freewheel stiff

[nicknoxx]

Hello

My Rohloff is quite stiff. By that I mean that if I turn the wheel by hand (with the back wheel off the ground and the chain removed) it stops moving very quickly. What are the likely causes?

Thanks, Nick

[julk]

I would reckon the oil seals are working adding the 'stiffness', probably not worth worrying about unless there are other symptoms.

[rualexander]

I think this is fairly normal, ours has always been like that.

[expr]

Hello Nick, this can be caused by a few issues. Has this allways been like this or has it just started.

First of all friction can be caused by several parts within the hub not aligning, by the oil seals, or very poor meshing of the final driver hub onto the primary outer planet gear.

I have found in the past that the likely cause of poor friction is caused by the final driver not seating within the main hub outer bearing properly. This is easy to fix and requires only a small (RUBBER) hammer or preferably a rubber hammer filled with shot.

You will need to take the wheel out and apply several short and small blows to the non sprocket side, this will seat the bearing in to the driver properly, try turning also the wheel as you apply the blows to the hub, try to apply the force directly to the face of the hub.

One symptom of this is excessive turning of the cranks when pushing the bike.

The oil seals shouldn't cause an excessive amount of friction unless they have become very dry, no oil in hub!

[rualexander]

I've tried the rubber mallet thing a couple of times but it made no difference.

[expr]

If the bearing is lodged in on the squint it can take quite a bit to release the stress.

[nicknoxx]

Hello Nick, this can be caused by a few issues. Has this allways been like this or has it just started.

I think it's always been like this but I bought the hub second hand.

One symptom of this is excessive turning of the cranks when pushing the bike

This happens all the time.
I'll give it a go, thanks

[Andre Jute]

Hello

My Rohloff is quite stiff. By that I mean that if I turn the wheel by hand (with the back wheel off the ground and the chain removed) it stops moving very quickly. What are the likely causes?

Thanks, Nick

One more thing you could do. Check the clamping tension on the axle. For instance, on the CC quick release hubs, it should be between 3Nm and a *maximum* of 7Nm.  If you have removed the QR and replaced it with hex drive spindle, unless you use a torque wrench, it is easy to exceed these low clamping forces. If you don't have a torque wrench, use a hex wrench with a very short shaft, or hold the shaft close to the bolt-head. On the stand I torque the hex-head spindle in my Rohloff to 5Nm and on the road use my favourite travel tool, the Topeak Tool Bar, which is only about 3in long, barely big enough to handle, and pay attention to what I'm doing.

You might like to remove the wheel, reinsert it, do up the axle fastener, whatever it is, merely by finger pressure, and seeing if that improves the spinning performance.

Others have already observed that the Rohloff doesn't spin as freely as other hubs. There is no reason why it should and several reasons why it should slow down faster from a free spin, among them weight and the friction between more complicated internals; it would require a lockout clutch to spin as freely as anything else, and then the inertial differential of its greater weight would still slow it faster. To compare a Rohloff hub with a derailleur isn't on: a fairer comparison would be with another gear hub, and I must report that my Shimano Nexus and Cyber Nexus hubs don't spin as freely as the derailleur hubs of the pedal pals.

****
I use the BBB box set torque wrench kit, probably the most useful all round tool in my toolbox, which comes with a good selection of useful bits, to which I have added a T20 for Rohloff work. I bought mine second hand from an LBS but you needn't pay the premium price for the BBB brand. The same toolkit is about 2/3 the price in the Mighty and Cyclo brands.

Andre Jute
 The rest is magic hidden in the hub.
For rare hub gear bikes, visit Jute on Bicycles at
 http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/BICYCLE%20%26%20CYCLING.html