Rohloff slipping

[graham]

This subject has been covered previously and is actually mentioned in the Rohloff manual.

The context in which the makers say it might happen is at low temperatures, but the solution is basically the same: an oil change. Or in extreme cold (lower than likely to experienced in the UK) just using the cleaning oil as the lubrication oil as it's thinner.

It has happened to us and is in my opinion associated with colder temperatures. It seems to happen less or not at all in the summer.
Trying to change gear when pressing on too hard occsionally gives us a different event: the hub hangs in top gear until we ease off (when it goes into gear with a bang). Not too bad on the solo, but if the missus is a bit eager on the tandem it can be a bit nerve jangling, it feels like we should have broken something. But the hub does seem to be bombproof and we don't seem to have damaged one yet.

[PeteG]

Another thread dredge from me, I'm afraid.

I've been using the Rohloff for the past month, without incident. This last week, however, I've been riding my mtb on hillier and more varied, technical terrain and have had several mis-shifts. One appeared to be the well-documented 'pedal pressure between gears 7 & 8', which momentarily jumped the gears to no14 and then back to 7. The next was somewhere between 5 & 7, where I could still pedal, but the gears whirred noisily for about 5-10 seconds, before settling down. Last one was yesterday, when around gear 4-7 ( it's difficult to be sure, when you're concentrating on a steep hill ), I stood up for a moment and there was no engagement, so the crank slipped; thankfully without any pain involved, just a bit of a surprise.

Everything was ok for the next couple of hours and I detected no odd noises or bad gear changes on the way home, but being of a rather anxious nature ( generally leading me  to buy 'bombproof' equipment ), I'm slightly concerned of what damage might occur within the hub under these circumstances?

[onrbikes]

https://www.bike24.com/p227597.html

[PeteG]

An oil change already? It's had no more than 200 miles on it so far 

[geocycle]

Another thread dredge from me, I'm afraid.

I've been using the Rohloff for the past month, without incident. This last week, however, I've been riding my mtb on hillier and more varied, technical terrain and have had several mis-shifts. One appeared to be the well-documented 'pedal pressure between gears 7 & 8', which momentarily jumped the gears to no14 and then back to 7. The next was somewhere between 5 & 7, where I could still pedal, but the gears whirred noisily for about 5-10 seconds, before settling down. Last one was yesterday, when around gear 4-7 ( it's difficult to be sure, when you're concentrating on a steep hill ), I stood up for a moment and there was no engagement, so the crank slipped; thankfully without any pain involved, just a bit of a surprise.

Everything was ok for the next couple of hours and I detected no odd noises or bad gear changes on the way home, but being of a rather anxious nature ( generally leading me  to buy 'bombproof' equipment ), I'm slightly concerned of what damage might occur within the hub under these circumstances?

Hi Pete, I recall some similar symptoms shortly after beginning riding with the rohloff.  I put it down to my poor gear change technique.  I think you probably need to take a bit more weight off the drive when changing.  This is now second nature but I must have had it half a dozen times in the early years.  I even had that worry-some whirring once but with no long lasting effect.  Your usage on technical  offroad is probably the hardest to get the change right and one where I might expect to get it wrong on occasion. From what you say I doubt you've done any damage.

[onmybike]

Sounds a bit like an issue I had in the very hilly northern Thailand - a 'slurring' of gear changes which got worse and more frequent over a period of days. Sometimes the gears would engage with a hefty 'clunk' after the slur. It was solved by removing the wheel and solidly whacking the axle-ends with the sole of my shoe. Rohloff recommend using a rubber mallet, but hey, I improvised. In Rohloff speak I think it's called 'detensioning the bearings'. Worked for me.

[Peter_K]

I once had a skipping Rohloff hub during my trip in India. It had a resemblance to the skipping of a new chain over a worn out sprocket.

I had the advice of hitting the axle with a rubber hammer too. And also to change the oil.

Both didn't help.

