My Soma Wolverine has shed its external gears, and I had my first ride on it today.
Short story is that I really, really like it.
Long story (mini-review) is below, focusing on the four main talking points regarding Rohloffs.
But first, here it is:
Drag: barely noticed.
My main worry when I bought this thing was that the drag was going to destroy my soul, but I barely noticed it. Perhaps this was because I was expectations for drag were quite low (high, that is). Then again, testing suggests Rohloffs lose only a couple of % to a single speed drivechain, so I shouldn't be surprised. In reality, I may have lost a couple of minutes per hour (I don't accurately log my rides so can't say for sure), but I'll get more than that back in avoided maintenance, and I'd much rather spend that time on the bike at a marginally lower speed.
Weight: didn't notice it.
This was another worry I had -- that the weight would ruin the handling -- but I didn't notice anything. To be fair, this wasn't a very scientific test, as at the same time as switching to the Rohloff I made a handful of quick-weight-loss-wins, which probably offset the 600-700g that the Rohloff added. Plus, I'm riding a full-steel rig; it was never light. Nontheless, I do now have a rear-heavy bike that Rohloffs are famous for, and I noticed no adverse handling effects when my wheels were on the ground nor when hoping minor trail obstacles in a straight line -- which is all this bike needs to do.
Shifting: its complicated.
My third worry was that having to stop pedelling to shift would be frustrating. And so my third pleasant surprise was that you don't have to -- I found that if I removed any load from the pedals then I could shift a gear or two in barely half a crank rotation. That said, you really do have to completely unload it. At one point today, I was stopped at the bottom of a valley and went to dump a load of gears for the steep climb out, but the shifter felt stuck. It turns out that just the weight of my leg at 2 o'clock on the pedals is enough to prohibit shifting. Countering this is that I found the ability to shift a handful of gears without pedalling to by far more useful than I expected -- especially when riding.
Now, the shifter itself is a different story. I'm using the Comotion gripshiter on the top of my drops. It's actually really ergonomic, but it is not in an ergonomic position. I didn't find this any more inconvenient than the bar end shifter I was using before, but I imagine it would annoy anyone coming from STIs. It is very nice to have the indexing inside the hub though (unlike, say, the Alfine, you can't mis-shift a Rohloff through poor cable adjustment).
Cost: free, but expensive.
All in, it cost me a little short of £1000, which is less than I'd expected (that included various things, like new sliding dropouts that will take a QR wheel, and an inspection and wheel build from SJS Cycles, who were brilliant). The hub itself cost £600 from an Albanian guy on Pinkbike. If, in 5 years, I decide to sell it, I'll probably get that £600 back.
Summary
For an all year, all surface bike like this, for a someone like me who is easily frustrated by maintainence, and tends to ride alone at a steady pace over longish distances, a Rohloff feels a really good option. For non-technical XC it would probably be great as well -- certainly for big loops somewhere like the Dales. I'd hesitate to use one for more serious mtb -- for that and I think the weight, and shifting, would be a major tradeoff. I've been riding single speed almost exclusively for years now and for more techy riding I'll not abandon the agility and predictability of my SS. On this bike, however, I can't see myself going back to external gears.
Lots of discussion of the drag on here ( I am one that does not notice). Its possible / plausible / trailrat is convinced that the drag ramps up as more torque is applied - so a 2% loss at 200w which is insignificant but a 5% loss at 500W which is significant. This would make sense to me.
if it makes you happy then it is a winner.
looks very nice. and uncluttered.
Thanks @ton 🙂
And yes @tjagain, I think that's probably true
I wrote that review in my-post ride euphoria (actually, post post-ride-food euphoria), and if I were to add a couple more critical words now, it would be that I think I was perceiving some drag at higher power, slow candence pushes on steep climbs. That's also when shifting becomes more challenging, as unloading the pedals while keeping the cranks rotating is a fair bit more difficult at low candence.
It's difficult to know how objective my opinion on all of the above, as it's anchored in different ways. On the one hand, I'm used to riding a responsive and agile mtb, as my only bike is a single speed hardtail that goes rigid in winter. On the other, I'm used to riding roads on an 11kg steel gravel bike with 32mm tyres and a slightly grimy drivechain.
The other thing to note is the rohloff gets smoother, quieter, shifts better and less draggy the more miles you do - takes 10 000 miles just to run them in 🙂
Yea, I think it helps that mine is fairly well bedded in (although I don't know the mileage, may be it will get better)
This was a big reason why I didn't buy a new one
I forgot you bought second hand. Have you done an oil change? Might be worth it if not.
