Got a Rohloff on it’s way to me and was wondering what gearing to go with first.

I’m replacing a 3×10 40x30x22 and 11-36 cassette on a rigid 29er, which is my off-road commuter, local xc bike and the odd big Day out bike. The big and middle ring get most use but it’s nice to have that inner ring on the big days out.

A similar range with the Rohloff would be nice but if not totally possible I could lose some of the low range.

Any users got any advice with a similar setup?

Hub come with a 16t so what size chainring would suit my requirements

There’s some decent info on gear comparison on the Rohloff site at this page, albeit for a 3×9 setup/ Alternatively I have a spreadsheet that I used for making a comparison when speccing a bike

When I had one (on a 26″ bike) I went down the route of a spreadsheet to decide on the chainring size. Compared to the 3×9 I switched from, I think I lost 1 ratio at the top end (so span out a bit sooner) and 1 at the bottom.

we have 37 / 17 on our tandem ( made for good chain tension) Bottom gear is pretty much the same as a 22 chainring and a 34 rear sprocket – 26″ wheels top gear is higher than our previous top of 36 / 11

Sheldon brown also has a gear calculator which is quite handy
https://sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html

What you need to do is mash a 10-50 SRAM cassette on to the hub, then mate it to a tandem quad chain set on to a Hammerschmidt crank.

There must be a 1000* different ratios there.

*Some overlap will be inevitable, user experience is not guaranteed.

11th gear is direct drive 1:1. As such it is the most efficient in the box and also the one that generates the least wear to hub internals. So ideally it is the one you want to be in the most. I used the sheldon gear calculator with a very realistic (rather than optimistic) ideas of my just riding along cruising speed and cadence and jiggled my sprocket and chainring choice in the calculator until they came together on 11th gear. That gives me a bunch of gears below just riding along for going up hills and a few above for going a bit faster. As the bike is used for loaded road touring and slightly less load off road bike packing I tweak the gearing between modes as drop it a little bit for off road (switching from a 32T from a 34T chaining). The trick to all of this is being realistic about your likely cruising speed and not getting all testosterony about your likely output.

bigblackshed – sheldon brown built a 63 speed bike – 7 sprokets on a SA hub with 3 chainrings.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/org/otb.html

convert – luckily for us our gearing also gives this as well as all the low gears we need

For those seeking the ultimate number of gears, I have a 16 speed FRONT chainring.

Just add a Rohloff at the rear… 🙂

Should of know Sheldon would have it covered.

As expected a compromise is necessary as the 3 X 10 has a pretty big range.

Think I’ll take note of what gears I’m mainly using on the ride in tomorrow then go from there. Good advice there convert. I’ll not pretend I’m a legend and be realistic 👍

I have 40:16 on a 26″ wheel bike and that covers just about anything for me. I don’t think I’ve ever spun out and it would be difficult to stay upright at any speed that required lower gearing in first.

So just messing on with the calculator I’ve come up with 37/16 (29er) as a starting point as it happens that’s very close to your 40/16 (26er) avdave2…… Is that on an MTB or tourer?

Hi Survivor,

I ran a rigid steel 29er Shand Bahookie Rohloff for 2 years as my main mountain bike. I used it for all my mountain bike rides and took it on numerous trips to the Highlands and Cumbria.

I ran it with a 38t chainring and found it perfect. I never struggled with it, well certainly now more than I would have on a standard 1×11 geared mountain bike.

Never weighed the bike, but I would guess it was around 27lb and I ran it with a Nobby Nic rear, Hans Dampf front or a pair of Ikons depending on the trip.

Thanks,

Amplebrew

Are you a “sit and spin” climber or “stand up and mash it”? Me I sit and spin hence the liking for low gears
37 / 16 sounds not too far away to me. Personally I run a bit lower

Are you going to use a tensioner? I am so ended up with 37/17 (26″ wheeled bike) as it made it almost a magic ratio thus the tensioner needs only to take up a tiny bit of slack

Mine is on a mountain bike. 37:16 should be good on a 29er but just double check with Rohloff. I think 38:16 was the lowest permissible combination that Rohloff used to give but I believe they have now reduced that with the advent of 29ers. It’s all down to torque, you can damage the hub if you run too low a gear combination. I believe there are actually sacrificial components that will fail first allowing for a repair in that case but it wouldn’t be covered by any warranty.

Thanks everyone.

After noticing what I used today on the commute and what I may need in the hills I don’t think I’m far off. May start at 38/16 like amplebrew and go from there.

Anyone recommend any steel 104bcd chainrings to go for?

Albeit not steel, I ran a Middleburn Hardcoat 104bcd on the Shand. Bought from SJS

I also used a KMC X1 3/32 inch chain from SJS

I’ve always used the Thorn rings on mine, not actually sure what bcd mine are but should be available in 104 I would think. I’m only on my second after 11 years so they wear well. I reverse them when changing the rear sprocket and chain, I get around 3 years out of them. I don’t reverse the rear, the outer gets quite pitted and worn after 3 years and reversing it would have that surface running against an oil seal.

IIRC I got mine from Charlie the bike monger

Thorn rings look good with single tooth size increments. Didnt see a steel one though. You referring to the aluminium avdave2?

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/chainrings/32-thorn-104mm-bcd-4-arm-reversible-single-chainring-332-inch-black/

That’s the one survivor, I had to go back through my orders to check, last one I bought was in November 2012. I use these chains

I rarely give the chain more that a very occasional wipe and I’ve been using some Toyota gearbox oil I had lying around for the last 10 years or so on it. You don’t need to worry about chain wear just run the chain and rear sprocket to destruction then replace and reverse the front ring.

I reckon after about 10 000 miles your rohloff has paid for itself in reduced drivetrain replacement costs and that was using cheapo 9spd stuff previously.

Nice one. Looks like I’m all set then.

Again, cheers for all the help. Much appreciated