Changing rear Tire

[KDean]

I'm seriously looking at getting a Thorn with a Rohloff , How easy is it to change the rear tire out on adventure ? Thanks .

[Aleman]

Depends on the tyre, some can be a real B'stard to get on and off the rim! this also applies to the front wheel as well. As for the Rohloff making a difference ... Nah ... The Disc rotor is more of a problem than the hub, which is the same as a SS or Fixie

[JohnR]

It's no problem. It is recommended to shift the Rohloff gear to 14th before unscrewing the Ex-box then undo the wheel and remove. It's less hassle than with a Shimano hub gear. When the wheel is replaced you may need to jiggle the shifter very slightly to get the Ex-box to get it to fit and make sure you fully tighten the fixing nut.

As already noted, changing the tyre itself depends on the tyre + rim combination.

[martinf]

It's a little more difficult if you don't have the Ex-box.

On my Raven Tour I have the internal gear mechanism, with this you have to turn two bayonet connectors (I think it is a quarter-turn) to disconnect the cables. And remember to connect them again after removing/putting the wheel back. Not a big deal, and I find it easier than a derailleur wheel.

[Matt2matt2002]

Ha ha
That made me smile.
In the early years of Raven riding, I couldn't understand why my wheel wasn't coming out when I wanted to change the tire.
Helps if you disconnect those 2 bayonet connectors!!
And of course, reconnect.

Re turning the shifter; either 1 or 14 appears to be ok.

Another rookie mistake was finishing up with gear 1 as 14 and 14 as 1 !!

I so love a learning curve.....

Best

Matt

[JohnR]

The rationale behind selecting gear 14 (or gear 1) before disconnecting the Ex-box is that the shifter (and Ex-box) could change position while the Ex-box is disconnected but the hub won't change gear. Then, when refitting the Ex-box it's just a matter of making sure the shifter is turned to the right setting. It's a precaution one learns to do after forgetting it the first time the Ex-box is disconnected!

[KDean]

Not even knowing what an Ex box is is putting me off of the idea,  but thanks .

[Matt2matt2002]

Not even knowing what an Ex box is is putting me off of the idea,  but thanks .

Not all Thorn bikes have an Ex-box.
Not that they're bad.
My Raven Tour doesn't have one.
Plenty of folks speak highly of the Ex- box arrangement.
No doubt one or three will be along shortly.

Best

Matt

[PH]

Dropping the rear wheel out of Thorn Rohloff bike is easier than any derailleur bike, there's no mech to get in the way. 

[Prince of Darkness]

I have a Raven Sport Tour (no Ex-box). Removing and refitting the rear wheel is quicker and easier than with derailleur equipped bikes.

[martinf]

Not even knowing what an Ex box is is putting me off of the idea,  but thanks .

There are (at least) two gear changing arrangements at the "hub" end of a Rohloff gear system.

The Ex Box (external gear mechanism) simply screws onto the hub, so is very easy to remove if you want to take out the wheel.

IMO much easier than a derailleur.

The internal gear mechanism runs two cables to the hub. There are two bayonet connectors to allow you to split the cables and remove the wheel. A bit more fiddly than the Ex box, but I still reckon it is easier than a derailleur wheel once you have done it once or twice. I do remember cursing the connectors the first time I did it.

Rohloff AND derailleur are IMO both easier than a Shimano 8 speed gear, on these the cable clamp bolt has to be unhooked from the selector mechanism at the hub. I find this very fiddly to do as the clamp bolt is very small and close to the greasy bits near the sprocket. On the Rohloff, the cables are on the (clean) left hand side and are much easier to access. 

[Andre Jute]

There are two Rohloff cable disconnection schemes.

The first allows old roadies to feel at home with the Rohloff (great for winter training) because it allows bare wires at least partway, to the two bayonet connectors.

The other takes a covered run from the rotary control on the handlebars all the way to the EXT Klickbox on the hub, from which it is disconnected by a single thumbscrew. The EXT connection scheme is more modern and marginally more convenient and maybe faster by a few seconds.

