Hub gears for a road bike

[spearman]

I have to confess to being a "proper" roadie, lycra and all.  The messing around with a derailleur annoys me, particularly as I still cannot get quiet seamless shifting on an £800 road bike.

What is the feasability of hub gears.  
What are the options (Rohloff and others) and gear ranges.
More importantly (for me)what hub gears are the lightest

[stutho]

Hi Spearman

The Rohloff Speedhub is not normally seen on a true road bike.  The hub is heavier than a quality gear set.  More importantly the gearing steps are larger than most 'roadies' like (13.7% as opposed to 8%)  

The main advantages are a very large gear range (525% over 14 gears) and high reliability / low maintenance.

The most important advice I can give you if you are seriously looking at switching is to get a frame that is specifically designed for a hub gear - it make a lot of difference to the overall weight, reliability and aesthetics.

[stutho]

Also see this link http://www.rohloff.de/en/info/faq/faq_detail/article/532/284/index.html

[freddered]

What do you mean by "Proper Roadie" ?

All my cycling buddies wear Lycra for cycling but they are not "Roadies".  Do you mean you Race/Time-Trial ?  If so the Rohloff Hub will slow you down, forget about Hub Gears immediately and fix your Gears.  ALL professional Road cyclists use Derailleur gears because they are more efficient (when perfectly cleaned and maintained) and more effective (tight spacing) for the job.

If you are a true Roadie then your evenings will be spent tuning your derailleur gears to perfection for the forthcoming time-trial (Why can't you get quiet, seamless shifts?  something is not adjusted correctly is why).

If, like me, you are looking forward to 50 miles hacking round Hampshire in the sun (pub lunch and a few beer stops naturally) then I suggest you stop polishing your rear Mech and buy a Rohloff-equipped Thorn Raven as you're wasting valuable beer time.


Summary, take your road bike to a bike shop and have them fix your gears, it will be cheaper.

[hsps1]

This is getting silly.No-one in their right mind is going to try to ride ultra-fast on a hub gear but derailleur gears need only a tiny bit of attention. At the start of two audaax rides both long ones there have been about six Rohloff bikes so far.
Who said that it is not about the bike?

[stutho]

Spearman
I don't mean to shatter your dream but I would listen to what Freddered and Hsps1 are saying.  Rohloffs and fast road riding don't mix well.  

(Curiously HPVs (faster than any bike) do use Rohloffs but that is a different story.)