During my trip more and more gears of the Rohloff began to fail, and I had to finish my trip with only 6 working gears.

Once home I sent the hub back to Rohloff, and they sent it back repaired free of charge. On the note accompanying it was written the hub was "calibrated".

[PeteG]

Thanks all for the replies.

Well, an hour's pootle along the canal path this morning and I couldn't hear any weird noises ( maybe gear seven's usual slight whirring ). I'm assuming any broken teeth in there would make an awful racket?

Will put it down to over-eager gear changing on technical terrain and learn to adapt.

One other thing though, how important is the cable tension? I moved the barrel adjusters by 2mm, as recommended by the Rohloff video, but have just noticed today that one of them had been wound back in. Perhaps a slack cable was causing a slight mis-shift?

[Peter_K]

Do you have internal gear mech? Then there shouldn't be any tension on the cables at all. You should be able to move the shifter about 2 mm without any resistance.

For the external gear mech it is less critical, since there is the box in between.

[PeteG]

I have the external mech and there is slight play in the shifter, which I believe to be normal.

The 2mm barrel adjustment was mentioned at 4:00 min into this setup video, so I thought it best to follow that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_ha9__3VLg

[Peter_K]

I was referring to the 2 mm for the internal gear mech, see 2:54 of this video.

For external gear mech it isn't that crucial as far as I know.

[PeteG]

After a three hour mtb ride yesterday, there was no slippage or any disconcerting noises, so I'm fairly confident that nothing's grinding away in there 

[Huernie]

My Hub has had this slipping issue twice. Once at 10000 miles and again at 24000. Back to Germany both times and came back sorted. The first time they just included a note saying "Your hub is working perfectly now - have fun!" The last time they included a note that said they had serviced it and replaced a bit (can't remember what). Both times no charge so can't complain.

[StuntPilot]

I've not been off the forum for a while but still looking in on this interesting thread.

Hello from Shkoder, Albania! Wonderful place! 3700km so far from near Edinburgh. Some comments on day-in-day out Rohloff use over the last 9 weeks (used in temp range 5 Deg C to 38 Deg C) ...

I agree with the gear 7 to 8 slippage, it has happened about 4 times in that distance. I found a quick gear change up and down and back to gear 8 instantly got rid of the problem. After it happened a couple of times, with the whirring thing etc., I made small adjustments to the cable tensions (I have the internal gear version on my 2009 Raven Tour). It makes all the difference.

My method of resolution was to set the gear to 8, and ensure that it aligned exactly with the centre of the gear 8 indicator on the shifter. Also adjusting it so that gear 7 and 9 clicked in with about 2mm of gear shifter play. Then select gear 14 and ensure it was as close as possible to the centre of the gear marking on the shifter. Repeat with the gear 1 position. Then back to gear 8 to ensure again it was in the gear 8 centre position on the shifter. Repeat with fine adjustments until you get 'the feel' that it is good. You are looking for a non-sluggish clean click between gears.

Its a bit of a black art but after many km, it seems to make sense. I did this twice on this trip and everything re. Rohloff is working well.

There have been a couple of odd clunks, in gear 4 or 5 that resolved themselves immediately. All in all, the Rohloff is a well behaved beast, and a beast that is so far remaining well behaved. I have over 12000km total on the hub now and gets better and better with age (distance) like a fine wine.

I had some major drips of oil from the hub at one stage which stopped after a couple of days, but I don't worry about that! It will be a well deserved oil change on my return home. Best not to worry as I get the feeling that the Rohloff will continue to perform albeit with a few rare hiccups!

[ají]

i had this slipping too about 10 times in 2000kms. horrible crunching and grinding. rohloff swapped out the internals (found no problem) but it still persists, theres no rhyme or reason to it, but common when im applying more torque like going uphill.  ive often suspected incorrect shifting. i thought maybe it was the brake bands™ . i think it has something to do with the chain, as I have noticed a correlation with other chain issues.