Utmost sympathy to family and friends. I knew nothing of him as a man, other than what's in the Rohloff Stories book.
What a legacy, what a product, I can't think of much else that's remained so little changed for 25+ years. I think it's future is assured, it's gained a new application on E-bikes, the collaboration with Bosch, so the motor and hub synch, offers the best of both. Like for others the hubs transformed my cycling, not least saving hundreds of hours tedious maintenance!
Yet although the hub is a wonderful piece of engineering, it isn't that which I most respect, Geared hubs were nothing new, around before the derailleur. Neither was the idea of a wide range hub the first, the Sachs 12 speed Elan pre-dates it by a few years, it reportedly got a lot of the engineering right but the quality in production was woefully inadequate and it weighed a ton. The other big brands put plenty of effort into developing IGH's but never seemed to consider their application as anything other than utility. Which brings me to where I have the most admiration for the company - What they had was confidence in the idea that people would spend an unheard of amount of money on a product if it was good enough. And boy did they pull out all the stops to make it good enough! Time has proved the quality, that attention to detail paid off, it's hard to grasp how much effort must have gone into the development. It's not that no one else could have done it, it's that no one else considered it worth doing. When I bought my first it was almost four times the cost a Deore XT groupset. And although I think Moronic is right about the lack of advertising, I've never seen any for the hub in the UK, there was no shortage of promotion which they must have collaborated on. The original Raven was about £300 more than the hub alone and not much more than an equivalent derailleur bike. Whatever the arrangements between Thorn and Rohloff it was being established at well below market value, I wouldn't have taken the plunge if not. I'd already decided I couldn't continue my dirty commute on derailleurs and had been eying up Alfine bikes, the Raven wasn't a hugely expensive upgrade. I don't know the situation elsewhere, but it needed such a collaboration in the UK, where the cycling scene is more sports orientated than in some of our European neighbours and I think Thorn were the perfect match. They've always been prepared to look at things their own way and I think share the belief that people will pay for quality.
