How many kms before you'd trust a Rohloff on tour?

[vik]

Let's assume you had a brand new Rohloff hub in your hand and a month long tour coming up in a few weeks.  Given that there is the acknowledged possibility of problems with ~1% of new Rohloffs that would require the hub returned for servicing how many kms of use prior to leaving on your tour would make you comfortable that you've gotten past the stage where these initial problems may occur?

safe riding,

Vik

[geocycle]

I went away for a week's tour on day 2 of rohloff ownership.  Perfect from the start.  Just make sure you know how to take the wheel out in case you puncture and tighten the chain -but you're building yourself so that won't be a problem.

[vik]

I went away for a week's tour on day 2 of rohloff ownership.  Perfect from the start.  Just make sure you know how to take the wheel out in case you puncture and tighten the chain -but you're building yourself so that won't be a problem.

The trouble is your hub may have been perfect out of the box, my first Rohloff was perfect out of the box, but Thorn and others have acknowledged that ~1% of new Rohloffs malfunction and need servicing.  This problem only happens when new so the question remains how many kms of use prior to a tour would be sufficient to feel comfortable your don't have a hub that will need this initial adjustment.

I'd feel pretty stupid being on day 3 of a 30 day tour with my GF and having my hub breakdown and need to be sent back from some remote corner of the world to be serviced.

The obvious solution is to ride the hub at home until you are happy the initial period where you might expect issues has passed, but I'm just trying to figure out how much use would be adequate for this purpose.

cheers,

Vik

[julk]

Vik,

I had some early teething problems with my Rohloff. I had gear slip 3 times, some notchy gear changes when I wasn't pressing very hard and one occasion when the gears refused to change from 7 for a couple of minutes. All this spread over the first 300 miles of use.

I contacted SJSC who suggested checking/altering the gear cable tensions, not pressing hard when changing gear and lastly an immediate oil change or two to remove any bits resulting from running the gears in.
 
The last point made the difference and I eliminated the problems with 2 oil changes in quick succession.

I would thus recommend trying a new hub for at least 250km prior to going on an extended tour and taking an oil change kit along with you on the tour.

Have a great tour.

[vik]

I would thus recommend trying a new hub for at least 250km prior to going on an extended tour and taking an oil change kit along with you on the tour.

Have a great tour.

Good tip about the oil change kit - hadn't thought of that - thanks!

[ALMEIDA]

Vik,

in my opinion you must ask your question for the whole stuff you will take with you.
My advise is:
Don't ride a new bike for the first time on the tour.
Don't use new running shoes for the first time on a race
Don't use a new backpack on a transalp
.......

How can you assume that ~1% of the hubs are failure?

Don't panic!
Enjoy your days!
Trust your parts!

I'm very jealous!

[vik]

Vik,

in my opinion you must ask your question for the whole stuff you will take with you.
My advise is:
Don't ride a new bike for the first time on the tour.
Don't use new running shoes for the first time on a race
Don't use a new backpack on a transalp

That's good advice, but no one was suggesting riding a bike for the first time on tour.  The question was how many kms at home would you need to feel comfortable taking a new bike or a new Rohloff on a moderately long tour?

How can you assume that ~1% of the hubs are failure?

I assume that Andy B at Thorn knows what he is talking about given that he deals with loads of Rohloffs and it isn't a statistic I would report if I didn't have to as a vendor since it might have a negative impact on sales.

Quoted from the top of the left hand column on page 4 of the Thorn Living with a Rohloff PDF:

http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/thornpdf/ThornLivingWithARohloff.pdf

"Very occasionally, a new hub rapidly becomes difficult to change between 3
and 4 and/or 10 and 11, very occasionally, this can be accompanied by
slipping in these gears, sometimes a small foreign particle is the culprit, it can
be flushed out and the hub’s oil replaced, but usually the wheel has to go
back to Rohloff; who return the wheel inside one week, after they have
re-shimmed it. The problem has never been reported to arise a second time.
As this malfunction has never been reported on anything other than very low
mileage hubs, it shows that there must have been an error (in deciding which
shims are required, when the hub is assembled) which can’t be detected until
the hub is built into a wheel and comes under operational load. We have now
supplied many machines with the Rohloff hub and we have had to return
fewer than 1% of them! We advise you to purchase your bike at least a
couple of months before a grand adventure, just in case you are that 1 in 100!"

