Author Topic: You can fit a Rohloff Speed Hub 14 to any frame you ever saw or heard of  (Read 5220 times)

Andre Jute

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You can fit a Rohloff Speed Hub 14 to any frame end, dropout or other frame-end arrangement you can think of, including those that only the bicycle historians among us even know about. Rohloff has bent over backwards to make torque arms, monkey bones, speedbones and a wide variety of other unobtrusive torque arms/jockey wheel avoiders to enable the fitting of their hub to the least likely candidates. Rohloff also designed, and gives away the production blueprints free of charge to manufacturers, it's own very convenient OEM slider-holder rear end and the sliders which act as their own ultra-compact torque resistors while mounting everything including disc brakes neatly and very conveniently. The image below, from Rohloff's site, is just the opening page of an aladin's cave of Rohloff Speed Hub 14 mashups (if you don't know what a mashup is, ask your grandson -- Rohloff refuses to be left behind the times!).


GO TO THE ROHLOFF SPEED HUB FINDER or just click the image to be whooshed there. If you see a partially blank screen rather than a little man on a bike or "Click to use Flash", you need to install Adobe's free utility Flash to use the interactive calculator which takes you to the Rohloff Speed Hub 14 model and dedicated components for each dropout/frame end. (You should click to use Flash only once or manually disable it afterwards: it is a security hazard.)

IanW says: "In my opinion the sliding rear-wheel drop-out is probably the simplest, the chain tensioner is the laziest, and the eccentric bottom bracket is the most aesthetically pleasing." That's probably right. But one could add that the sliding Rohloff axle, torque resistor and disk brake mount, all in one, is the most versatile as well as the simplest.

Enjoy!
« Last Edit: June 14, 2019, 03:06:11 pm by Andre Jute »

PH

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For a short while I ran my Rohloff is a frame not designed for it, I was experimenting with geometry before having a custom frame built (If Thorn had been a bit quicker off the mark with the Mercury it would have saved me the trouble...) 
Anyway - I used a tensioner and apart from the aesthetics and the extra cleaning and the added risk of damage it worked fine.  What I didn't like was the ugly and awkward chainstay torque arm, it's the one thing that shouted these components have been bodged together.  There's a growing number of frames, including Thorn's Audax Mk4, that overcome this by being designed to accept the OEM2 plate.  I use one of these, along with a tensioner, on my Airnimal folder and although it can make wheel refitting a bit awkward it's vastly neater than the long torque arm.
I like the aesthetics of an EBB, I'm not sensitive enough to notice the changes it makes to the ST angle, adjusting the chain is a 5 min maintenance job that should never need doing unexpectedly.  I have no experience of the sliding dropouts, though the Paragon Rocker variation seems the neatest.  The tensioner works fine but IMO the system is better without, as for simplest, I'd expect to spend more time maintaining a tensioner (Including cleaning) than I would adjusting chain tension with an EBB or sliding dropouts. 

Andre Jute

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The only time I've ever touched the bolts that hang the rear axle hanger in the slider channel was when I changed transmission ratios, and it turned out to be a pain, not because it is intrinsically difficult but because the designed clearances on my daily bike are 1mm all round. You have to get everything just right, or stuff rubs, and the smallest adjustment can have a cascade of consequences.

Aesthetically, the Rohloff OEM designs cause a very busy rear frame-end on a touring or utility bike, unlike the EBB.

PH

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The only time I've ever touched the bolts that hang the rear axle hanger in the slider channel was when I changed transmission ratios,
Are you saying you never needed to adjust the chain tension?   :o
Quote
Aesthetically, the Rohloff OEM designs cause a very busy rear frame-end on a touring or utility bike, unlike the EBB.
Indeed, which is why I considered the Paragon worth a mention

Andre Jute

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The only time I've ever touched the bolts that hang the rear axle hanger in the slider channel was when I changed transmission ratios,
Are you saying you never needed to adjust the chain tension?   :o

Last time was when I fitted a central electric motor and my fave Surly 38T stainless chainring wouldn't fit over it, so I had to go to a bigger, dished chainring. But I don't make routine transmission length adjustments because the Rohloff requires a slack cable and the Chainglider is pretty tolerant of slack cables.