First Time Rohloff Owner

[AndrewJ]

Nice fenders!  Are they Velo Orange items?

Yes... fluted aluminium. I'm having a bit of an issue... the 700x45 Compass tires have great grip on the road, and when I change direction quickly, or stand on the pedals, I get wheel/tire squirm and some rubbing on the front fender. I'll check on spoke tension, but I may need to flare out the fender to add clearance.

[John Saxby]

I also used the fluted alu 'guards on my Raven -- 650B x 52 mm.  That gave me approx 10 mm total side-to-side clearance with my 26 x 1.6 Marathon Supremes (39.5 mm actual width, inflated).

If the Compass tires' inflated width is also 45 mm, then you have at most 7 mm total clearance, perhaps less. My fenders' actual width, taking account of the slight roll at the bottom of each side, was more like 50 mm, not 52.

Might well be worth trying a delicate flaring operation -- probably more difficult where the stays are mounted on the fenders.  Is there a particular spot where fender rubs tire?  Interesting that it's only on the front 'guard.

And good luck with the Compass 700 x 45s!  I bought a pair of Naches Pass 26 x 1.75s, hoping for more volume/lower pressures. They were lovely tires, smooth and a gear faster on my Rohloff than my Supremes in most conditions. BUT, they were only 40 mm actual inflated, virtually the same as my Supremes. AND, I had three punctures in three rides totalling 400 kms.     The punctures more than wiped out the time gained from faster speed across the ground.

So, I donated my Compass tires to the bike-recycling organization where I volunteer & reverted to my Supremes. These give me a much better combination of comfort, speed and durability.

[Andre Jute]

I operate 60x622 Schwalbe Big Apples, the original soft-sided "folding" version inside SKS P65 mudguards, and there is approximately 1mm of clearance when the bike is loaded with rider and either groceries or painting gear. But it causes no trouble, working reliably if adequate care is taken in adjustment of the associated components, which is everything behind the seat tube, when a new chain is fitted or the wheel is removed and refitted for any reason. But I don't fancy patching a puncture beside a busy road on a stormy night...

The Big Apples have an ultra-shallow tread, little more than a pattern of consolation for those who don't trust the science of rolling resistance and traction, so they don't pick up and pack mud; where I live, even small lanes are paved, so mud-pack isn't a serious potential. But elsewhere I'd probably want to see considerably more clearance between mudguard and even a slick tyre.

[AndrewJ]

My Compass 700x44 tires measure closer to 42, and the V.O. fenders are close to 50, as well.

On another bike, I have done a couple thousand touring miles on the 700x38 Barlow Pass tires from Compass without ever a puncture. Great tires, I might go 300 miles before I need to air them back up. I had no hesitation in getting the 700x44, they're such delightful rolling tires. Just standard casings on both tires.

[John Saxby]

I have done a couple thousand touring miles on the 700x38 Barlow Pass tires from Compass without ever a puncture

Wow!  Envy you that.  Maybe I just had bad luck...

[Bill]

I had compass tires on my 700C Atlantis and had five flats in one day on the front tire riding out of Kamloops BC. I ended up leaving the (fairly new) tires at the bike shop I hitch hiked to and replacing them with Marathon Supremes. In retrospect I think it must have been a thorn. Kamloops is desert country.
On the Great Divide on my Raven Nomad I used Kenda small block 8s,  a less agressive knobby mountain bike tire, I think they were 2.1 inch. worked well.
I think I have some compass tires for the Raven, I might put them on the refurbished bike, the original schwalbes feel hard and unresponsive.

Why are we talking about tires anyway?

[Bill]

And to AndrewJ, nice bike!
I have two Rivendells and I have fantasized about a Riv with Rohloff.
You've actually done it,..well sort of.

[AndrewJ]

And to AndrewJ, nice bike!
I have two Rivendells and I have fantasized about a Riv with Rohloff.
You've actually done it,..well sort of.

