Thorn Cycles Forum
Community => Rohloff Internal Hub Gears => Topic started by: léo woodland on October 14, 2013, 10:45:26 AM
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Hi
Every time I change the oil, I dutifully follow the instruction to pump out a quantity of air. And every time I do it, I wonder why.
If I pump out air, it will only get back in as soon as I detach the syringe. So what does it achieve?
happy days
léo
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Stop asking awkward questions.
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No idea! I did the oil change this weekend and also noted that point. The pressure will equilibriate very quickly as soon as you disconnect the syringe. I follow the method to the letter including the 15min cup of tea but have never understood that bit.
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If you dont and you unscrew the syringe it spits oil out, your basicly equalising the pressure before you remove the syringe.
Hope this helps, Dave.
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I follow the method to the letter including the 15min cup of tea but have never understood that bit.
Next to their house and their car, their bike is probably the most expensive mechanical thing most people own. Well, John Saxby has his motorbike and I have some watches more expensive than my bike, but the difference is that I don't mess with the gubbins of those watches. People, probably rightly, get a bit nervous at messing with the most expensive bit of their bike, the Rohloff gearbox. It is a wonderful piece of psychology by Herr Rohloff, probably inspired by Frau Rohloff, to tell cyclists to take a break for a restorative cup of tea. That is, dispassionately considering the remoteness of the chance that you can do damage to the gearbox merely in the process of changing the oil, by far the most important instruction: take a break, drink a cup of tea until your hands stop shaking.
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.............but it doesn't specify which type/flavour of tea.
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.............but it doesn't specify which type/flavour of tea.
That choice of the tea is the bit left to you so you feel in charge (more psychology).
But I'll tell you a big secret that I discovered at this by-invitation bash in Germany where Bernd Rohloff was the guest of honour. Lady Grey tea, with extra lemon, is what real Rohloff oil-change experts drink. They all earnestly assured me so as they filched the last of the teabags I brought from home, while they changed my oil. Fortunately there was a branch of my fave supermarket in a nearby town, where I found some Rooibos, which I brewed up and hugged protectively to me, earnestly assuring them that it is the tea of men who don't get their own hands dirty at oil-change time. I must say though, my bike ran very smoothly for the year after those German experts changed my oil. There could be something in Lady Grey...
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Fantastic information Andre. The lack of detail in specifying the type of tea was another major worry. I wonder if that was the British contribution to our European friend's instructions? When writing such instructions it must be tempting to put in something utterly ludicrous to see if folk follow...!
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As a coffee drinker I now feel intimidated! One would wonder what impact on karma would be if a purchase of a rohloff were made?
By the way Andre, wasn't Rooibos what the newly elected official in Australia tossing around. Are you sure that it is safe to drink?
Tom
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Tea and an oil change, and the proper kind of tea, too! Oi, oi, oi -- getting a wee bit apprehensive about the web of ritual that seems to surround the Rohloff, until now sitting quiet and innocent (or so I thought) in my basement, waiting to assume its Rightful Place in the Scheme of Things later this winter, tucked in between the chainstays of a New Raven frame...
But Andre's story brings to mind a similar account of the discipline and order which Daily Ritual ensures in our lives: Some years ago, a friend was living in a small country town in southern Zambia. His domestic worker, a kindly older gent named Samuel, was an ace at baking bread. My friend, mightily impressed by the calm regularity with which Samuel produced a couple of really good loaves each week, thought that he should bring the recipe back to Canada. So, he asked Samuel if he could write down his recipe for his superb bread. Samuel was surprised and delighted, and only too happy to oblige.
His recipe went like this: Put flour and yeast and a little salt into a bowl. Mix mix mix. Add water. Mix mix mix. Put bowl in window in sun and cover with towel. Take bike to town, have a cold drink, get newspaper, come home. Punch bread, punch punch punch. Make tea and turn on cooker to heat up oven. After one cup of tea, punch bread, punch, punch, punch. (Etc...)
It was a wonderful recipe, but turned out it didn't travel so well to Toronto -- my friend could never match Samuel's masterpieces. I reckon he never quite nailed the rituals.
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It was a wonderful recipe, but turned out it didn't travel so well to Toronto -- my friend could never match Samuel's masterpieces. I reckon he never quite nailed the rituals.
Humph! Obviously, it was down to the difference in distance for the bike ride to/from town...
;)
Wonderful story, John!
Best,
Dan.
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John,
As an old and retired cop, it is obvious to me that Samuel deliberately led you poor friend awry. Not telling him the brand of beer, or the name of the news paper doomed the recipe.
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The adrenalin pumped into my system by sitting at my desk laughing aloud probably added three months to my life. Thank you, gentlemen. You are priceless.
Off for a ride while the energy boost lasts.
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I rarely drink tea but have a large cup of coffee next to my keyboard right now. Does that mean I should have bought a different brand of hub instead of Rohloff?
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No, but you will probably void your guarantee if you try an oil change!
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have a large cup of coffee next to my keyboard right now
Sailin' a bit close to the wind there, mikeg, and your trusty Rohloff may not help you...
Had my first exposure to computers while working in Zambia about 30 years ago. My instructor, Peter, was a friend & colleague who worked as a data management specialist for a very large international company. Our organization had invested in the original Macs, and Peter was showing us what to do. "This is a computer," he said, "and here, round the back, in the On/Off switch. Do not, do not, do not touch this switch! First thing you do is take your coffee cup off your desk beside the keyboard"--he carefully removed my cup--"and put it on your bookshelf a yard away. Now you may touch the On/Off switch."
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All I know is that when I drank coffee, it didn't stop my Shimano hub gearbox wearing out.
You think maybe I was supposed to drink the oil and put the coffee in the gearbox?
Come to think of it, Jags sent me a tube of Phil's Tenacious Grease which smells good enough to eat...
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Andre,
I'm pretty sure that Shimano recommends a half fifth of Johnny Walker Black prior to messing with its' hub. That is in the US, have not a clue for Ireland.
Back to the Rohloff. Will they make you take a polygraph it you send in the hub under warranty reasons and tell them you did drink the tea?
Tom
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Seriously though, I reckon that Rohloff must give some pretty dicey owners the benefit of the doubt in order to protect their extraordinary reputation for generosity under the warranty, probably everybody who didn't leave toolmarks on the hub! And I don't even know how they would tell: after all, a Rohloff is a rough road touring hub, so a well-used example is bound to pick up the odd scratch. Eventually even the Rohloff of a guy we know to be careful with his property, say Dan, will pick up a scratch or an abrasion from the dust or a broken branch in the places were he goes. I can't quite see Rohloff turning him away.
Anyone who's bought and sold a few old cars or planes or ships gets a feeling for the cowboys: they have a certain loose style with the facts, and as soon as you handle whatever they're selling, you notice the bit of extra play here and there, and if you're smart (most collectors aren't, they're obsessed), you back away smiling, hand firmly clasping your chequebook. I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Rohloff has a very finely developed feel for the extra bit of play that shouldn't be there, that signals an abused hub rather than a hard-used hub.