Rohloff and Freezing Winter Temps

[Magnus Thor]

I've been using my Thorn Catalyst for a year now and I have experienced temperatures down to around -8 C with no problems whatsoever.  It might be that the hub takes slightly longer to shift between gears but it's hardly noticable when you're bouncing over the snow.  I did take care to rinse it out carefully when I changed the oil in the fall but I think that I'll trust Rohloff to know their stuff.  According to the label on the bottle it's supposed to work in temperatures down to -15 C.

Magnus Thor
Iceland

[torel]

I've been riding my Rohloff equipped bicycle for one month now in predominantly freezing temperature, down to -10 C and I am having problems.  However, the probleoms are not with the internal gear, but with the cable/external gear change mechanism.  First I thought the problem was in the external gear mechanism, but I have now traced it to be moisture in the cables.  How that could happen I don't know as they seem to be pretty good covered against water penetration.  It started to happen two days after I bought the bicycle so either the wires were moist from the very beginning or the first day of rain did it.  The recommendation on the Rohloff web site is to replace the wires and the inner sleeves.  I guess I have to do that.

Tore

[Ratty]

I have now cycled a full winter with a Raven Adventure tour. (half of last winter plus this half)

I sometimes have a problem at low temps with slip shifting but it is only for a tiny fraction of a second and not enough to affect balance at all.

I regularly cycle between -5C and -10C without anything more than this problem.  I have never read anywhere else about problems with Rohlofs in Scandinavia.

I suggest that those people experiencing problems below freezing should get Rohloff or whoever sold them the bikes to service and/or replace the hubs as they are designed to and do function well at colder temps.

Anthony

PS two fridays ago I was on a cycle path in the driving snow.  The snow was so deep that at no time in the pedal cycle were my feet out of it.  It was so much fun and so exhilarating.  I had to stop because I became dizzy. With a deraileur firstly the cogs would have bunged up and shifting and maybe pedaling would have been impossible.  Secondly I would not have been able to make the instant shifts without pedaling necessary when hitting a thick patch of snow or a hidden bump.