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Whilst clearing long grass and weeds from my cassette this morning whilst out on a ride through over grown bridleways, I thought to myself "I bet you don't get any of these issues with a geared hub, and being higher up won't be affected by mud either"
I just wanted to ask.
1. From threads I have read they don't work well on a full susser?
2. If I do buy one for my hard tail bike, can I run my current chain set and chain or do you have to go for a single front chain ring setup?
Thanks
I used mine on a hardtail with an EBB (it's now on my road bike) so not a direct comparison but here's my ha'pennyworth.
You probably can use on a full suss with a chain tensioner.
Again with a tensioner you could use your existing front rings but most people run them with a single ring because the large gaps between gears compared to a derailleur means the benefits are marginal. My Alfine 8 has a range of just over 300% (difference between top and bottom gears) which was equivalent to 27 of the 30 gears on my Shimano 105 road set. I'd imagine it'd be similar for a MTB setup.
you can run a 9 spd chain and chainrings but a singlespeed chainring is better especially if you have to run a tensioner
The weight of the rear hub will affect a full sus. Dunno who noticeable it would be
Ok I am running 3 x FS with Rohloffs with various setups and travel one as a DH bike.
I use the the Rohloff tensioner, single ringle up front, 3/32 chain, bit more weight to the rear but it's not a problem.
I have run the one hub since 2004 on a variety of bikes and usage includes uplifts and 2 trips to the Alps, minium maintenance which includes a yearly oil change, 1 x set of seals, 1 x sprocket, 2-3 sets of cables.
In a word bombproof and uber reliable the only thing I would change is a TS axel (nut)rather than QR to stiffen the rear end.
Also have 2 x HT with sliding dropouts running an Alfine 8 and 11, the 8 is solid, performs well and stiff with the nutted axel but has a limited gear range.
The 11 seems very sensitive to cable tension even on the HT and have read issues where is was used on an FS bike.
As you can see I like IGH but you can still long grass caught in the chain, sprocket and tensioner, not as big a problem but it does happen 🙂
However the a pinion 18 frame like the Nicolai Helius Am will be the future.
Given that an 11 speed rear hub will give you the same range as a 27 speed setup the ratios between the gears when running a single front ring must be massive. I imagine this must be annoying if you like to keep a constant cadence when you ride?
Given that an 11 speed rear hub will give you the same range as a 27 speed setup the ratios
It doesn't. Alfine 11 is 409%, Rohloff 526% (which gives about the same as 22/32/44 with a 11-32 cassette). Pinion is 600% 🙂
I imagine this must be annoying if you like to keep a constant cadence when you ride?
The jumps aren't too bad on Alfine and although I've only ridden a Rohloff (on a FS) for a few miles off-road, the gear steps felt fine. If you think constant cadence is important, you may not like them. I'm used to SS so wide cadence range is ok for me. Hub gears feel less direct than SS / mechs and that's the only thing I don't like, but the actual losses are minimal overall. A couple/few % maybe, on average. The durability is generally good and the steps probably aren't an issue if you do the kind of riding where that durability is needed.
TBH I think the steps between 9 or 10psd derailleur gears are smaller than we really need and 'constant cadence' isn't that important for anyone but lactic-threshold racers, I'd rather see a similar overall range with maybe 7 or 8 gears max, a wider chain or more tolerance for mud and wear, less wide freehubs, less clicks to hit the right(ish) gear, etc.
and remeber with the "27" speed some of the gears are duplicated and some are unusable
And Rohloff is fine on a suspension bike. It does add a chunk of weight to the rear end but so do DH rims and tyres -
Mavic 717 + Maxxis ignitor exception 2.35 - 395+ 600 = 995g
Mavic 325 + High Roller 2.5 ST UST 715 + 1250 = 1965g
That's significantly more than a Rohloff adds. It definitely has an effect but the idea that suspension doesn't work with a heavier back wheel is wrong
Cadence definitely isn't a problem with Rohloff off road as you very rarely get the sort of long constant gradient you get on big road climbs where that becomes important. Pretty sure Rohloff steps are very close to off road cassette jumps anyway (and you never get the multi shifting needed when you change rings at the front.)
I run an Alfine 8 on my hardtail. Use a singlespeed specific chainring, but bog-standard 8 speed chain. You notice the shift of weight to the back, at first the rear tyre feels soft, a bit of extra air sorts that out. Otherwise, it just works really well, good shifts in all weathers, without much of a cleaning regime. Repairing punctures can be a slight faff. My bike has an EBB which negates the need for a tensioner, personally I prefer slidy dropouts though.
As above, it is possible to set up a Rohloff or Alfine on a FS; on some (zero chain growth) bikes it may be possible to set it up without tensioner, but otherwise a tensioner should do the trick. And yes, you'd generally go with a single ring up front; the Rohloff gives you 14 evenly spaced gears (think about excluding the overlapping gears from a standard 27-gear setup and it's not as small a range as you might think; I generally found I was missing 1 or 2 gears at the top or bottom, depending on chainring size).
One thing to consider is weight distribution. In theory a Rohloff weighs as much as a regular transmission, but that weight is all in the back wheel. You wouldn't think it should make a difference, but in practice I found my bike felt less... lively than when it had a regular transmission. Obviously, YMMV.