Pondering about hub gears

[Ticktockmy]

To me it a case of swings and roundabouts, without any doubt the Rohloff hub is a great piece of engineering and should far outlive the life of many conventional gear systems. My worry would be if something goes wrong, more so if one is outside of Europe, Questions like where is the nearest supplier/repair outlet, how long before spares can be flown to my location. From my own experiance, I broke my dérailleur in Cambodia, and it was totally knackered, I had in this case to limp the bike some 20K to the next town and purchased a cheap replacement from the local bike shop, if I had been using a Rohloff hub and something had gone wrong it might have meant having to put the bike on the bus or taxi then find the local agent and then maybe wait days for parts to be couriered to me . I think in areas where spares could be easily obtained it must be the best option of choice if you can afford it.

 

[srw]

To me it a case of swings and roundabouts, without any doubt the Rohloff hub is a great piece of engineering and should far outlive the life of many conventional gear systems. My worry would be if something goes wrong, more so if one is outside of Europe, Questions like where is the nearest supplier/repair outlet, how long before spares can be flown to my location. From my own experiance, I broke my dérailleur in Cambodia, and it was totally knackered, I had in this case to limp the bike some 20K to the next town and purchased a cheap replacement from the local bike shop, if I had been using a Rohloff hub and something had gone wrong it might have meant having to put the bike on the bus or taxi then find the local agent and then maybe wait days for parts to be couriered to me . I think in areas where spares could be easily obtained it must be the best option of choice if you can afford it.

If the Rohloff internals go completely - you're screwed. But has anyone heard of that happening even for something as unsophisticated as a SA 3-speed? If the externals go - you can always use a spanner to change gear, or ride as single-speed. A bit clunky, but it works. You can't really do that with a derailleur. And, of course, a derailleur is much flimsier and more exposed than a hub gear.

I think there are cases on the web of Thorn and Rohloff shipping a whole replacement wheel, including new hub, to someone in the wilds of South America within a couple of days when their Rohloff went haywire.

 

[vernon]

Rohloff describe a couple of irreparable failures in their book 'Rohloff Stories'

One had been in a shed fire and the shell and internals had melted
One had been immersed in salt water for several weeks

Then there was the hub of a Dutch police force bike pierced by a 9mm bullet. Fixed by replacing the hub shell.
Then there was a flange failure on a bike in Patagonia fixed by Rohloff under their guarantee which covered the cost of the parts, shipping and duty - this might be the one described by srw.

 

[srw]

Rohloff describe a couple of irreparable failures in their book 'Rohloff Stories'

One had been in a shed fire and the shell and internals had melted
One had been immersed in salt water for several weeks

Then there was the hub of a Dutch police force bike pierced by a 9mm bullet. Fixed by replacing the hub shell.
Then there was a flange failure on a bike in Patagonia fixed by Rohloff under their guarantee which covered the cost of the parts, shipping and duty - this might be the one described by srw.

I think it probably was. I was doing a bit of nosing around flange failures - although even with a flange failure the wheel was still perfectly true, and I suspect had been ridden several hundred miles since the failure. On the tandem with a not-light crew. Both times it happened.

 

[vernon]

I think it probably was. I was doing a bit of nosing around flange failures - although even with a flange failure the wheel was still perfectly true, and I suspect had been ridden several hundred miles since the failure. On the tandem with a not-light crew. Both times it happened.

Five or six years ago, I was aware through, cycling forums, of a couple of flange failures. According to the article in the Rohloff book, spoke diameter is critical. 2.34mm diameter spokes have a short head which can strain the hub during lacing as can spokes with pronounced burrs. 2.00mm diameter spokes are the recommended ones. Loose spokes can also damage the flange.

My rear wheel took a battering in Hungary last month and I had the spokes re-tensioned in Croatia having felt the rear wheel flex and finding half a dozen loose spokes despite thread lock being used in the rear wheel's construction.