New Rohloff

[il padrone]

My son has lashed out with his new-found savings to buy himself a Rohloff and covert his touring bike (my old Giant Sedona 1993 frame). The hub package has a few new surprises:

1. The new shifter is standard, for better grip.

2. The hub shell is a silver model but it is now anodised rather than polished; should give better long-term appearance.

3. Enclosed with the hub in the box is a nice hard-bound book - "Rohloff Geschichten" (Rohloff Stories). Unfortunately it is all in German   It has a whole series of stories from Rohloff-equipped cyclists, together with a host of info about the hub and broken down diagrams of the gear components and the active parts in each of the 14 gears. Such a shame it is in German, not sure whether they have an English version, as we bought the hub from bike24, and it has the German manual too. We have just downloaded the English manual from the Rohloff web-site, so that's OK.

My son is now looking forward to building up the hub on his bike. He seems keen to do his own wheel-build. We have no wheel-truing stand, but he has built two wheels previously just using the bike frame and brakes as guides, and they have served him well. I have advised him that, due the Rohloff's weight, it might be better to pay $70 and get a shop to build the wheel, but I don't think he will.

[onrbikes]

Good on the 'boy' for having a go.
Why not let hime build it up, then take to a shop to get trued and tensioned properly.

May save hime a bit of coin, and still get done properly.

[il padrone]

It's actually the lacing up rather than the truing that I am concerned about. The weight of the hub makes it a significantly more awkward job to lace up the spokes. Wouldn't want to drop it on the concrete floor  

But it's his hub - his call. He's not a kid BTW (22 yo).



Some stories in that lovely Rohloff book of folks who have multiple Rohloffs - 3, 4, 7, and even one guy with 8 Speedhubs   We might be classed as 'enthusiasts' now as we have 3 Speedhubs in our household.

[mickeg]

I do not have a truing stand either, I had no difficulty lacing up my Rohloff.  I used the Rohloff chart for spoke lengths.  My Nomad that I built up last spring was my fifth build in the past decade that I built up the wheels instead of buying pre-built.  But I have a good mechanical apptitude and worked in a bike shop decades ago, so wheel truing comes pretty naturally.

Interesting that the silver is anodized, last spring I bought black mainly because I wanted anodized and if the silver was anodized at that time I probably would have bought silver.  But, I am happy with the black too, it looks good on the Yellow Nomad Mk II.

On a new build, I am very patient with the tightening and truing.  I might spend an hour to hour and a half on that per wheel.

If he needs some instruction, this may help:
http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

But he would also need to look at the documentation from Rohloff too, especially for cross pattern.

[JimK]

I have the English edition of that Rohloff book - plenty of fun! I got it through abebooks.com

[Andre Jute]

Black goes well with yellow, Mickeg. I sometimes wish my bike had the black anodized hub because any drop of water if it isn't instantly wiped off leaves a mark on plain ali that's hard to polish off. (Not that I'm obsessive about a spotless bike, but I'm always looking for that slight edge that will make my bike even more maintenance-free.)

Make sure your boy relieves the spokes, Il Padrone. A car tyre lever is a good tool for that job.

[Danneaux]

Hi Pete!

All congratulations to your son on joining Rohloff ownership.

All details on how I got my English-language copy of Rohloff Stories is here: http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=4709.0

Best of luck to him on the wheel build. He should have no trouble, if he sits on a square of padded carpet to do the lacing.

Best,

Dan.

[David Simpson]

I built my wheels last year when I built up my Nomad.  Rohloff on the rear and Son28 on the front.  I laced them up on a table, with an old blanket piled up (or, more precisely, scrunched up) to make a padded "nest" for the hub.  It kept the hub (and table) from getting scratched, and the nest helped keep it all from tipping over.  Once the wheel was laced up, I trued it using the frame as a truing stand.  I have a bike work stand which clamps the bike on the seatpost.  For truing gauges, I wrapped a twist-tie around the seat stay and bent it so that it almost touched the rim.  (Twist-ties are things little plastic things that are always wrapped around power cables when you buy any electronics.  Very handy.)

- Dave

[phopwood]

I built my rohloff wheel end of last year I just followed the instructions in the rohloff guide.  It went well, I borrowed a stand and invested in a tension Meter (cheap one) and made all the spokes equal tension after a few hundred miles it is still true and I have not needed to do anything to it.  This was my first wheel build.

Peter

[Slammin Sammy]

Likewise, my Nomad build last year was my first wheel lacing exercise. I spent a considerable amount of time with Roger Musson's book on wheel building, and also with the Rohloff manual (although it was a bit inscrutable, in places). My workbench has a piece of carpet as a surface pad, so no scratches or dramas.

My biggest pain was working out which way the SJS Rohloff-drilled Andra was supposed to go. I examined the photos in the Nomad brochure in forensic detail to make sure I set it in the right direction.

Whilst I had a truing stand, I lacked a tension gauge, and despite Roger's poo-poos, I think they're the only way to go for someone that has never built a wheel. In the end, I took them down to my LBS, where I fine-tuned them with his gauge and advice, and they've been great.