Struggle to reattach rolhoff

[sd]

I put the bike in gear one undid the bayonet fittings with ease but really struggled to reattach one of them. The rack didn't help and I did loosen the cables at the cable tighteners. In the end I moved the wheel forward a bit. My local bike shop fitted new cables a while back other than that I can't think of any other reason why I struggled for so long. It does have to be in gear 1 or 14 to take the wheel out?

[PH]

There is a bit of an art to it, but when set up correctly the adjustment screws should be about half way out, screwing these all the way in should give plenty of slack.  I replaced one grub screw on each part of the fitting with a cap head, it makes them easier to grip, particularly useful with cold hands.
I never found it made any difference which gear it was in.

[geocycle]

It sounds like the cables are too tight.  You can run them really slack and it will still shift OK, try backing off the tension further and check they are properly seated in the shifter. You can connect them in any gear.  I have vertical dropouts and I cannot move the wheel so I also have the internal cables orientated at 10 o'clock in line with the seat stay, check the orientation of yours is optimal.

[mickeg]

Sometimes the cable housing can hang up, for example not being fully inserted into the shifter.  If your cable suddenly seems to be about 10mm too short, check the cables to make sure they are seated properly.