WOuld love one but the cost new of one built onto rim comes in at just over a grand ,) can i justify it ,)

I built mine onto a ceramic rim for under £800, WTF sort of rim and spokes are you using?!

Why shouldn't you buy one?

Because they're draggy in some gears and the bearing develop play in them quite quickly.

the disk hub is £995 mavic 819 rim 60 plus spokes and disk rota

Too expensive, buy an Alfine! Good enough reasons.

11spd alfine out 20th sept, mine's on order

it weighs a metric ton?

and the bearing develop play in them quite quickly.

Must be something wrong with my 4 year old one which has covered 10'000 miles as their is no play at all.

Whether it's worth it or not really depends on the type of riding you do. Mine is on a bike used for off road commuting all year round. I get home or to work with it covered in mud and never do any more than wipe the chain down and spray some GT85 on it. The oil gets changed once a year which takes 20 minutes. The first chain lasted 3 years. I'm not sure if it's draggy or not but I find the ability to change gear even when stopped really useful and it's what I miss if riding with a conventional set up. The Alfine might be a more sensible purchase if your not sure if it will suit your type of riding, I bought my Rohloff as part of a Thorn Catalyst so I had a 100 day trial period. I might not have gone for it without
that.

Bez I assume that if like me you have a ceramic rim then you are using V brakes. The V brake version is considerably cheaper than the disc version which may explain why you could build a wheel for £800.

Must be something wrong with my 4 year old one which has covered 10'000 miles as their is no play at all.

That's all well and good but mine got through three sets of bearings in three years. I also know a few others that have had the same experience.

Is that a weakness with the hub, bearings, seals?
so i take it if you spend 500ish pounds on a secondhand hub i will have no warrantee with hub, and i will have to fit the bill for it to be repaired at the factory in germany! has anybody had to pay their own repairs on the rohloff hub??

My three repair were all free and sorted out by my LBS.

Bez I assume that if like me you have a ceramic rim then you are using V brakes. The V brake version is considerably cheaper than the disc version which may explain why you could build a wheel for £800.

I am using Vs but it's a disc hub – it's on a tandem so I wanted to be able to use two brakes if need be. It's five years since I bought it though (and IIRC the disc version was only about £50 extra), so maybe they've gone up. I thought £700 or so was crazy money for a hub, £1000 is off the barmyometer scale!

so maybe they've gone up

You were lucky that like me you got it before the pound crashed against the Euro.

Mine's had to go back to Rohloff twice – just got it back today and they 'recalibrated' the shifting points again. No idea what that actually means. 4 years old and not an excessive amount of riding.

I wouldn't buy one again.

No need for you to spend that much…..if you're serious, drop me a line. I've a 2nd hand one (on an 819) that I might sell.

I love the idea and the engineering, but not the price. If I were in the market for a geared hub, I'd forgo three ratios and buy an Alfine instead.

Whilst whinging about the rohloff I should point out they haven't charged me for fixing it, though I've paid for shipping the wheel to them. I think the warranty is only 2 years anyway.

A reason not to buy… In two years or so they may come out with a smaller and lighter version better suited for mtb-ing. They are quite far with making it apparently and it already physically exists (mind you they have been saying this for at least two years already, do it may also take 4 more years of waiting in agony).