It's great that Thorn identifies this issue and given that it only happens early on once you have a "mature" Rohloff it isn't something you need to worry about.  I was just trying to establish an range of kms that would allow a user with a new hub to feel reasonably comfortable that this problem was not going to occur if there was a tour on the horizon.

safe riding,

Vik

[jags]

hi vik,say have you got the bike built up yet ,love to see some pic's.

[vik]

hi vik,say have you got the bike built up yet ,love to see some pic's.

Unfortunately no...

- I've got the frame and fork together.
- the stem and drop bars mounted
- drop bar v-brake levers loosely mounted on the bars
- Deore v-brakes installed
- the Rohloff shifter on an accessory bar all cabled in
- seatpost and Brooks saddle installed
- square taper BB & Deore cranks installed [single 38T ring]
- Time ATAC Control Z pedals installed
- 3 water bottle cages installed

I'm still waiting on:

- rims to show up at my LBS
- then I need to get wheels built
- with the wheels installed I can finalize the bar/brake lever position
- cable in the brakes and tape the bars
- waiting on the 6mm rack adapter to arrive so I can mount the Thorn rear rack
- I've got a couple front racks in my parts bin so I have to pick one and mount it, but I'll wait until the wheels arrive to get everything level

So far it looks great, but it's a bit maddening have 80% of the bike here and being unable to finish the job, but it could be worse!..

If I can get it all together and enough kms on it before X'mas I'll take it on my winter tour.  If not I'll take my trusty Surly LHT.

I will post some pics as soon as I get 'er done...

safe riding,

Vik
www.thelazyrando.com

[ALMEIDA]

Vik

I know exactly what you want so I give you my response.

I would ride my new bike/SPEEDHUB at least for 6-8 hours WITH BAGGAGE.
Same situation as on tour.

ALMEIDA

[neil_p]

Hi Vik,

I would agree with JulK and say that 250km is a minimum.

Almeida - this is about ensuring the Rohloff isn't one of the unlucky 1%, rather than getting used to the bike per se.

After 250km it's 99.99999999999% certain you've eliminated that possibility.

Happy touring

Neil

[bike_the_planet]

Well, I have just completed a 4000 km tour of europe with mine. When I started the tour it had done around 5000kms.

It was fine enough until the last two weeks when I suddenly got massive gear slip in gears 1 - 7.

On return to Australia where I live, Rohloff Australia eventually got around to sending me two replacement freewheel springs which I duly fitted.

This didn't fix the problem, so I hd to return my rear wheel plus hub to Rohloff australia.

I have been Rohloff-less for about 2 weeks as a result. Apparently the slippage was due to some loctite that intefered with the freewheel spring.

I very much like the Rohloff, but I would hesitate to tour on it again. The problem happened without any warning. Had it happened in the middle of rural france in the middle of our trip, then it would have been a pain in the proverbial, DHL or no DHL...

Derailleurs are frustrating (chain suck, can't change when stationary etc). But you don't need to part with your wheel for long to get them fixed or replaced.

I think that if you tour on a Rohloff, although a fault is unlikely (I was unlucky), you need to be at peace with the possibility  that you may have to part with your wheel and be of your bike for a period, unlikely as that may be.

Cheers,

Tony

[ALMEIDA]

Code: [Select]

Hi Vik,

I would agree with JulK and say that 250km is a minimum.

Almeida - this is about ensuring the Rohloff isn't one of the unlucky 1%, rather than getting used to the bike per se.

After 250km it's 99.99999999999% certain you've eliminated that possibility.


I don't understand your argument that there is a connection between the mileage of min 250 km and the reliability (99,99) of the hub
Don't focus so much time on the posted 1% altitude of slipping hubs. Aren't there any other failures which could happen on a long tour?
If you mull over all sorts of problems you will get mad.
Important for a long tour is testing the hub before - under the same conditions as on the tour. So with full loaded baggage and so on.
There must be a relation between great weight and function of the hub.

Nothing is out of the question 

[PH]

I'd want to have done a couple of hundred miles on a bike before a tour, from the description of the problem I'd expect it to show up before that.
If you're somewhere remote and any component breaks, you're going to end up riding what the locals ride.  You can get a small converter that allows you to attach a derailleur to any dropout, I'd add one to my tool box. 

[vik]

Thanks for all your replies.  I'll put as many KMs on the hub as I can prior to the tour. 

safe riding,

Vik
www.thelazyrando.com