Broken flanges on Rohloff hubs

[Steve Lord]

I've seen a couple of stories on the web where the spokes on a Rohloff pulled through from the flange. Sorry I can't find them at the moment but if you search on Rohloff problems they come up. Does anyone know if Rohloff has addressed the problem or is it just due to abnormally heavy loads?

[Robin Thorn]

Hi Steve, nice book by the way, thanks!
WRT your post, not having seen any examples of "pulled spokes" (not quite sure what you mean by this), I can't comment but we
have SEEN several derailleur hubs (XTR among them) which have lost an entire chunk of flange.
Such failures are either due to crash damage or an undetectable small flaw in the alloy billet. Rohloff use aerospace alloys but even Boeings occasionally drop out of the sky. The only way to be really certain that you never have a component failure is to never buy a component and never fly, drive a car, descend stairs or boil a kettle.
There is no "problem" with Rohloff hubs.

[Steve Lord]

OK I managed to find the case I was thinking of.  I'm sure the number of events such as this are undoubtedly extremely small (I read one other story last year) and that 'non-crash' stories don't make the news, but to those of us who own a Rohloff, it's of interest and maybe there's something to learn, though I accept you're surely right, this is just one of those things that can happen on a hard, heavily-loaded ride.

http://homepage.mac.com/isaetterry/pagestoplevel/pageequipment.htm

Scroll down to third photo under heading 'Rohloff hub/shifter'.

Thanks for looking at it,
Steve.

[Robin Thorn]

Ah yes, i didn't realise that this was what you meant by pulling through. We have seen spokes break, and this is the ONLY time we've come accross a flange failure (it happened to be on one of our bikes!) we never saw it though as it was in NZ, they were not stopped from cycling by it, they could have drilled a new hole if they'd wanted. Rohloff organised a new shell with the NZ distributor, they were able to cycle to the distributor to have it repaired. I'm not aware that Rohloff have any time limit on shell warranty, in any event, if there were to be a failure of a shell on one of our expedition bikes, WE would warrant the shell for life if Rohloff wouldn't!!! This is ONE isolated failure, cause unknown, probably defective billet.

[wowbagger]

My wife and I broke a hub flange whilst on the Great Glen Way last April. We completed the ride (Land's End - John O'Groats) and Thorn replaced the hub shell. We are heavyweights and it was an unsupported tour, ergo full panniers.

Today I was cleaning the tandem and found fractures to the hub flange on 7 out of the 8 non-drive trailing spokes. It being the weekend, I'll have to wait until Monday to see what happens. RT's comment about lifetime warranty is reassuring, but it does make me wonder why the hub shell isn't made out of stainless steel.

Pictures

[freddered]

That's truly worrying.  I eagerly anticipate an SJSC reply on this. (2 similar incidents on 2 different hubs for same person, is that 1000:1 odds multiplied by 1000:1 odds?, if so I'd buy a lottery ticket quick) 

Your latest incident of cracks appearing all around the hub seems to open up the possibility of a catastrophic wheel failure/collapse.  Not my idea of fun, especially on a Tandem.

I hasten to add that I checked my 2 year-old, 5000 mile hub and it looks fine.  Still, would be nice to hear a technical explanation.

[geocycle]

It is indeed a worry.  The odds of that happening twice to the same person should be minute given the >93,000 undamaged hubs reportedly in use (about 1 in 4 million even if we assume 50 cases).  There have been a number of these incidents reported on various forums.  The majority (although not all) affect tandems and it looks IMO as though there might be issues that need resolving for this application -48 spokes perhaps? 

It is worth remembering that other hubs fail in similar ways and I've seen examples of campag and rolf hubs similarly broken posted on the web.  However, given the relatively small number of Rohloff hubs in circulation the incidence of this type of failure, it does seem greater, even allowing for the fact that Rohloff users are more likely to be enthusiasts pushing bikes to their limit and frequenting cycling forums.

What's the alternative -stainless steel, bigger flanges?

[freddered]

There's also the case that ANY Rohloff issue is reported widely, even spoke breakages (which don't make the 'front page' of cycling forums for any other type of hub).

[geocycle]

There's also the case that ANY Rohloff issue is reported widely, even spoke breakages (which don't make the 'front page' of cycling forums for any other type of hub).

I agree Fred!

Nevertheless, the odds indicate that it is very unlikely for this to happen at random to the same person twice.  Therefore, to my mind it is either something to do with the batch of hubs, the wheelbuild, or the particular usage made of the hub by wowbagger.  A heavily laden tandem is a relatively extreme application but one that is promoted in the literature as being within the rohloff's compass.

[vik]

This guy's Rohloff hub flange cracked in Tibet. 

http://tinyurl.com/24knh5

These folks had their Rohloff hub flange crack in Bolivia:

http://www.hrpu.co.uk/karennben/notes.html

I think Robin's point about anything failing at some point is valid and it isn't like Rohloff hubs are blowing up left and right - however I do think anyone buying one for touring remote parts of the world has to consider the possibility they will have a problem and make peace with the fact the solution will be to wait for replacement parts.  With friction shifters and a dérailleur you can be back in business fairly quickly any place where they've got inexpensive mtn bikes to cannibalize parts from.   

[PH]

These folks had their Rohloff hub flange crack in Bolivia:

And Rohloff got them a replacement within three days.  In the absense of any indistuctable component I think that's the next best thing.
I'm a keen as anyone to hear the explanation and outcome of this case.  But the speed that bad news travels often gets in the way of reason, some people have come to conclusions and suggested solutions before the manufacturer has even seen the hub.

[freddered]

If Robin Thorn reads this thread would you be kind enough to assure me that the lifetime 'Free of charge' replacement/fix gurantee of the Rohloof hub is still in place, including P&P ?

Mine is currently running perfectly and getting better by the oil-change (2 years & 6000 miles) but just in case.

[wheezy]

Doesn't someone have an answer to this yet?

[paulhipwood]

Hi All

Well it has happened to me!!!!!

I put my bike on the work stand after my commute and found that the back wheel had a buckle. This was caused by the non drive side of the flange having cracked and one spoke was out of position.

So the bike is off the road and I am not too sure of the outcome.
It has made me realise that purchasing a Rohloff leaves you isolated when you have a problem.

Will let you know how the problem is resolved.

paul

[geocycle]

Tough luck Paul, I hope it's quickly resolved.  What sort of bike was it used on and what sort of riding do you do??? Has it done a lot of miles?