longterm Rohloff or pinion users.

a simple yes or no will do.

was the initial outlay worth it ?

Yes. 10 years+ MTB on a rohloff for me.

Pinion for a couple of years here.

Yes, but with caveats.

Yes mine ran as an off road commuter for around 7-8 years all year round. One oil change a year, now on 3rd chain and rear sprocket and second chainring. Only changed the cables which had badly cracked outlets for years when I changed to an external box on the hub. Chain only ever wiped over maybe once a week and more old gearbox oil added to the chain as required. Not used for a couple of years due to change of circumstances but hopefully will be back to the same duties soon. For me that’s the role it excels in. Probably wouldn’t ever run one for anything else just because it’s a lot of money

Yes. About 4500 miles split between two Pinion gearboxes so I may not qualify as long term.

Rohloff

Bought second hand

Yes.

Rigid MTB that does my commute, bike packing and bimbling duties…. Love it for its minimal fuss…

Yes, 20,000 miles on Rohloff commuter, off road in all weathers – bomb proof, costs me £90 a year for chain, chainring, sprocket & tyres – saves me ten times that in fuel & running costs of the car.

Rohloff. Yes.

Rohloff for 10 years.

No. Wouldn’t do it again .

Rohloff. Mountain biking. All year round. Fully rigid.

<span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>YES</span>

Watching with interest.

Stuck between the Rohloff or the EnViolo for when I get the cargo bike. But I’ve only ever heard good things about the Rohloff, over a lot of years.

I like the Enviolo as it changes gear stationary – Ideal for a heavyweight Ecargo bike.

Rohloff, 4 yrs, mtb. Nope. Made it ride like shit.
Pinion gives better weight distribution on a mtb, but still feels like treacle.

I’d rather SS.

I like the Enviolo as it changes gear stationary –

Rohloff does that doesnt it? My mates had one since early 2000’s. He loves them, recently built up a rohloff cross bike for bike packing type stuff.

I really tried to love my Rohloff.
I failed.
I’d like to try a Pinion at some point.

No from me . 2 Years trying to like a Rohloff . Back to Germany twice for replacement bearings , draggy especially in the lower gears . In the end I always used to use my other MTB as I was out the back if I used the Rohloff equipped bike . Did get a good price for it when I sold it though .

Yes, I had one (Rohloff) – bought secondhand on a Nicolai – absolutely brilliant –

So much so, I’ve just ordered a new bike with one and have gone belt drive this time for hopefully even less maintenance! (Shand Bahookie)

Rohloff since 2005, would buy one again.

Yes, I had one (Rohloff) – bought secondhand on a Nicolai

My mate had a rohloff equipped Nicolai nicked!!

@anagallis_arvensis

It wasn’t mine – I had the receipts! (for £4,200 from Moonglu!)

It wasn’t mine – I had the receipts! (for £4,200 from Moonglu!)

👍👍😀😀
Cant be many out there though!

Snaps looks like he’s dipped the back of his bike in a sewer!

Maybe worth reading

They missed out the extra drag.

It is real. It exists I don’t care what independent tests say.

I was a mid pack racer with the sharp bunch.. With the rohloff I couldn’t even keep up with the back of the pack. Put my xtr or even as I was at the time singlespeeding…. And I could keep up.

The lab is different from the real world.

Rohloff, three years, drop-bar MTB. Yes.

When new it did feel slightly draggy, and made a lot of interesting noises. After 500 miles and the first oil change all those noises faded away, and now it’s all but silent in the upper range, and not much noisier in the lower range; the sound it does make is the hum of high quality engineering. I’m certainly not aware of any drag now – in fact it feels a lot silkier at the end of a muddy ride than any derailleur system I’ve used would.

I love the reliability, consistency, and the feel of the gear change, which is the same year-round, in all conditions. It gives you a bombproof feeling.

I am sometimes aware of the extra weight in the back wheel, which I can understand would put people off. I don’t mind it, it’s just a trait of the bike, and doesn’t really affect my riding (all-dayers/bridleways/drove roads/tarmac/gravel/anything).

What TR said.
Same bike with and without Rolhoff meant front or back of the pack for me riding with the same people.
Stuck with it as kept getting told it’ll get better once bedded in.
Two trips back to have bearings changed later it was still the same so I sold it.
The lower gears are just sole destroying.

mines was second hand off a good mate had done about 10000km in the back of a thorn raven since 2005 , yearly oil changes (as id maintained it at the shop in a previous life)

i bought it in 2009.

