In another thread, Dan, the owner of a brand-new Rohloff-equipped bike, says:
Andre,
I am pleasantly surprised to find operating drag is not noticeable; I find I still fall into my default 110-120RPM pedal cadence, just as I do with my derailleur bikes, and haven't noticed the Rohloff holding me back in any way (my 62-inch Gear 11 keeps me in the 17-21mph/27-34kph range at my preferred hummingbird-like cadence). Keep in mind, my Rohloff is still essentially brand-new and far from broken-in. It can only get better.
Good things await.
Best.
Dan. (...more amazed by the day at the R-box's virtues)
Mmm. I expected a break-in period of about 2000 miles... Chalo Colina disillusioned me. He said, only half joking, that a Rohloff gearbox is broken in about the time when your less puissant Japanese gearbox is being honourably retired.
Certainly, with 6000km/3600m rising on my Rohloff box, there is no wear on the box. It works pretty much as it worked from new. I would expect it to be good and tight for a very long time. Think about it. Besides its sturdiness and "proper" design, what makes it a Rohloff with a virtual lifetime guarantee is the lasting precision of its assembly.
However, the peripheral controls, which when new I condemned as "agricultural", have become perceptibly smoother. Only today I noticed with pleasure that I was slicing through the box one definite notch at a time, but very quickly in order to match the fast-changing gradient at a junction on an uphill road on which I once lived, not breaking cadence, nor needing more than the touch of the electric assistance already applied on the steady hill I had been ascending until them. At the top of the hill I stopped to talk to an erstwhile neighbour walking his dog. "You didn't break sweat on that steep turn," he said. "Do I take it you recommend your particular electric drive?" I was proud to reply, "I did that with the gearbox. Junk the derailleurs on your bike, get a Rohloff, and you'll be able to put off the electrics another four, maybe six years." He looked very thoughtful. I knew what was in his mind: he couldn't possibly change gear as smoothly and quickly with his derailleured bike. I must have looked pretty good steaming around that tight uphill turn so smoothly...
I were you, Dan, I'd look for the gearchange mechanism to lose that new edginess about 2K, and not worry about break-in beyond that.
Also, don't look for the precision of a Nexus change. It will never arrive. If, on a run-in box, your gears snick in positively, and you can invariably read the gear you're in off the control engraving, you cables are too tight. The gear does indeed go in positively, but with a sort of soft, positive plop rather than jewelled small-BMW click. On optimally set cables the gear control will play between at least a whole gear and two gears to each side of the actual gear it is in, but this doesn't matter (except to obsessives) to the operation except that if you don't have it, your cables are too tight.
Try to stop looking at the control. You don't choose gears on a Rohloff system with your head, as on a derailleur system where you need a table pasted to the stem of so many up on the right with so many down on the left, you choose them sequentially by the seat of your pants, without thought, by just twisting the control until you pedal comfortably. Let your body choose the gears for you, not your brain.
Above all, just enjoy. Ride the bike, don't think about it.
Andre Jute
PS I liked "hummingbird cadence" so much that I've already stored it for future use!
