Lifted from another thread and a new thread started so as not to obscure a request for a specific cable replacement procedure:
...make sure the shifter is taped in position or you’ll be cursing the numbers not lining up (no big deal but irritating)...
I'm sure Geo knows this but it should be said for newbies lurking or in the group's posterity: a more than slightly loose twist shifter is desirable and mandated by Rohloff, so the cables shouldn't even be pulled tight, never mind over-tightened. Those gearbox cables operate a pull-pull mechanism and do no pushing, so tightness is unnecessary.
On my bike, which has the EXT shifter box, before the rubber numbers wore off,
the play was almost one number to either side of the actual gear -- out of the box, set up by people whose summer bash for owners in a German forest is attended by Herr Rohloff himself.
At first I found this quite as irritating as Geo does, and used to mark gears 8 (lowest gear in the "upper" set) and 11 with Tippex (typist's whiteout) on the rotary control until I discovered that the efficiency of the Rohloff gears in practice vary imperceptibly little, so that you just twist until the gear feels right for the inclination of the road, and for that you don't care what the number is.
Since my bike is set up for health reasons to match my masher's cadence in gear 11, leaving three overdrives, I find gear 11 on setting off, or whenever, by going up to 14 and shifting back three clicks, without ever looking down. It takes a fraction of a second.
I imagine that for a longtime roadie it might be disturbing at first not to know the number of the gear he is in, or even the half-step, because a derailleur change must be made before the hill is started, but a Rohloff doesn't require that: you can change at any time at any speed or under any load by lifting only momentarily, so the control imperatives are very different, something new to learn. I came to Rohloff via Shimano's Nexus hub gearboxes (including one with fully operational automatic gearing), and others on the forum were into hub gearboxes by Sturmey-Archer even before that, so I can understand that the cyclist's necessary adaptation was probably easier for us than for those who went directly from derailleurs to Rohloff. I don't even want to think about a Rohloff/derailleur mixed stable of bikes all ridden with each one demanding a different kind of attention. The only time I think about these reflex actions on my Rohloff is when I read something interesting on this forum and stop a moment consciously to consider it. When I'm on it, my bike just works under me, and I pay no attention to it or even to the road. The ideal tool bike should be fitted with a well run-in Rohloff!
* "loosey goosey" Thanks to Sheldon Brown, bicycle mechanic and much-missed wit, for this coinage.