Rohloff were showing their new electric shifter for ebikes at Eurobike, with a fairly understated stand, but if you haven’t seen it before here’s a quick recap. If you have seen the E-14 already, scroll down for something else nearby that was Rohloff-equipped and altogether more exotic.
Below you can see one of the displays, and on the right, the new shifter – rather than keep the rotary shifter, or switch all the way to a more typical paddle shifter, they seem to have settled on a nice inbetween in the form of a couple of buttons on a collar that fits inboard of your grip. Depending on your display setup, as you shift you’ll be able to have the current gear shown momentarily or continuously.
The shifting unit sits just on the left of the hub, hanging down less than a deralluer would, and apparently each gearshift takes 180 milliseconds
The E-14 electric shifting system launches this Autumn, but initially will only be available OEM on complete ebikes – no word on a retrofittable kit yet. Of the brands that are going to be using it, Nicolai are the most notable. Among the features tha’ve packed in are that you can tap the button for a single gear shift, or hold it down to shift three gears. Additionally, you can program it to park the hub in a particular gear every time you stop – no more popping your knees off as the lights change because you forgot to downshift.
Another thing on the Rohloff stand, that all of us walked by and spotted at some point during the show, was Shaqille O’Neal’s enormous 36er bike. Custom made by Dirty-Sixer, it was equipped with Rohloff gears, Vee tyres, and Magura brakes. Wil snapped a load of shots.
It’s hard to see how enormous it is from photos, so here’s a size comparison with Wil:
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I like Shaqs bike. Lovely, clean lines and the wheelsize is just right.