I've been thinking of building a dedicated winter bike, basically minimal maintenance rigid for short local blasts, lighter trails, and potentially bikepacking. Last winter I used a 1x12 Shimano which while reliable, was a pain to clean after every ride, so I've started looking at alternatives.
Merlin is selling Rohloff hubs which seem to be a deal compared to RRP ( https://www.merlincycles.com/rohloff-disc-speedhub-500-14-a12-oem-2-148mm-32h-hub-with-axle-plate-326038.html), although I haven't gone into their product range much.
Bike tourers seem to love Rohloff with belt drives, but apparently it's not great for mountain bikes due to the significant rearward weight bias. The alternative is Pinion but these require a custom frame and supposedly rather inefficient compared to Rohloff and especially compared to single speed. https://www.cyclingabout.com/speed-difference-testing-gearbox-systems/
That leaves single speeds, which I like the idea of but I think would be annoying with some of the sharp steep climbs around here. And they just don't seem to be that popular at the moment, not many shops are selling compatible bikes, which I feel there must be a reason for?
I also found an analysis of the 2025 Tour Divide rigs, where the vast majority of riders are using 1x12. And of the others, more riders are running SS than Rohloff and Pinion put together https://bikepacking.com/bikes/rigs-of-the-2025-tour-divide-stats/
Is 1x12 too good to bother with the alternatives? Basically, I'm finding that all the non-derailleur systems seem to have significant disadvantages for my use case.
I think it depends on you and what compromises you are prepared to make. I ran singlespeed commuter bikes for about 25 years and loved them, they are simple durable and easy to sort out problems. I am 71 and still ride my single speed Spot, a relic from the past but not on any steep ground now as I have some heart problems.
I like riding this more than any other bike and used to cope in the Peak District on it. For me you just ride a little differently and are prepared to experiment with finding the correct gear ratio. I used 32X18 for hilly terrain and 32X16 otherwise with 42X16 for commuter bikes.
Get a nice rear hub like Hope or White Industries.
So if your going rigid I'd not discount the Rohloff.
I've got a Rohloff equipped rigid bike and absolutely love it for what I use it for. Rarely notice the weight at the back. If it was on a trail focused hardtail where your pushing on hard, getting airborne etc then no it wouldn't feel right.
I use mine for local bridleways, moorland stuff, bike packing and big XC type rides and it's perfect for that.
Grip shift isn't ideal but not a deal breaker, you get used to it. The engagement points are hilarious but don't bother me and there is a very slight feeling of drag which can bother some people but I'm not one of them!
Good points though are, virtually zero maintenance, dishless wheel build, straight chainline, cheap chainrings and chains that you don't have to care about, 14 equally spaced gears etc etc....... Love mine. One of the best biking bits of kit I've bought.
Singlespeed is great, you can get up most stuff with the right gearing - it’s long and steep or simply very steep that defeats me on it.
The answer to all of your questions is a Stooge.
Rigid as standard. Eccentric bottom bracket so you can tension the chain for single speed or hub gear.
Rohloff shifters aren’t limited to twist shift, paddle shifters are available.
Single speeding is addictive or marmite. You’ll either become an evangelist or you’ll get sick of never being in the right gear.
I’ve been running 11 speed Deore on my Stooge, after initially being single speed, and it just works. No fussy cleaning or additional maintenance required. But I do understand that 12 speed is a lot more sensitive.
I think it depends on you and what compromises you are prepared to make. I ran singlespeed commuter bikes for about 25 years and loved them, they are simple durable and easy to sort out problems. I am 71 and still ride my single speed Spot, a relic from the past but not on any steep ground now as I have some heart problems.
Admittedly I've not tried a singlespeed, but I find it hard to imagine myself enjoying it. It feels like in the southeast the ground is either relatively flat or a sharp climb, so I don't know what gear I would choose that wouldn't have me either spinning out on the flats, or walking up the climbs. In fact even with a 10-51 I sometimes wish for a wider range, which sounds silly but I do like to maintain a regular cadence. It blows my mind reading about people singlespeeding the South Downs Way on this forum.
Good points though are, virtually zero maintenance, dishless wheel build, straight chainline, cheap chainrings and chains that you don't have to care about, 14 equally spaced gears etc etc....... Love mine. One of the best biking bits of kit I've bought.
