Any other marathon riders here ?

[MilitantGraham]

I've done a few marathons including some of the Merida Series and the Bristol and Cheddar Bike Fests and I always look out for other Rohloff hubs.
Last weekend's Marin Rough Ride was the best yet, I saw three others. That's still only about 0.4% of the entrants though.
I reckon a Rohloff hub is the ideal choice for marathons. Even on a FS, the improvement in reliability more than makes up for any possible slight increase in weight or drag and the slightly narrower range of gears. On a HT, where you can do without a tensioner, it's easily the best choice.

So, is anyone else here riding marathons on a Rohloff hub ?
I'm doing the Mountain Mayhem 24 hour solo next weekend. Any other Rohloffs entered ?

[MilitantGraham]

I'll take that as a No, then.

If there's no one else here MTB racing on a Rohloff to reply, I'll turn it in to my own personal Rohloff Marathon spotting thread.

Saw two others at Mountain Mayhem. Spoke to one of the riders and he had seen one other, so that's four again out of about 2500 entrants.

[geocycle]

How do you find the rohloff compares in a competitive situation?  I've always thought of it as a touring and utility application (which is what I use mine for).  I had no idea people were racing using them.

[MilitantGraham]

I find it's got the same advantages racing as it has in any other application.
A lot of marathoners are riding singlespeed because of the reliability, weight and and simplicity advantage.
I like to think a rohloff is the ideal compromise between singlespeed and derailleurs, with most of the advantages of both, but at the end of the day, ( or at the end of the 24 hours  ) it's all down to the rider.

I'm fairly consistently in the top half solo men in the results.
My best so far is 15th out of 50 at last years Cheddar Bike Fest 10 hour.
My worst is 101st out of 150 at this years Mountain Mayhem, my first 24 hour.

If I was a serious contender, maybe the slight drag and weight penalty of the Rohloff would rule it out if it meant the difference between 1st and 2nd.
If it means the difference between 101st and 102nd, I can live with that.

If you want to see a Rohloff racing, here's a short clip of me sprinting for home on the last km of the Mountain Mayhem 24 hour race.
And before you get too impressed, I slept through part of the night and had longer and longer rests between laps as the race went on. I reckon I only actually rode the bike for about 14 hours out of the 24.

http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b80/littlegirlbunny/?action=view&current=DSCF2016-1.flv