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Rohloff factory tour in photos and text

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Danneaux:
Hi All!

There is a nice writeup on Bikepacking.com, showing some of the Rohloff production process in photos and text...
https://bikepacking.com/plog/inside-rohloff/?fbclid=IwAR1plZoTIrGo-Px-bALhkQIfGrPRKP5nGlu3OYyIVS1hhbRe0nuTrGXCRX0

Similar "tours" include...
Schmidt (SON) dynamo hubs...
https://bikepacking.com/plog/inside-son-dynamo-hubs/
...and...
Ortlieb bags...
https://bikepacking.com/plog/inside-ortlieb/

There are more, similar stories at Bikepacking.com, but these are the ones most likely to be of broadest interest here.  :)

Best, Dan.

mickeg:
Thanks for posting.

A few months ago I posted this, link is to an eight year old video but a really good one on seeing how they build up a Rohloff in the factory.


--- Quote from: mickeg on May 06, 2023, 06:25:50 pm ---Ahhh, one more video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHiBcXukmOM

At about 2:34 he starts describing (in German) the shifting mechanism.

And at about 4:29 he turns the shifter with a wrench and ... you have to watch it.

I started laughing as the parts went flying.

--- End quote ---

I just watched that part at about four and a half minutes again where the parts went flying, and I started laughing again.

Since I have no clue how to install a pawl spring, that convinced me that if I tried to take mine apart, I would probably never be able to use it again.

Danneaux:

--- Quote ---Since I have no clue how to install a pawl spring...
--- End quote ---
As it probably would be for most of us, George.

My only past experience with pawl spring replacement was on the old Regina (Extra, Oro) freewheels. They seemed to eat pawl springs and could leave one stranded roadside. Owners soon learned they could get home by cobbling up a fixed-gear of sorts by using a toe strap robbed from a clip to secure the freewheel to the spokes and riding ever so gently the rest of the way, hoping there would be no hills. Pawl springs were in short supply, so I wound my own using first guitar strings, then piano wire. I always took a couple in my tool bag, along with a small centerpunch. The drill (usually done in the rain and with darkness falling -- these things never failed at a good time) was to use a roadside rock as a hammer on the center punch to spin off the cover plate, then catch the outer set of fine 1/8in ball bearings, being careful not to release the set in the second race at the rear. Dental floss came in handy to hold the pawls closed. At that point, the old springs could be swapped for newer ones, the process reversed and hopefully one could be on their way again. That is assuming one of the vital small parts did not get lost in the grass.

It is no surprise I embraced SunTour 3.3.3 freewheels as soon as they appeared. I never had trouble with them or the later Pro-Compe and Ultra-series SunTour freewheels.

Almost as much fun was removing a punctured sew-up tubular tire from where it was glued on the rim, dousing the tires in water from a bidon to find the leak, then cutting the stitching to patch the tube. Of course the casing had to be resewn without nicking the tube and the lot wrestled back onto the rim where one hoped the old glue might still hold (having discovered your tube of Tubast had dried out since last use and would be no help at all) before riding gingerly onward.

Good times.  ;) ;D Clincher rims/tires and removable innertubes made cycling life a whole lot simpler and easier, especially for the touring cyclist, though I do remember the nice ride from my Clément Criterium Seta Extras.

Best, Dan.

mickeg:
I never had that experience with freewheels.  Interesting.  I usually used Suntour freewheels, it was easy to switch sprockets to make a custom freewheel.

The clincher tires available in the 1970s in 27X1 1/4 were not very good, I got lucky and got an early 1960s Italian bike used that had tubular tires in the late 1970s.  That italian bike was my first Regina cluster experience.  I did make a custom Regina, but every sprocket was threaded on and that was harder to make a custom cluster.

I never went far with my tubular tires, was always nervous about a flat and when I got a flat I walked it home.  One exception, I signed up for a group century, rode that bike and fortunately did not have a flat.  Carried a spare tire on that ride.  That was in the early 1980s, weather forecasts back then were poor, and had about 3 inches of unexpected snow during the last part of the century.  I managed to get lucky and got a ride in a pickup truck during the last 15 miles, did not ride the last of the century.  The headwind in blowing snow was a real pain in the rear.

That group century was before triathalons existed.  It was called the Minnesota Ironman, only cycling, no running, no swimming.  I was surprised later to hear that some other organizations took the Ironman name for their competitions, I was surprised that they could steal a copyrighted name.  Was curious, Minnesota Ironman still exists.
https://ironmanbikeride.org/

JohnR:
Thanks for posting. It's interesting that Rohloff has doubled the output in recent years due to demand from e-bike manufacturers. That also says a lot for the underlying robustness given that other hubs offering fewer gears are much less expensive. I wasn't aware that Rohloff only does the assembly any sub-contracts the component manufacture subject to strict quality control.

I've yet to figure out the excitement surrounding pinion gearboxes given that the frames have to be specially made but I've not yet noticed the impact on the ride quality caused by the weight of a Rohloff hub being at the back (where is also most of the weight of the rider and baggage). Kindernay introduced their Rohloff clone which has some useful improvements but, when I checked a few days ago, prices were higher than Rohloff and there was no stock.

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