[Closed] Will a Rohloff stand up to the rigours of mountain biking?

Yes I had one on a salsa and it's still going strong with its new owner years later mate. Hows the bike

Yes. More robust than a derailleur set-up for sure.

Yes, yes, oh and yes. Fitted to tandems, DH rigs and all sorts

Hi Mick, I've been commuting on the dream machine. I'm still getting use to the position and drops along with the skinny tyres but the Rohloff has blown me away. I'm much preferring it to any drivetrain I've had. Just wow. I'm not noticing the heavy rear end people talk of.

Yes

Use one myself in my Nicolai.

Rachel

Nice one glad it's working out. I love rohloff my newest mtb and the Jones were on the list as candidates when I was buying based on the fact I could rohloff them. And tbh I've never really noticed the weight other than when lifting it

Think Rohloff have been into making their hubs for longer than I've been mtbing so I should hope so.

I bought one second hand about 8 years ago.
Its now in its 4th rim, has been in 5 different mountain bikes. Been absolutely thrashed in that time.
With an annual oil change, its also been back to the factory twice for a bearing change (each time for the cost of postage only, and returned with a letter of apology from Rohloff that their product failed me)
The only thing better would be a Pinion gearbox one day...

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9 Years on mine now with 7 years off road commuting all year round. Currently on it's third sprocket, I've never reversed them, and it has an oil change once a year. It went back to Germany last year as I wanted it upgraded to a disc brake version and at that time they replaced the hub shell bearings foc which had developed a little bit of play. What I like about it is gears that I only ever touch once a year, even the shifter cables were original and working fine after 8 years. I give the chain the occasional wipe and use whatever really cheap oil is lying around.

Yes......pretty sure that's the point, non? 🙂

Yes - we have one on our tandem. Now whilst we are not the gnarlyiest of riders and offroad tandem puts huge strain on rear hubs and the rohloff as far as I know is up to offroad racing on a tandem. Previously we broke two shimano hubs and two hope hubs

I'm a huge fan I must say. Its not without its issues. Shifting can be slow and certainly not as crisp as a good dérailleur and the 7/8 shift can be very clunky ( I think this is worse on the tandem as you have to coordinate two folk) and they do tend to dribble a tiny amount of oil on the disc ( I am going for a 15ml fill not 25mm next time to see if this helps.

They simply do not break unless like one tandem team I know you put too much drive thru them altho some folk do get bearing wear.

My lbs works with a charity who help blind people get out riding, their tandems use rohloff hubs, no problems.
Some of those guys are putting a fair bit of power out, so I'd guess that the same hub with only one persons power should be fine, even on mtb gearing.

Yes they stand up to the rigors of mounting biking, I have three, two purchased from new and one purchased second hand.

They are literally bomb proof, first one was purchased in 2003, still going strong, has been on two or three different bikes, survived two trips abroad to Saalbach and Chatel.

Did break a couple spokes after death gripping a rock garden in Austia (fixed in 15 min back at the hotel), it has had two sets of cables and an oil seal change which I did myself with the correct rohloff tools.

They do put all the weight in one place (back wheel) but you adapt to this and the only thing better is the pinion gearbox.
Had a Nicolai GPI with a 12 speed pinion for the last 5-6 months and........... tis a thing of wonder and delight 🙂
First time I have considered selling off the other bikes to fund a second pinion bike purchase.

There is also the very new Kindernay XIV Hub, which is supposed to be lighter than the rohloff and looks a very interesting alternative with hydraulic paddle shifter for those that don't like grip shifters.

Love gear hubs/boxes me 🙂

I love word play jes. Touchè. Bloody predictable txt failure. I'll be more observant in future.

Hey whats that lotto, what did you think I picked up on?

Your posts looks OK to me, plus I am possible the poorest typer on the planet 🙂

Oh rigours / rigors, your right, I am wrong 🙂 grr predictive text

Fwiw my cousin recently rode Leeds-Johannesburg-Chamonix-Leeds on hers and it never skipped a beat save for needing to clean a bit of sand out of the shifter after a Saharan storm. Apparently it was shifting fine, it just felt a bit gritty.
It's on its way back to southern Europe now I think.

I'd like to see another manufacturer advertise amongst its users for any hubs that had done a verifiable 100,000km and get so many responses.

Maybe Sturmey-Archer could manage it, but I can't think of any derailleur system or other hubgear that could do that.

Totally off-topic, but-

offroad racing [u]on a tandem[/u]

Shut the front door! POIDH.

Well we entered ten under the Ben on ours - not sure if that really could be called racing tho 🙂 Even if we still hold the lap record I think!

Plenty of MTB tandem racing in France

skip to 4.30 in this vid

spotted at least one with a rohloff in the vid
or this one

Nice decent at 5 mins in that one

kayla - I know TJ and his partner have raced a bit on their tandem. I also have friends in NZ who race a fair bit on their home-made FS. I know I've posted this link before but it won't hurt to link it again 😀

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/two-by-craigieburn-new-zealand-tandem-video-2014.html

Not me Jon - I have been in two races but the pace I rode at could hardly be called racing 😉

Not really adding anything new to the above, but I owned an MTB with one for 5-6 years, rode it year round and subjected it to all kinds of abuse. Needed nothing but an oil change annually/when I remembered.

Customer support is second to none - mine developed a problem with skipping under load after I removed and refitted the sprocket. Phoned up SJS (where I bought it from) and their Rohloff bloke asked if I'd cleaned the sprocket thoroughly before refitting it. Me "er, no". "Ah, well you've probably contaminated the oil inside the hub with dirt then. Send it to us and we'll sort it out"

So, having diagnosed user error on servicing, they then offered to sort this out at their expense! Posted hub to them, it came back two days later sorted and with some of the bearings replaced "because they looked like they needed doing sooner or later", all FOC.

Bloody hell! That's right up there with sidecar motocross on the 'things never to do' list 😯

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But, yeah, Rohloffs. Talk to me...

My hardtail commuter - 2700 miles/year for 4 years 40% offroad - zero problems
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My FS on one of its Alpine trips - its been back to Rohloff once in about 4000 miles for a minor oil leak - fixed & serviced FOC.
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Ridden down the Mega @ Alp d'huez
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In it natural suroundings
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They've been so reliable that I'm selling my spare hub - email in profile

What would be the best shifter option for a full loop Jones H Bar? Standard Rohloff or Co-Motion etc?