I've been lusting after a Rohloff for longer than my wife cares to
remember. For those that don't know a Rohloff is a gearing system which
is internal to the hub. Sheldon Brown explains it better than I can.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/rohloff.html
I'm a pretty good customer of Brunswick Street Cycles and they've got a
demo bike kitted out with a Rohloff. It's a Norco Fireball kitted out
with short handlebars and two finger V brakes. I went to pick it up
after work on Friday, should have phoned ahead because it wasn't back yet.
While waiting I did what most bike geeks do and started chatting to the
mechanics about bikes :-) As it happens a newly converted new bike was
waiting to be picked up, a very nice Cannondale job called the
Cannondale Street which had just undergone the Rohloff treatment.
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/06/CUSA/model-6SRM.html Looked really
nice :-)
Twenty minutes or so passed and a couple came in to the shop, one
astride my machine for the weekend and the other astride the male
version of the Cannondale Street which had also undergone the Rohloff
treatment http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/06/CUSA/model-6SR.html . Mmm,
nice :-)
So after fitting pedals, saddle bag and lights I adjusted the saddle and
it was off on the mean streets of Melbourne to Goat. I was quickly
impressed by the handling of the bike, the Norco's quite a nice ride.
The handlebars were a little narrower than I'm used to which made for
some pretty sensitive steering and I'm not sold on the brake levers
being angled down so much but all in all for a loaner a pretty good fit.
Control of the shifting's by means of a grip shifter on the right hand
side. I found it a little un-intuitive, to go up a gear you roll the
shifter froward and to go down you roll it back. I'd expected it to be
the other way around and it caught me out a few times; don't know why
that is.
Changing was precise and intuitive. There's a real sense of freedom
knowing you can stop, shift down four gears and then go again with no
problem. You do have to back off the pedalling pressure a bit when
changing but as I do that anyway on a derailleur system I didn't find
that too difficult.
I was initially a bit concerned about the ring and cog that had been
selected, it seemed to be stupidly low in the low gear. Mind you I was
running slicks in an urban environment; hardly conditions to properly
test low gears.
Goat was as Goat is with much discussion of bike bling and not so bling
with the inevitable intrusion of geek computer talk. Naturally I was as
excited as a new born puppy about my borrowed toy and it did form the
basis of much conversation. At the end of the evening Bikesoiler and
Pete had a quick burn up and down the street before I packed it in to
the car for driving home. First time I've seen my front flasher from
off the bike and I was pleased with what I saw.
This morning while Suzie was off doing womanly stuff I set about
swapping tires on both her commuter bike and the Norco. I did the three
easy wheels first and then set about tackling the Rohloff. Rather than
a quick release skewer it was back to old fashioned nuts and bolts. Now
where did I put my spanners? Once done I was then confronted with how
to disconnect the gear changing controls. A quick googowoogle showed
that it was as simple as undoing a thumb screw. Sweet!
Once suitably shod with knobby tires I took the Norco out for a little
bit of off road fun locally. There's nothing particularly challenging
about the local fare but there is a little bit of a dip with steep
banks. I stuffed up going up one side by going the wrong way with the
gears however it wasn't disastrous as even with all my momentum lost a
rapid twist of the shifter in the opposite direction saw me near enough
instantly in the right gear. Try doing that with a derailieur system!
It's hard to judge comparative efficiency of the drive train as the
Norco, good as it is, isn't a patch on my Rocky. All told though I had
no complaints about how the gears performed. Now that I've run it with
knobbies I reckon the chosen chain ring and cog is correct. I'm looking
forward to giving it a run at Lysty tomorrow.
My feelings so far is that it'll be a fantastic choice for a high
mileage commuting bike (like wot I do) but I'm not sure it'll translate
well to mountain biking. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.