I can tell you that I approached Grant directly, I had a neat idea (from Alex Wetmorre) for capturing the torque arm in the crotch of the rear triangle, but he took a pass. I eventually settled on my friend in Portland, and that's his second frame. We improved on the lines of my '98 RBW LongLow, added the Diagatube, and used a RBW fork I bought at their garage sale, which we re-raked for lower trail.

[Bill]

Grant is an iconoclast, which makes him an interesting person, but not always easy to deal with.
I have an Atlantis and a Rivendell custom, but I haven't bought anything  from them in years.

[Andre Jute]

You have two Rivendell bikes, Bill, but I have Rivendell just around the corner. See p2, RH side of http://coolmainpress.com/AndreJute'sUtopiaKranich.pdf; the disclaimers are in the caption above the photo.

I had the same problem about getting a genuinely different bike built as Andrew, but I didn't even bother to approach Rivendell -- I knew I'd be shown the door, more or less politely, because Mr Petersen clearly has his own idea of a proper bike. In the end I was left with art school welding and silver-soldering instructors who would have loved turning my bike into a class project. Since I ride on hills that on the downside can propel you to a good 40mph and if the wind is right quite a bit faster, I decided that being aboard an art school apprentice construction at such speeds was a wee bit reckless for a family man, and instead bought a proven bike, designed by an iconoclast in 1935, and dragged smiling into the modern era by a pair of more recent iconoclasts, one of them Bernd Rohloff.

Did I say yet, Andrew, that I love your color scheme of green and cream, though those cream indented panels will be hell to clean if you let the bike get really dirty.

[AndrewJ]

Andre, I won't mind cleaning those cream windows on the frame, the bike is such a joy to ride.

And speaking of riding, here is a picture from yesterday, with my friend Mark, Constructeur of the frame & racks, having a ride on his creation. I had to lower the Brooks saddle all the way down, and he bruised his peanuts while straddling the top tube, but the look on his face says it all. We have some long rides already planned, starting with Boxing Day in December.

[Bill]

Andre and Andrew, I like both your bikes.
Both very unique.
Andre, I thought you had converted your bike to electric.

[Andre Jute]

Andre and Andrew, I like both your bikes.

I think Andrew's bike looks like the bicycle of someone who cares and knows what he's talking about -- or has knowledgeable and capable friends, of course. The whole thing is totally retro and yet totally functional. I should probably add that I too have been in fold of the crossframers these last dozen years or so and in my reckless yoof was a motor racer in the spaceframe age, so the half-diagonal through the central diamond is comfortingly familiar to me.

Andre, I thought you had converted your bike to electric.

Yes, the bicycle standing before "Rivendell" in the link I posted has been electrified to compensate for advancing years on the hills of West Cork. But I have other bikes, beautiful in different ways.

[AndrewJ]

Another question from ye olde first time Rohloff owner... is it common to feel anything notchy or unsmooth when standing while pedaling uphill in a lower gear? I can't tell if what I'm feeling is result of brief crank pause at 12 o'clock, or an internal bump. It's very definitely tied to crank position.

Otherwise, no issues to note, the hub is working great. I'm typically shifting 2-3 ratios at a time when I hit a hill or start down a slope, feels familiar to my friction shifting experience. On steady grades or perfect flat, I might wish for an inbetween ratio, but just change my pressure on the pedals to either settle into best cadence in that gear, or move up/down to the next one.

[JohnR]

Another question from ye olde first time Rohloff owner... is it common to feel anything notchy or unsmooth when standing while pedaling uphill in a lower gear? I can't tell if what I'm feeling is result of brief crank pause at 12 o'clock, or an internal bump. It's very definitely tied to crank position.

It's not a Rohloff characteristic that I recognise (the test is to see if the problem is consistent in different lower gears) and I suspect that it's elsewhere in the drivetrain. Have you checked that the chain tension is consistent through a whole rotation of the cranks?