Rohloff does sounds great and your usage is similar to what I'd be using it for. So you use a chain rather than a belt drive, do you still need to regularly degrease and lubricate the chain then?
I’ve been running 11 speed Deore on my Stooge, after initially being single speed, and it just works. No fussy cleaning or additional maintenance required. But I do understand that 12 speed is a lot more sensitive.
Thanks, I'll check out the Stooge bike range! As far as I understand it, 12 speed is a bit more sensitive than 11 speed in indexing, but my main problem is having to wash the gunk out the drivetrain after every ride.
Anyone actually got a Pinion on here to confirm about the draginess? I've ridden Rohloffs and owned a Alfine, but only turned a Pinion at a bike show. In that situation the Pinion was comparatively drag free.
You don't need a specific frame to run single speed - you can find a magic ratio or use an old rear mech as a tensioner.
You do need a specific frame for belt drive unless you go for a splittable belt but I've not heard good things about the reliability of these.
For cheapness and simplicity I'd be going 1x9. £20 cassette, £10 chain, £20 derailleur and £15 shifter. Cheap, simple, bomb proof and lots of range.
Rohloff economics make more sense when they're only the price of two Deore rear derailleurs...
Single speeds are noticeably lighter than geared bikes, even more so than hub geared bikes and those running 12 speed cassettes. I ride ss regularly and do about 1000m of climbing on a typical ride of 35 or 40k in the SW. I note that ssuk is on the edge of the south downs this year. If you've got the itch, just try it. If you don't like it you can hub or derailleur it easily. Use a lower roller chain guide on the front, then any HT is a single speed. Much easier to deal with than a rear mounted tensioner. Or if money is no object look for sliding dropouts on a new frame such as a pipedream Sirius.
Admittedly I've not tried a singlespeed, but I find it hard to imagine myself enjoying it. It feels like in the southeast the ground is either relatively flat or a sharp climb, so I don't know what gear I would choose that wouldn't have me either spinning out on the flats, or walking up the climbs. In fact even with a 10-51 I sometimes wish for a wider range, which sounds silly but I do like to maintain a regular cadence. It blows my mind reading about people singlespeeding the South Downs Way on this forum
Thats perfect singlespeed terrain. Sit and relax on the flats, come out the saddle on the hills.
Is there a reason your are ignoring alfines?
I have a belt drive flat bar road/gravel bike with 14spd rohloff hub. It's noticeably heavy but it has become my goto bike for daily use (excluding on mtb trails) and I live about 400ft up a steep hill. The weight of the bike is counter balanced by the minimal maintenance required.
Rohloff does sounds great and your usage is similar to what I'd be using it for. So you use a chain rather than a belt drive, do you still need to regularly degrease and lubricate the chain then
Yes. A chain. The bike can take a belt but when I've looked I don't think I could get the really low gearing I wanted with the gates cogs. This may of changed.
I use putoline wax on the chain so it only gets washed if it's really manky. The bike has full mudguards as well. I don't find it a bother 🤷
“I do like to maintain a regular cadence”
You absolutely cannot do this on a singlespeed!
On the South Downs I run 30:18 (165mm cranks and 29x2.4 tyres). Works really well, spins out downhill but not on the flats, and gets up all the climbs bar the ones where a lot of the geared riders give up too!
Is there a reason your are ignoring alfines?
I'm not sure Alfines are quite in the same league for durability as a Rohloff or Pinion. My 8 speed one started slipping, which may or may not have been a roller clutch failure. This was a long time ago and I understand some internal changes were made to the 8 and 11 speed hubs in the meantime. But given they disappeared from the radar it's a bit difficult to know.
I had a Rohloff for a few years on a bog standard Ti hardtail frame. The Rohloff itself was ultra-reliable; oil changes were pretty straightforward, and it just makes sense to have everything on the inside; and the ratios were good, certainly a match for a 1x12 derailleur setup in terms of spread.
You don't need a specific frame to run single speed - you can find a magic ratio or use an old rear mech as a tensioner.
I did have ongoing problems with the chain dropping: magic ratios are fine until your chain wears, and it took me a long time to find a chain tensioner that was up to the job.