I used it for a year thinking …. nah the lab says not draggy .

in back to back tests in the real world it proven to be slower – now weather its internal hub drag or extra percieved drag from all the weight in the rear end hooking up on all the terrain im not sure – but one things sure – it was slower against the same yard stick than both SS and Derailleurs

but one things sure – it was slower against the same yard stick than both SS and Derailleurs

Well at least I have an excuse now 🙂

I share trail_rat’s dislike of the drag.

However I’m biased. Most of my riding is singlespeed, any gear system drags compared to that.

To be fair I haven’t put much mileage on my Rohloff even though I’ve had it for many years, and they do need use to bed in. My brother has done tens of thousands of miles on his in Australia, usually pulling a heavy trailer through remote outback tracks, and his feels much better than mine.

It’s a shame that Rohloff don’t have a procedure to bed them in at the factory because it would encourage more people to buy them.

I also dislike the twistgrip gear change. There are alternatives, but they are excessively priced and I’m not inclined to spend that sort of money to compensate.

What I do like is the range which feels astronomical to me as a SSer. If I could have that range with say just 7 ratios I’d be far happier.

In practical terms I prefer the Alfine 8. It feels much silkier and has a better gearchange mechanism IMO, but of course, it has not got the range.

Nonetheless, if I was building a round the world bike, it would have a Rohloff (or be SS).

Upside: minimal upkeep.
Downside: it’s a lot weight out back – for me it’s a deal breaker. I stripped mine off & replaced it with 1×10. Plus drag in some gears.

For touring it’s probably as good as it gets, I think they are too compromised for anything else IMHO.

I’d be interested in swapping to 1x on the same bike, just to feel for myself what the difference would be. Obviously the expense involved is quite a barrier.

Maybe next year …

Rohloff – yes, depending on what you have in mind.

I bought mine secondhand, had it for 3 years or so; but after the initial outlay it was essentially free to run, with very minimal maintenance required compared to standard derailleurs.
And when I switched bikes I sold it for basically what I’d bought it for, so it cost me very little.

But it was on an XC hardtail, and the weight balance didn’t suit that particularly – more weight over the back wheel meant it felt more planted and less mobile than a conventionally geared bike.

Yes.

But it depends on what you want it for I guess, I have mine on a Surly Troll now. It has been on a Thorn and a custom Woodrup too.

Pros:

Goes on for ever, always feels the same and after several years it probably ends up cheaper.
Good range – especially now everyone has gone 1X
Symmetrical spoking = strong wheel
No chain rub on plus tyres
Perfect chainline
The shifter is a nice quality item.

Cons:

Initial cost
Need some kind of chain tensioner
If it does need work, you have to send it off… but I did that once and it was back in a week!
Weight – but that is marginal on a Surly and light weight is overrated in my mind. On other bikes it may be an issue. I don’t jump the Troll, so weight distribution is not a problem.
Fitting a shifter to drop bars
Efficiency… now that is a difficult one. In the top 7 gears it isn’t an issue. one of the gears (11) is 1:1 and should be as efficient as a single speed as I understand it functions as a direct drive – the fact that it’s hard to tell which is 1:1 suggests that the gears either side are pretty efficient. The lower 7 feel a bit different and are noisier. Whether they are that inefficient I don’t know. Others say it is less efficient… some say it just feels it – it doesn’t really bother me but I use mine for touring and commuting so I am not keeping up with the pack. If it is less efficient the difference is smaller than the difference between different tyres. Having stopped using the Troll as I had moved on to bigger wheels on other bikes, I stuck some Rene Herse tyres on it to see if it would make a difference – it transformed the bike compared to bog standard tyres and the bike is so much nicer to ride now even with Rohloff, Son dyno hub and all.
Whilst the hub is fairly impervious to mud, snow, water, etc… I wouldn’t like to immerse it too deep, too often and for too long.

I am toying with the idea of moving the ‘hoff onto a new bike for bike packing. Probably an ECR or maybe a Fargo, but the Troll is actually in great condition, set up nicely and rides very nicely for general rough stuff touring so I am loath to dismantle it just now.

Definitely worth the outlay, not least since they hold their value so well you will recover a greater % of outlay after a lot of use than any other bike parts I can think of (someone will prove me wrong)

Rohloff make a mountain bike feel a bit dead. Great idea for a winter hardtail but (maybe I needed to try it on a different frame) but I found the extra weight less of an issue on full sus (but then impacts on the suspension). I’d definitely put one on a tourer and hubs are great on commuter bikes but don’t have any enthusiasm for using one off road again.

Efficiency – not for racers but I didn’t find it an issue. I suspect it’s feel more than real impact.

Pinion – to me felt like it had less drag than the Rohloff. Much better balance to the bike. I’d have another Pinion mountain bike.