site a 2.4:1 minimum chainwheel/sprocket requirement.

Plugging into Sheldons calculator with a 406 and a 48 Chainring, 20T sprocket, thats a 70-13 gear
inch range-not the dynamic range you expect for tadpoles. OK for a bent bike if you had the ratios
more in the 3.5:1 or higher to start with.

As Ronni pointed out in a previous post, you can also use a 38t Schlumpf speed drive with Rohloff
16t hub on a 406 tadpole and get 12-108 gear inch. The ratio is 2.375 but it is still viable
accrding to Rohloff site. The Crank-it Mountain Quad also uses this setup.

Ian:

I have a Rohloff on my V-Rex. What you have to avoid is a chanring to sprocket ratio that is less
than 2.4. So a 38T chainring with a 16T sprocket is about the lowest I can go w/o voiding the
warranty. (That's really 2.37, but I've been told it's OK.) In other words, you can make the gear as
high as you want. The limit is on the low end. And if you're using a 20" wheel that *really* low.
About 13 GI. That's so low that it'd probably only be useful on a trike. Of course the lower your
bottom gear the lower your top gear has to be, but you can easily achieve a gearing of 17 to 100 GI
without even coming close to voiding the warranty, with a 20 inch wheel, while with a 26 inch wheel
you're getting pretty close. In other words, the smaller the wheel the better off you are with a
Rohloff in terms of options.

--
--Scott "Ian Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

meb said:

Why does an oversized Chainring (and what size chainring) void the warranty? That's less torque
more wheelspeed-chainspeed.

Don't ask me - I didn't create the policy, I only read it. Last time I read it it stated upper and
lower limits on chainring and sprocket size (actually, it had a table of possible combinations)
and said that anything outside this wasn't warranted.

However, I see from a quick glance that they've entirely re-worked the web site, and now
sensibly report simply teh gear ratio of teh hub rather than try and make you work out what it
might be from teh ranges of chainring/sprocket combinations. Maybe the new site describes a more
rational rolicy.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

Andy:

The lowest "allowable" gear with a 406 wheel is with a 38T ring and 16T sprocket, for a 12.86 inch
gear. At a cadence of 90 you'd be going just a little over 3 mph. I don't know about you, but for me
keeping a bike up at a speed much lower than that gets really tough. On a trike it would be no
problem, though. It's just that you'd be expending less energy by walking.

--

--
--Scott [email hidden] Cut the "tail" to send email.

Blog: demosophia.typepad.comdemosophiaOpen ↗ "When the statues of Daedalus come to life no men
will have masters, nor masters slaves." -- Aristotle

"Andy Manuel" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Zach Kaplan Cycles) wrote in message

Quoted message said:

My Trice Micro and Greenspeed GTX have Rohloff hubs and 349mm drive wheels. My Trice Mini has a
Rohloff hub and a 355mm drive wheel. My Trice XL-NT has a Rohloff hub and 406mm drive wheel. My
HP Velotechnik Street Machine GT has a Rohloff hub and 559mm drive wheel. The Rohloff hub seems
to have more advantages on a small wheel since it allows one to keep chainring size down and
thus minimise the gear range disadvantage small wheels have typically had over large wheels.
However my Trice XXL takes care of that without the weight, expense, noise and sometimes high
twist shifter forces of a Rohloff by using a Shimano Capreo 9-26 cassette and conventional
52/42/24 crankset. Being able to shift while stopped or coasting is a nice luxury the Rohloff
provides. The big advantages of the Rohloff is it is a very reliabile, sealed, long lasting
system and is at its greatest advantage in rough weather and dirty environment use. Also it is
nice having 14 ratios
13.6% apart accessed by a single twist shifter.

I understand that there is a limit as to what size chainring can be used with a Rohloff. Hence,
does this also limit the amount of low gear inch range you can achieve. On the Trice web site, the
touring trikes can achieve a 9 gear inch with help of 3x9 Sram. Can the Rohloff get this low?

On the other hand I have heard that the Rohloff is built stroner than the DualDrive since it is
tandem rated.

Andy