nomad build

[dick220369]

I take it vibration through the pedals in the lower gear - 1 to 7 - is normal for a new hub? The vibration is more evident when climbing in those gears and loosens off/disappears on the flats.

[John Saxby]

Echoing Dave, I have 36 x 17 on my own Nomad for expedition touring.

And re-echoing Dan and Dave, I've found the 36 x 17 ideal for loaded touring on my Raven. (I've found that I can even use a slightly modified Chainglider with the 36T front ring.)

In a few years, I could move to a 36 x 19 (=1.9 ratio) or a 38 x 19, depending on the balance among rear sprocket wear, steepening hills, & declining reserves of strength & endurance. (Or I might just buy a Mercury & do lighter touring.)

[Paul S]

I take it vibration through the pedals in the lower gear - 1 to 7 - is normal for a new hub? The vibration is more evident when climbing in those gears and loosens off/disappears on the flats.

Not in my experience. I can hear both of my hubs in 1 to 7 but have no vibration.  I suspect it has more to do with the chain tensioner than the hub.

[mickeg]

WHeel not fitting into the dropouts?  I would not worry about it but it surprises me.  My Nomad, it does not fit that well but that is because I have  a rack that is a bit too narrow and that presses the frame in.  And does not fit that well on another bike that has 130mm dropouts when I run a 135mm wheel.  Your Rohloff should drop right in.  But, I would not worry about it.

I regularly ride a bike with bar end shifters, a bike with downtube friction shifter for front derailleur and brifter for rear derailleur, and my Rohloff bike with the twist grip shifter.  I am ALWAYS eaching for the wrong shifter.

On the minimum ratio, I never tell anyone to do something that would violate a warranty.

Gears 1 to 7 are noisy, you are using a third set of planetary gears that is comparable to putting a Jeep or Land Rover into low range.  Gears 8 to 14 do not engage those planetary gears.  After the first oil change it is slightly quieter, but that is a permanent feature of the Rohloff.  I did not get any vibration from it, but perhaps the extra noise is making you think that there is vibration?

[dick220369]

There is a vibration through the pedals which I feel through the soles of my feet but mostly experienced when climbing in gears 1-7. I did some searching on the internet and some people also experience this in gears 1-7 of a new hub. Supposedly it is normal and dissipates over time as the hub breaks in. Maybe other people don't feel it because they wear thicker soled shoes? It's something I have felt with a derailleur setup when the gears were not indexed properly but the vibration was less pronounced.

[Paul S]

Um,

Dick says he feels the gears are not as low as he would like.

I would struggle to work up much excitement for lugging a trailer around with my lowest gear in the mid 18's.

Would not 41 x 19 not be within the parameters as well as yielding a lower bottom gear than he has today?

[dick220369]

Any Rohloff owners experience the cranks rotating gradually on their own while pushing the bike?

[Danneaux]

Yep! Mine still do on my Nomad, as did the ones on the Raven Tour Andy so kindly loaned to me in 2014.

One means of addressing this in part involves squirting a drop of oil between the cog and seal as Rohloff suggest, but I have not done so out of concern it could attract dust in the desert environs where I often tour.

Best,

Dan.

[j-ms]

Both mine and my wife's Raven's pedals rotate very gently when pushing the bikes.  I first found it disconcerting but now I hardly notice it.

[mickeg]

Any Rohloff owners experience the cranks rotating gradually on their own while pushing the bike?

Yes, but with time they do not have as much of a tendency to do that.  I never worried about it because I could not feel any pressure trying to turn the crank when I coasted.  I might try Dan's solution, I had not heard of that before.  Maybe a shot of tri-flow lubricant?

[Danneaux]

I might try Dan's solution, I had not heard of that before.  Maybe a shot of tri-flow lubricant?