I ended up going back to derailleurs though. The weight balance of the Rohloff left the back end of the bike feeling dead - altogether it weighs less than front and rear mech and cassette, but the weight is all right inside the hub - and the bike never felt as 'fun' as with mechs.
So for touring and pub bike it'd be grand IMHO; for trails I'm less sure. But they do hold their value - I bought mine secondhand and sold it for about the same price - so you can always give them a go.
The only thing to flag is I think that version you've linked may have an e-bike specific shifter attachment(?); so you may want to see whether it's possible to buy the regular shifter attachment separately.
I love a rohloff. the drag does not bother me at all. However from discussions on here it seems that if you are touring / pootling the drag is insignificant but at high power outputs it ramps up significantly
Mine is chain drive and putolined - 5000 ish miles on the chain and its hardly worn
I think it pays back the cost of buying it in a few years due to the cheap and infrequent drivetrain parts replacement
I’ve had all of them. Belt drive alfine commuter I would have again but was the draggiest feeling of them all. Alfine are simply not that refined (but also no that expensive). I had the 8. Partner had an 11 which repeatedly dumped its oil over the back of the bike (even after warranty replacement).
belt drive brilliant in a commute bike. Not convinced off road
used rohloff on both full sus and hardtails off road (and put many thousands of miles on commuting too). They’re actually cheap - in that they hold their value. The data says the drag is perceived rather than impactful. But the weight balance issue is real and off road you will get more pinch punctures (though this was pre tubeless). If it’s slogging around in mud wheels on the ground then fine but it doesn’t make for a poppy bike. I’d have one on a tourer, commuter or a bridleway basher but not an MTB
Pinion has less perception of drag than rohloff (even if the data says there’s more). I had the 18 - the 9 or 12 are lighter and would be my choice in future. It was heavy, but the weight balance is better than a conventional drivetrain and rear suspension feels better (less unsprung weight is noticeable). The main issue is selling a frame with a Pinion on if standards have changed (mine was 26”) as you can’t separate drivetrain from frame as you can with rohloff. I’d like another. MTB geometry has settled now, I’ve smashed a lot of mechs in the last few years and they’re getting more expensive not cheaper. In fact writing this has got me seriously considering one next time I change my enduro bike.
3 speed? Just over 1kg for the hub and only £115. Not sure about durability.
One day There will be a Rohloff/Pinion level equivalent of this. Set one of these up with a high-ish SS ratio as the direct drive gear, then have a steeper and flatter gear either side.
Try singlespeeding though. I love it, or did - 15 years of 98% of my local MTBing being on a SS. Most of that in Chilterns due to winter mud, then I just carried on year-round as I liked the simplicity and challenge of it. Then moved to Costwolds where the hills and health challenges got the better of me and I went for gears last year .. will be back on the SS soon though.
Singlespeeds are never the right answer.
But they're rarely wrong enough to be a problem ether. I used to ride them in mixed groups for years and never really felt like I was at any disadvantage compared to having gears. Hills are rarely a problem, you still put out near-FTP levels of effort, you just adapt to doing it at 50-60RPM, then on the flat you learn to do it at 100-110RPM. I actually found I pedaled more on descents because you never had the 'wrong' gear, you learn what the right speed feels like and quickly start to notice where you can get and extra pedal stroke in and where should be pumped instead. The only time I ever fell behind was on long road transfers, although you can usually get by sprinting up slight inclines and tucking even slight descents.
As for frames, just buy a singulator. There are a handful of peripheral mainstream SS frames still, Pipedream, Singular, On-One. Or Specialized still do one XC/Trail HT frame, or pick up a 2nd hand Trek Stache (added bonus swapping chains to drastically change ratios can be done without splitting the chain).
For singlespeeding none singlespeed frames I've used the First Components external eccentric BB and been really impressed with it, available in BSA, T47 and probably other flavours.
https://www.firstcomponents.com/bottom-brackets/eccentric/p237sa/
Only drawback was paying for it as an individual rather than a b2b trade purchase was basically sending payment directly to a guy at the company in Taiwan and hoping for the best but it turned up surprisingly quickly with no additional fees.