Rohloff Speedhub Review

From the outside, the Rohloff Speedhub is elegantly simple - external drivetrains are a mechanical marvel, but asthetically, they're clutter. The single speed looking Rohloff is no less a technical marvel, but it's hidden. It's a pretty intricate piece of machinery.

There are a few main criticisms of the hub, namely lack of user serviceability, weight, and shifting feel, and cost.

1. Serviceability. From the picture above, it should be apparent that unless you're a mechanical engineer and a lot of time on your hands, don't attempt doing anything to this hub. Having said that, it's designed for a long service life. I've had mine for 4 days now, so I'm completely unqualified to comment. However, I did as much searching as I could to understand what I was getting into before plunking down my hard earned Loonies. Sheldon Brown also went through the same search, and found no hub failures to report (fifth line down). I've hardly heard a bad word about their long term reliability, conversely, I've heard more stories of impressively excessive service life's up to 100,000km. It comes with a little hose that I'm supposed to use to change the oil annually. I think that's a workable amount of time to spend on a drivetrain. I aspire to own a bike that's awesome to ride, yet that I can pull out of the garage nearly every day of the year, and put back into the garage every day of the year, with absolutely minimal maintenance. Oil chain, add tension when it stretches, and change oil once a year is supposedly what this drivetrain needs.

2. Weight. I don't have an exact weight for it, as I've only had it when it was built into the wheel. It feels heavy because it is weight is concentrated in one spot. I've seen it quoted as weighing 200g more than an XTR drivetrain, but since you're rarely able to hold all the parts of your XTR drivetrain in one spot, you never feel that weight the same way when doing simple hand tests. But let's be honest, most of the time the guy with the lightest bike isn't the first to the top of the hill. Another comment I've heard is that it throws off the balance of the bike. I suspect that's driven by the bike a bit. I don't notice it on a 29er with a "heavy" frame (straight guage ti front triangle to accommodate the S&S couplers), not to mention that for the maiden voyage I've got the monster tires on. I suppose on a weight weenie bike, that the comment would "hold more weight", to speak in a bad pun. I do the front tire up, reweight foreward, back tire up curb hop all the time. Only when I approach really fast, say above 30km/h, do I bother bunnyhopping. The rear hub weight doesn't really even register on my conscience doing this manouever. I guess I'm congnizant that there's some mass there, but I don't agree with the claim that "it throws off the balance of the bike".

I'd go so far as to say that if these things weighed 1lb less, they'd have a market on nearly every bike on earth. Weight is really the only detractor, and it's not all that bad.

3. Shifting feel. I'd heard a lot of description written about Rohloff hubs. Reflecting back, they now all make sense. But it's tough to describe the tactile sense of it in words. It's secure and solid feeling above all else. The shifts aren't as microsecond fast as XTR, maybe they take three quarters of a second to happen. Shifting seems deliberate. The tradeoff is that once you're in a gear, you're in it for sure. It feels like having 14 different single speed bikes with you, you can stand and give it you're all in any gear, and there will not be any skipping around. Chain suck isn't going to happen, and as long as you tension right, you won't lose a chain off the front or into the rear spokes. The gears are linear, and evenly spaced, so you achieve a similar (nearly identical) range to a Shimano drivetrain as long as you pick the right front and rear gears to set your bike up with. Which means you don't have to think about front derailleurs, and to be honest, I don't miss them so far.

One point to make here is that the shifting feel isn't variable. If it's muddy beyond all belief, it shifts exactly the same as when it's clean. The indexing is inside the hub, rather than in the shifter. And the cables pull both ways, so you don't have to rely on the strength of a spring to overcome muddy cable friction (the cables are fully housed anyway).

My riding isn't typified by a lot of rapid fire shifting, it's shift when needed, look ahead, and avoid panic gear jamming. The gearing range is impressively wide, same as the standard Shimano mountain bike setup. It's like riding a single speed by more than just asthetic, the gearing feels solid. Again, there is no threat of skipping gears under full torque, it feels like you could put out the torque of a tractor without upseting the Rohloff. It's German. That means it feels ridiculously solid and reliable.

It makes some sound in some gears, in others it's silent. The sound isn't annoying, I actually find it pleasant. It's like the sound of a giant, oversize Swiss watch with its gears meshing... which is exactly what the Rohloff is in many ways.

There is some friction in the lowest gears, eating away at your power. To be honest, I can hear it, but I don't notice it... which is really a result of my frame. The chainstays are longer for the 29er wheel, putting the rear wheel further behind my center of gravity, so I'm finding I can more easily climb ridiculously steep grades... the front end never gets squirrley. I haven't noticed the effect of power sapping.

The ability to shift while stationary is neat, I enjoy it. You don't need it, as on a regular bike you just get in the habit of thinking 5 seconds ahead. But it is useful. Let's say you're coasting down a technical downhill, then see a log ahead that you need to be in a certain gear to get over. With the Rohloff, you just switch gears, no need to pedalstroke to get into your new gear while you're descending. But I can see that once the look ahead to shift habit is broken, it'll feel odd going back to external drivetrain bikes.

4. Cost. You get what you pay for. I think this thing cost $1,100. That's expensive for one part. But considering that it's competitive with an XTR drivetrain. If it lasts like it's supposed to, and if it saves me the hassle of drivetrain maintenance, skipped gears, degradation of performance in the various weather nature throws out, it's worth it.

After riding one for a few days now, I liken it to a Mac vs. PC debate. The funtionality and robustness is there, it does exactly what it's supposed to do: it gives your bike many gear ranges at the tip of your fingers, regardless of weather. But all that's presented to the user is the end utility in a hassle free manner - there's nothing that asks for, or invites, tinkering and tweaking. The intracacy is hidden from the user, so the user must think about only the end result, not how to tweak the system. This aspect appeals to me.

These will likely go carbon shelled and weight weenied at some point like the rest of the bike industry, at which point they will be a superior choice versus almost anything else out there. I say almost anything, because I hold out for the day when NuVinci doubles it's gear ratio range and get's the weight down to 2lbs rather than 10lbs... less moving parts is almost always better!