Hi mickeg,

From the Rohloff site: https://www.rohloff.de/en/service/faqs/speedhub-50014/input-drive/index.html

Crank rotation whilst pushing
Should the bike be pushed, it is possible that the cranks could also start to rotate.
This occurs due to the hub seal automatically activating the sprocket.

A very light running bottom bracket with poor quality seals will make it much easier for the cranks to rotate.

A drop of Rohloff cleaning oil (Part No. 8402) through the holes in the sprocket onto the hub seal will reduce this acivating effect.

So, Rohloff recommends Rohloff cleaning oil in this application, not Tri-Flow.

Some more interesting information on friction appears on that same page.

All the best,

Dan.

[dick220369]

I was cycling home from work today and going up a hill in gear 4. I thought I might drop a gear but decided to stand up and cycle up the hill instead. When I stood up I heard a crunching noise from the hub and it felt like the hub had dropped into a lower gear. I immediately sat down after this happened and continued my cycle home seated. I hardly ever stand up and cycle but I thought this wouldn't be an issue for the Rohloff. Anybody else experience this/know why this happened? This is the first time I have tried cycling standing up from the seat. I've never experienced this sort of thing from a seated position but I haven't had the hub long enough to be certain that it wouldn't.

Thank you everyone for all the advice, it's been a great help.

[geocycle]

I was cycling home from work today and going up a hill in gear 4. I thought I might drop a gear but decided to stand up and cycle up the hill instead. When I stood up I heard a crunching noise from the hub and it felt like the hub had dropped into a lower gear. I immediately sat down after this happened and continued my cycle home seated. I hardly ever stand up and cycle but I thought this wouldn't be an issue for the Rohloff. Anybody else experience this/know why this happened? This is the first time I have tried cycling standing up from the seat. I've never experienced this sort of thing from a seated position but I haven't had the hub long enough to be certain that it wouldn't.

Thank you everyone for all the advice, it's been a great help.

It is most likely you didn't back off the pressure on the pedals quite enough when changing. This becomes second nature after a while but the hub drops you to 7th or 14th if you get it wrong.

[dick220369]

Your probably right geocycle. I took the bike out for another spin going through the local park. It was mostly off-road going up and down a lot of steep embankments deliberately in a gear that was higher than I would usually use. This meant that I was putting a lot more power through the pedals than I would do normally. I didn't try anything standing up but managed to get up all the embankments without a gear slip

[mickeg]

It is best to back off pedal pressure when shifting.  This is most critical when shifting between 7 and 8 or back, as that is shifting in and out of the third low range planetary gearset.  But it is best to back off some in all other gear shifts too.

I was cycling on a Sturmey Archer 3 speed in the 1960s and low quality 10 speed bikes (double crank and 5 speed freewheel) in the 70s, so I learned as a kid to always back off on pedal pressure when shifting.  And my foldup bike uses an Sram Dual Drive which is not unlike a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, so I still am reminded of how to shift that type of hub when I ride that bike. 

I found that the way I pedaled during gear shifting transferred perfectly to the Rohloff.  I suspect people that are used to pedaling hard while shifting (which some newer indexed derailleurs can achieve) are more likely to have trouble switching to a Rohloff from a derailleur system.

I might try Dan's solution, I had not heard of that before.  Maybe a shot of tri-flow lubricant?

Hi mickeg,

From the Rohloff site: https://www.rohloff.de/en/service/faqs/speedhub-50014/input-drive/index.html

Crank rotation whilst pushing
Should the bike be pushed, it is possible that the cranks could also start to rotate.
This occurs due to the hub seal automatically activating the sprocket.

A very light running bottom bracket with poor quality seals will make it much easier for the cranks to rotate.

A drop of Rohloff cleaning oil (Part No. 8402) through the holes in the sprocket onto the hub seal will reduce this acivating effect.

So, Rohloff recommends Rohloff cleaning oil in this application, not Tri-Flow.

Some more interesting information on friction appears on that same page.

All the best,

Dan.

Thanks.