Flying with a Rohloff?

[Thomas777]

We will be heading out in a few weeks and will be bagging our bikes. My wife's bike has the Rohloff. Anything special I should do? Wheel orientation,etc..
Thanks!

[il padrone]

We have never done anything special about it. Rohloffs are far more robust on your touring bike when packed in a bag than a derailleur bike.

[mickeg]

I had a lot of oil leakage when I went to Iceland.  I eventually concluded that the pressure variations on two airplane flights caused some of the oil to leak out of the hub on my left side.  It is very possible that on the flights that the left side was downwards with some leakage help from gravity.  I changed the oil immediately before I went, and the hub therefore had the full 15 ml of oil in it.  (I use the Thorn recommendation of 15 ml, not the 25 ml recommendation). 

In the photo below you will see what I mean.

But after I got home.  After my next oil change, it was no longer leaking like before.  So, I am quite sure that it is a one off and that the airplane pressures (or lack of pressure) was the problem.  Everything is working fine now.

I am considering taking my bike on a plane again next year.  I might bring the oil in a separate bottle and add it upon arrival.

[John Saxby]

Tom, I've used both bags and boxes for transporting my Raven by air. Never had any problems with the hub with either covering (nor any other problem, fingers crossed.)

I always put big arrows to signify "this side up", but I have no idea whether the bike was stowed on its side, or vertically.

Best wishes to you and Kathy for safe transport of the bikes, and safe journeys over the ground!

Cheers,  John

[Matt2matt2002]

As above
I've flown 3 times with my boxed Raven.
And about to fly for a fourth to Marrakesh next week with KLM.
Never had hub problems or oil leakage.

[mickeg]

To clarify, when I said that I thought that my Rohloff hub left side was "down" on my bike when I flew, I have a S&S coupled bike.  I had it packed up in a airline acceptable size case with no over-size charges.  Thus, I assume that it was loaded with other suitcases in the airplane hold.  The bikes in bike boxes, they likely were loaded into the plane differently than mine was.