OK, It was a long journey to get this job done, for various reasons.
Just to recap, my shifting had become so tough that I was getting calluses on my hand. The solution? Replace the Rohloff cable housing with Shimano XTR housing, as per billj's suggestion earlier in this thread. I had nothing to lose, except a bit of cash.
Firstly, I searched for XTR gear housing. Sounds easy enough, eh? Well, after all this, I'm still not clear whether XTR gear housing comes in 2 flavours or not: the so-called SP41 silicon-based and the Teflon-based one. Furthermore, most of the LBSes told me that they didn't have XTR but that they had SP41, suggesting that there were indeed 2 types of XTR housing! On the web, I found the Shimano XTR packages specified SP41 housing! Please: someone authoritively and definitively tell me (cite your sources)!. Whatever, I ended up buying about 9 feet of SP41 from an LBS. I could've got the official Shimano complete packages (housing, cable and ferrules) but I would've need 2 packages at $40CAD each to re-cable my bike, because Shimano packages come with 3 pre-cut segments of housing and 1 package wasn't long enough for my bike. So, I ended up with SP41 housing, plus cables and ferrules for about $40CAD from an LBS. I didn't go for coated cables as my LBS indicated he'd seen ‘pilling’ occur on coated cables, so I went with Jagwire uncoated 1.2mm gear cables.
The next time-consuming issue was, to make a long story short, I had previously used an English-sized Allan key to work on the Rohloff cable pulley’s set screw. I should've used a 2mm Allan key. I paid the price again, in lost time and money, as the set screw's head was stripped. So, I need a replacement set screw plus I had to get the old one out out the cable pulley. The Rohloff manual that came with hub is great and they specified the size of the screw: M4x4. As it turns out this is a pretty popular with the radio control model airplane crowd and I was easily able to source this screw from my local hobby shop. As for removing the stripped set screw, well, I broke a few drill bits trying to drill it out, not to mention more wasted time. I then called Rohloff USA - I'm in Canada - to enquire about getting a new cable pulley and they wouldn't be able to ship me one for over a week because they were moving and had no idea where the part was in their warehouse! Here I am dead in the water with no way of using my bike! :-( So, I ending up dropping by a local auto transmission shop with an eye to seeing if they would drill out the set screw from the cable pulley. The owner said 'no problem' and spent a fair amount of time drilling out the old screw out, and then retapping the threads (same size), just in case. He only charged me $10CAD! Wow - that made my week!
The next task was to experiment with the location of the EX box vis-a-vis the frame, the objective being to reduce the sharp bend in the cable housing at the hub end of the bike. Moving the box one way ran it into the Avid disk brakes, and moving the box the other way extended the cable housing length enough such that I had some concern about the extra friction and I wasn't convinced the bend was that much less. So, I left the location of the EX box as it was.
Next, was the final step: the actual recabling. I took my time and completed it with no major issues. It was the 1st time I'd recabled my Rohloff, but I’d previously taken the cable pulley box apart, so I had a pretty good idea of what was involved. Once I completed the cabling, I was able to turn the Rohloff grip shifter with just my thumb and forefinger - it was that easy! Being a pragmatic and experienced person in life (read: older?), I didn't celebrate yet, because I wanted to ride it at least 500 kms and see how it was after those ‘miles’.
It’s now been about a month since I recabled, and I've put about 700km on the bike with a great day ride in Jasper National Park of > 150km. The rest of the mileage has been commutes or short recreational rides. The verdict? The shifting *has* tightened up somewhat since the recabling BUT I would consider the shifting to be quite easy, still. It is certainly acceptable. However, I would like to see this cabling job to go 2 years with acceptable shifting before saying it is a success. :-) I wouldn't have any qualms about recabling the bike every 2 years, especially when I put on 4 - 5000 km a year just in normal day-to-day use, never mind touring.
What would I do differently next time I recable my Rohloff bike?
1. Ascertain if there is 'real' XTR cabling vs. SP41, and use it if there is.
2. Use cable housing on the entire length of the bike from shifter to hub, versus in 3 segments as my bike was built originally. billj recommended I cable the entire length and I think it would make sense. I’m not sure what the official Rohloff recommendation is. My bike has braze-ons such that I’d still have to cut the cable housing, or get some clips, or even new braze-ons, to hold the one-piece entire housing. I’d have to think about that one.
3. Ascertain whether or not coated gear cable does indeed “pill” and if not, see if that helps ease the shifting effort.
What are the advantages XTR (or SP41) cable housing vs. Rohloff?
1. Cable housing more readily available than Rohloff.
2. Can use 1.2mm gear cable with XTR versus harder to find 1.1mm gear cable.
3. No inner nylon sleeve that can come out of the cable housing.
In my case, I plan to do some very long tours on this Rohloff bike and the first 2 items are pretty compelling reasons to recable with XTR. On the other hand, since my bike was improperly cabled by my builder, which in turn caused the very hard shifting, I can't say that XTR cabling is 'better' than Rohloff’s. However, I think if Rohloff made a housing with nylon sleeves that wre integral to the cable housing vs. being able to move around, then my hard shifting issue may never have occurred.
Many thanks to billj who helped me out – via email - in this entire recabling exercise! It was nice to have the support of someone who’s “been there, done that!” Likewise, I’d be happy to help out anyone, too!
I’ll try to provide an update after 2 years!
bryan