Yes, I had SJS inspect it and change the oil when they built the wheel
(you've reminded me to add a yearly reminder to my google calander though)
A mate of mine has an alfine 11 equipped bike, I’ve ridden it a couple of times, and, if you had asked me beforehand, I would say that i was the type of person who would notice any extra drag from a bike.
But the reality is, I just didn’t. I also didn’t notice the rearward weight bias which is inevitable on an IGH, not whilst riding, although it was reasonably apparent when lifting the bike up.
For the majority of riding i do, an igh would make a lot of sense, low maintenance, less to get damaged in a crash etc, and the fact that when you have 24 cans of stella in the panniers, an extra 500grams on a rear hub makes no difference 😂😂😂
Edit: Nice bike btw 👍👍
@martymac, same for me, I'm quite sensitive to a lot of things on a bike, so I was really surprised how quick I was to adapt to the Rohloff. I'll do a bigger ride this weekend so will get to see if that's still how I feel
Some more quick thoughts after a longer ride:
I still don't notice the drag, aside from steeper climbs, but that could be because it's easier to be perceptive of noise at slower speed (plus the lower gears are noisier)
I def don't notice the weight on this bike
For shifting, I think the trade-offs are more significant, but I realised that another reason I don't notice these much is that I'm used to single speed so not very sensitive to different candence, thus I probably don't shift as much as many do
The gearshift is the worst thing about the rohloff to me. Misshifts hardly happen at all but its just does not feel as nice as a good derailleur setup
Don't imagine you are definitely getting maintainance free cycling . I had one and had to send it back to Germany with play in the bearings . Also the drag was bearable in the 7 highest gears but when you went into the 7 lower gears you really did notice the drag . I got rid of mine because I was out the back of my riding group whenever I used it . I was mid pack on my derailleur equipped bike .
I have done around 20 000 miles on rohloff equipped bikes with nothing bar annual oil changes and one set of sprockets.
Of course, either of you could be outliers, more data needed ^^^
I read something by a long-term Rohloff user that suggested used hubs should cost more than new ones
Their reasoning was that a hub that's done a good few thousand miles will not only have significantly less drag, but also the Rohloffs that do properly fail tend to do so early in their life, so a used hub has been though a right-of-passage so to speak
Kind of hoping my used one is such a hub -- SJS inspected and said it looks spot on anyway
Funny, after ~5 years of Rohloff use, I've just reconfigured my bike to derailleur gears.
I am looking forward to:
• Weight: Less concentration of mass in the back wheel, which feels fine until you start wanting to do anything approaching a slightly hoppier, MTB style, when it all starts to fall away from you.
• Drag: yeah - I am not a scientist but tj's comments ring true - just a feeling that the more I put in, the more the hub takes from me, and that feeling is one that I've just had enough of. Feels to me like the top 5-10% of zing my legs might have in them gets lost somewhere in all those beautifully-machined gears.
• Mitts: bloody hell, with a Co-Motion shifter, your mitts last a matter of weeks before shredding. Not the hub's fault directly, but all part of the experience of running a Rohloff with drop bars and a Co-Motion shifter (which is otherwise excellent).
Noise wasn't an issuse for me. Mostly silent in the lower (or is it higher?) range, and a very pleasant mechanical noise at worst in the other range. I actually loved the selection of bucket-of-nails sounds it made while running in, but that had all gone by ~500 miles.
I'll doubtless miss the convenience and lack of maintenance / adjusting necessary, but I am looking forward to running my bike in a more traditional config. Even just wheeling it around the workshop (rebuild not complete yet) on its new wheels and hubs, it feels lighter and I love spinning the back wheel just to enjoy watching it spin and spin seemingly free of any friction whatsoever.
Oh and I can lose the EBB too, which never gave me any problems at all, but which I never really reconciled myself to for some reason.
Rohloffs are funny things - I love them and I'm glad I've had the experience of running one (with belt drive for a while too).
But I couldn't go on , for what seems to amount to mostly emotional or subjective reasons. It wasn't the Rohloff, it was me.
(one nicely run-in and maintained Rohloff, with Co-Motion shifter and build into Hope rim with matching front wheel, shortly available in the classifieds by the way ... supply of mitts not included...)
Rohloffs are funny things – I love them and I’m glad I’ve had the experience of running one (with belt drive for a while too).
agree with this 100%.
i used mine for 2 years solid. 8000 miles is a good old test i reckon. obviously i didnt love it enough to keep.
just shy of 1500 miles back on normal gears, and i find them better.
