Rohloff axle ring assembly and gear selection problems

[chillmoister]

I've just spent several hours puzzling over and eventually solving the following problem.

I recently returned my Rohloff hub/wheel back to Rohloff, via Thorn, to get an oil leak fixed; it was leaking from the drive side, behind the sprocket ..nothing too serious but I wanted to get it sorted out.  The hub/wheel arrived back yesterday and was fitted back into the bike ...however when riding it today I noticed that the grip shift now registered '2' when the bike was in 1st gear and that I could not engage 14th as I couldn't shift far enough to engage it.  I had not changed any of the shifter cables so something must have changed within the hub assembly.  I spoke to the helpful folks at Thorn but they couldn't think of anything obvious but agreed to collect the bike and get it sorted.  However being of the engineering persuasion and not wanting to be without my bike for another couple of weeks I decided to investigate further.  Eventually after much head scratching and reading of the rohloff manual I cam to the conclusion that the hub must have been out in the wrong gear when the gear cable assembly was re-fitted after the hub was re-sealed resulting in the gear cable being in the wrong position for the selected gear.  The manual states that the hub should be in 14th when changing the gear cable but that assumes you are starting from scratch and not refitting a good gear cable pulley with cables the correct length and the black sleeves in place.  So with a bit of experimentation I worked out that the Hub needs to be in 8th when refitting the complete cable pulley assembly...experimentation showed it must have been in 7th when Roholoff rebuilt the hub.  Once I had done this , refitted the hub and changer cables the grip shift now registered the hub gear correctly and I could once again engage all 14 gears. Hurrahh

I assume the same process would be true when replacing the whole axle ring assembly , which is sold as a spare part by Thorn.  I would highly recommend one of these as I can now completely agree that you would not want to try and fit a new gear cable on the cable pulley at the roadside as it is a right fiddly job!!

Hopefully this post will help someone in the future!!

One final thought ...the customer service I have received from Thorn has been superb ...thanks to Lisa and Rob

[pdamm]

I had my internal gear cable fail on my Raven Tour after ~19,500km (I was planning on changing it at 20,000km).  The mechanism of failure was that it started to fray then the frayed end then started to coil up inside the mechanism and jammed it.  Over the space of about 10 gear changes I went from first noticing a bit of additional stiffness to only being able to select gears 1-5 to only being able to select gears 1 and 2.  Luckily it happened just as I was arriving home at the end of a ride!  I followed the instructions from Thorn and it is all better now.

I was wondering what sort of life do others get out of the cable in the axel ring assembly?

Peter

[PeLu]

I was wondering what sort of life do others get out of the cable in the axel ring assembly?

I may have 20,000-25,000km on it and a friend got ~26,000 when it was replaced without urgent need (there was a different problem and Rohloff changed it, but it already started to fray).

[stutho]

I've got ~ 18000km on mine.  I recently checked it (last month),  it looked fine.  Having said that last year I purchased a replacement cable ready for when I need it!  I will probably do a pre-emptive change at Christmas ~20Mm.

StuTho

[ALMEIDA]

I've just spent several hours puzzling over and eventually solving the following problem.

I recently returned my Rohloff hub/wheel back to Rohloff, via Thorn, to get an oil leak fixed; it was leaking from the drive side, behind the sprocket ..nothing too serious but I wanted to get it sorted out.  The hub/wheel arrived back yesterday and was fitted back into the bike ...however when riding it today I noticed that the grip shift now registered '2' when the bike was in 1st gear and that I could not engage 14th as I couldn't shift far enough to engage it.  I had not changed any of the shifter cables so something must have changed within the hub assembly.  I spoke to the helpful folks at Thorn but they couldn't think of anything obvious but agreed to collect the bike and get it sorted.  However being of the engineering persuasion and not wanting to be without my bike for another couple of weeks I decided to investigate further.  Eventually after much head scratching and reading of the rohloff manual I cam to the conclusion that the hub must have been out in the wrong gear when the gear cable assembly was re-fitted after the hub was re-sealed resulting in the gear cable being in the wrong position for the selected gear.  The manual states that the hub should be in 14th when changing the gear cable but that assumes you are starting from scratch and not refitting a good gear cable pulley with cables the correct length and the black sleeves in place.  So with a bit of experimentation I worked out that the Hub needs to be in 8th when refitting the complete cable pulley assembly...experimentation showed it must have been in 7th when Roholoff rebuilt the hub.  Once I had done this , refitted the hub and changer cables the grip shift now registered the hub gear correctly and I could once again engage all 14 gears. Hurrahh

I assume the same process would be true when replacing the whole axle ring assembly , which is sold as a spare part by Thorn.  I would highly recommend one of these as I can now completely agree that you would not want to try and fit a new gear cable on the cable pulley at the roadside as it is a right fiddly job!!

Hopefully this post will help someone in the future!!

One final thought ...the customer service I have received from Thorn has been superb ...thanks to Lisa and Rob

Congratulation!
You did a really good job!

But what was the reason for the "only 13 gears hub"?
Did ROHLOFF renewed the internal hub cable?
Or
Didn't they place the axle ring in the correct position after the service?
Or
Was the axle ring mounted in a wrong position before the service?

Doesn't matter. Important for you is that the cable pulley is know in the correct position. QUOTE ROHLOFF MANUAL: "Should one end of the cable be pulled completely round to the end stop, the bend in the hub cable will straighten out."

[geocycle]

I've just spent several hours puzzling over and eventually solving the following problem.

I recently returned my Rohloff hub/wheel back to Rohloff, via Thorn, to get an oil leak fixed; it was leaking from the drive side, behind the sprocket ..nothing too serious but I wanted to get it sorted out.  The hub/wheel arrived back yesterday and was fitted back into the bike ...however when riding it today I noticed that the grip shift now registered '2' when the bike was in 1st gear and that I could not engage 14th as I couldn't shift far enough to engage it.  I had not changed any of the shifter cables so something must have changed within the hub assembly.  I spoke to the helpful folks at Thorn but they couldn't think of anything obvious but agreed to collect the bike and get it sorted.  However being of the engineering persuasion and not wanting to be without my bike for another couple of weeks I decided to investigate further.  Eventually after much head scratching and reading of the rohloff manual I cam to the conclusion that the hub must have been out in the wrong gear when the gear cable assembly was re-fitted after the hub was re-sealed resulting in the gear cable being in the wrong position for the selected gear.  The manual states that the hub should be in 14th when changing the gear cable but that assumes you are starting from scratch and not refitting a good gear cable pulley with cables the correct length and the black sleeves in place.  So with a bit of experimentation I worked out that the Hub needs to be in 8th when refitting the complete cable pulley assembly...experimentation showed it must have been in 7th when Roholoff rebuilt the hub.  Once I had done this , refitted the hub and changer cables the grip shift now registered the hub gear correctly and I could once again engage all 14 gears. Hurrahh

I assume the same process would be true when replacing the whole axle ring assembly , which is sold as a spare part by Thorn.  I would highly recommend one of these as I can now completely agree that you would not want to try and fit a new gear cable on the cable pulley at the roadside as it is a right fiddly job!!

Hopefully this post will help someone in the future!!

One final thought ...the customer service I have received from Thorn has been superb ...thanks to Lisa and Rob

I just changed my internal cable using an axle ring assembly.  Your tip to set it in gear 8 worked a treat and the new cable worked all 14 gears first time.  Many thanks for posting.