Picked my pugsley up from LBS yesterday and was shocked to see that it had a chain tensioner. They told me that it was because of the Rohloff hub. My fisher rig didn’t need a tentioner, but it did have a EBB. The pugsley has sliding drop outs so I thought there’d be no need for a chain tensioner even with a Rohloff. Rohloffs and pugsleys are hard to get help with, combine the two and nobody seems to have any experience with them. Can anybody help or are my LBS right?

I can’t see why you’d need a tensioner.
The horizontal dropouts will take care of chain tension.

Post some pictures up.

what he said unless I an missing something.

Most of the Pugsley pictures I can find show slot dropouts.
I found this though. http://gallery.mtbr.com/showphoto.php/photo/340285

Is that what yours looks like ?
If so, there’s no need for a tensioner.

Mine dosen’t look like that, it just has 2 holes for the sliding drop outs, do I need a tentioning device like in the picture?

It looks like that bracket makes the wheel fit vertically, not horizontally and then it uses the threaded horizontal bit to bring the whole bracket forward with the wheel in it, or am I just talking nonesense.

I’m not sure what you mean.
Have you definitely got sliding dropouts as above, not slot dropouts like this.

Moose, you’ve got it.

Mine look like that, they must be slot dropouts then, sorry I didn’t know there were 2 kinds. Yes mine are like the ones on that purple bike, does that mean that I do need a tensioner for a Rohloff?

Well, yes and no.
If the Rohloff has got a quick release, then the official line is that the QR won’t clamp the hub in the frame with enough force to stop it slipping under heavy pedalling loads. therefore, you would need to locate the hub at the very front of the slots, so it can’t get pulled any further forward, and use a tensioner.
I’m guessing that’s what your LBS has done.
Unofficially, I ran a Rohloff in a slot dropout Chameleon and found that not all QRs are equal. Some would hold the wheel solid in the slot, some would let it slip forward, no matter how hard I did them up.
If only I could help you by remembering which were which. 🙄

As a suggestion for now, leave the tensioner on, but move the hub back in the dropouts.
If you find the hub creeps forward, just move it fully to the front and carry on and consider buying a better QR.
If it doesn’t move after several rides including a few steep hills, do away with the tensioner, you don’t need it.

Use a chain tug to stop the wheel slipping.
http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FSOOCT/on-one-chaintug

I’ve personally found old steel shimano q/r are the most secure, so look in the tool box for that old q/r.

Thanks for the help. I haven’t ridden the bike yet so I might find that the tensioner causes me no problems and I stick with it, it’s just nice to keep things simple wherever you can though.

Looking at that On One chain tug and that purple frame, I don’t think the two would be compatible.
One of the good things about a Rohloff on a hardtail is the simplicity.
A good solid QR that doesn’t slip would be preferable to a tensioner or chain tug if possible.

Plenty of chain tug available so search for one that fits yours.

If you need a chaintug surly do a nice one that will fit and open beer bottles 😉

might there be grip and turning issues with a chaintug?

Al – a rohloff does not rely on the axle to transmit torque to the frame – it has a separate torque anchor either a speedbone or an arm.

ah right enough.

Dont know anything about rohloff hubs myself but i found you a thread which has some pics and links on it which may help…
you could msg gomez for more info 😮
MTBR Fatbike Forum Pugsley with Rohloff

Coastkid

You are a gem cheers. I’m so glad mountain bike people are so helpful or I’d have been screwed before I even started building the bike. If bikers were like ramblers we’d all be screwed

No probs :o, post a thread on your build with pics on MTBR Fatbike forum and folk will help out with any questions 🙂

Ok, apart from TJ no one has yet mentioned the rohloff torque transfer issue. The issues discussed so far only deal with the issue of chain tension.

Moose2008, On the disc side of your frame the hub has a plate which transfers the drive torque to the frame, it’ll either be a long torque arm, or an adaptor bolted to your disc mount. Both of these will make it difficult to use the hub without a chain tensioner as they would have to be adjusted each time the wheel was removed. Its not insurmountable, but might be too much faff for you.

good point stato – it wouldn’t necessarily need to be adjusted everything the wheel was removed but it would be a pain on chain adjustment and wheel removal

Assuming the bike’s got disc brakes, he’ll most likely be using a speedbone, in which case there’s no problem.
Unlike that purple bike above, my Chameleon had slot dropouts and fixed caliper/speedbone mounting holes.
I know it wasn’t the right way to do it, although I never had any problems with the disc not always being in exactly the right place in relation to the caliper and I never had any problems with the speedbone either. It just lined up with the slot in the axle plate and that was it.

Moose, are you using a speedbone or have you got the proper Rohloff dropout on the left ?

The drop outs are just as per frame purchased from surly, which I guess must mean that I have a speed bone. Sorry I’m very new to it all

Sorry, my mistake, you’d already said you’d got slot dropouts, so it can’t be a Rohloff specific dropout.
That’s what happens when I go away and do something else, then come back and try to carry on a conversation where I left off. 🙄

moose.
just post some pictures up so we can see what’s going on.

The speedbone shouldn’t make any difference to chain tension or setup.
But it might be easier to get the wheel in and out using a monkeybone instead of a speedbone.

The speedbone shouldn’t make any difference to chain tension or setup.
But it might be easier to get the wheel in and out using a monkeybone instead of a speedbone.

My concern was that due to the location of the disc mount in relation to the ‘slot’ dropout you may be forced to undo the caliper/monkeybone/speedbone or whatever each time you wanted the wheel out. Cant say for certain is ive not had the oppertunity to use a Rohloff on a slot-drop, only with an EBB.

Moose2008, post some pics if you can (or email them to me if you dont know how to post them on here)

Rich

My concern was that due to the location of the disc mount in relation to the ‘slot’ dropout you may be forced to undo the caliper/monkeybone/speedbone

You have to undo the caliper to get the wheel out with any setup on a Surly horizontal dropout. Still don’t have to use a tensioner though.

I know what you mean, Stato.
I found with my Chameleon that I had to push the wheel all the way forwards with the axle plate rotated slightly backwards to clear the speedbone, then pull the wheel back and rotate the axle plate forward slightly to engage the speedbone as I tensioned the chain.
Does that make sense ?
It was a bit of a faff, but I soon got the hang of sliding the wheel in or out while pushing the axle plate one way or the other with my thumb.

Just found a few pics of a Pug fitted with a Hoff for you.

Trip Across the Lake to the Post Office by ~gomez~, on Flickr

tonight’s the night by ~gomez~, on Flickr

If you click on the second pics and view the orinal sized image you can see he’s using the monkeybone to take care of the torque kickback.