Rohloff vs Derailleur on the hills

[sg37409]

I was talking about similar bikes as well. My RST is a high-end sporty touring bike. Not really bothered about weight.
If I was to pay similar money for a deraillered machine, I would expect it to have a few kilos lighter, with better shifters.

I enjoy the rohloff greatly, its the bike I ride by far the most, but I am not saying its better in every respect to deraillers.

I was talking about comparisons with a similar type of bike. My Rohloff is on a Thorn Nomad so comparable to derailleur MTB tourers like Surly LHT, not a schmick Cervelo. The weight difference is well over-stated - apart from super-light racing gears, when you add in all the component changes in conversion, it is probably less than 200g difference, if that. When I built my Nomad up, it came out to exactly the same weight as the Giant Sedona MTB tourer it replaced, even with the heavier Rigida Andra 30 rims  (just using a basic scales).

Gear steps -  also talking about similar gearing set-ups ie. touring/MTB derailleur and wide-range cassette. The Roohloff was designed to replicate the typical MTB range - at the time of design it was comparable to the 8 spd (later 9 spd gave a slightly wider range possible using the 11t).

Shifting speed - my personal experience looking at Rohloff compared to a touring range is the Rohloff is noticeably better shifting, especially on the down-shift (except for 8-->7 of course). Derailleur gears you have a lever throw, with a lagging chain shift to the lower gear; changing up is quicker. With the Rohloff it's just a twist and the change is always instantaneous - up or down. A nice 11-25 road cassette will of course shift quicker, but Rohloff was never intended to be racing-oriented gear.

Just my experience.

[E-wan]

The weight difference is well over-stated - apart from super-light racing gears, when you add in all the component changes in conversion, it is probably less than 200g difference, if that.

Would it not matter that in a derailleur setup more of the weight is not rotational whereas for the rohloff the there is more weight rotating in the hub (all be it closer to the axel than the rim and tyre so making less difference.)

A rohloff hub weighs more than an XT or hope hub

Ewan

[il padrone]

Rotating weight difference (within reason) is not a major issue, really only mattering for acceleration ie. sprinting. This is not an normally issue, generally nor on climbs, unless you're Bradley Wiggins.