The EXT box has one significant advantage over the bayonet connectors in that a broken cable doesn't strand the Rohloff in the wrong gear for getting home. If you have an 8mm spanner (American: wrench) you can take the EXT box off and use the hubside nut that it drives to select a compromise gear to get you home, or to change gears before significant hills. I suppose it makes a difference if you're old or unfit or have a limp or a philosophical conviction against pushing your bike. (I'm not joking: I am of the opinion that, considering how easy it is to change gear and the wide gear spread, any Rohloff owner who has to push specified his gearing wrong for the use he puts his bike to.) A ground-down (to save weight) automobile brake spanner is a suitable tool, and Draper used to offer a flat, lightweight 8x10mm open-ended spanner specifically for cyclists, or you can carry a socket if you have a suitable driver (usually 6mm or 0.25in) already in your toolkit. I carry a titanium socket with a stub sticking out of it for direct fitting to the driver handle in my toolkit; it came out of an X-Tools kit that I bought water-damaged (irrelevant to the single piece I wanted out of it) to get that single rare tool. Never had occasion to use it. You can make something like that too by gluing a correctly sized bit into the drive side of the lightest socket you can find.

***

To answer the OP's question directly:

In theory it is no more difficult to drop a Rohloff wheel than another hub geared wheel, considerably easier than most, and easier than other hub gear makes. In practice, since part of the attraction of the Rohloff is lower service demands, you will find that many, perhaps most, Rohloff owners have banded anti-puncture tyres fitted and that the number of times you have to drop the wheel are fewer than with other transmissions which answer to different paradigms.

By way of example, I have dropped the wheel on my Rohloff bike three times over the last 10,000km, twice for self-induced but not necessarily avoidable pinch flats (the only flats my Schwalbe Big Apples suffered -- I run them at ultra-low pressure at very substantial speed on potholed roads) and once by choice to change the half-worn tyres.

I don't think dropping the wheel is anywhere near a critical consideration in specifying a Rohloff as it would in fact be faster than on a derailleur bike or a bike equipped with another hub gearbox. Furthermore, regardless of the fact that it is theoretically easier and faster to drop a Rolloff-equipped wheel, in practice it likely happens less often than with other wheels.

Dropping a Rohloff-hubbed wheel is a proper thing to consider for the thoughtful cyclist new to the Rohloff and about to spend significant money on his choice -- and after enquiry to dismiss as irrelevant, especially if specifying popular banded touring tyres, for which see this forum passim.

As for the difference between the bayonet and EXT box connections, you can safely choose on aesthetics if you're an old roadie, or convenience if you're looking to minimise service requirements.

Good luck with buying into le système Rohloff.

PS. I see that while I was posting this, Martin has already clarified the two switching versions offered OEM for the Rohloff but I'll let my remarks stand as approaching the question from a different viewpoint

[mickeg]

Not even knowing what an Ex box is is putting me off of the idea,  but thanks .

The bike frame has cable guides for either the EX box or the internal gear, the model of bike determines which hub.

I have only used the EX box, but I suspect that I would prefer the EX box based on easier cable replacement.

Leaving the shifter in gear 14 is not that big a deal.  I usually forget to put it into gear 14, and as long as I do not touch the shifter when I have the wheel out, everything goes back together just fine.  The reason for gear 14 (or if you want, a different gear that you remember), is that if you move the shifter with the wheel out, you want to put the shifter back into the gear that the hub was set for before you re-assemble.

If you did not know what gear your hub was in, moved the shifter while the wheel was out, when you reassemble the shifter might be set for the wrong gear.  For example, you reassemble and your shifter says you only have gears 3 through 14.  In this case, your lowest gear in the hub is gear one, but your shifter thinks that is gear three.  Set it to the lowest gear, unscrew the thumb screw, remove the EX box, set the shifter for gear 1, reassemble and everything should be fine.

Or if you only had gears 1 through 12, you know that 12 is the highest gear, so unscrew and remove the EX box, set shifter to 14, reassemble.

It is really quite simple.

If you have used indexed derailleur bikes for a long time, you are used to shifters that have no slack in the shift cables, the cables are always tight.  Rohloff has the indexing in the hub, you need to leave some slack in the cables for best shifting performance, so your shifter will feel a bit loose.  It takes a little time to get used to that, but it is not a problem in any way.

The big thumbscrew on the very dirty looking part that hangs down that the cables feed into is the thumbscrew on the EX box.  (Thorn recommends against kickstands the way I mounted mine, pretend you did not see the kickstand.)  No tools are needed to undo the thumbscrew.

[lewis noble]

I've changed tyres / repaired flats / serviced bikes with in internal design of Rohloff hub, a deraillieur, and the Shimano Nexus hub.  The Rohloff is definitely the easiest, even with the slightly fiddly bayonet connectors. 

It is important to keep the bayonet connectors greased to prevent them getting stiff and sticky - I used a spot of copper slick. 

The Nexus is, in my opinion, the most awkward.

Lewis

[Andre Jute]

The Nexus is, in my opinion, the most awkward.

+1