Pre owned rohloff

[alfie1952]

When you buy anything which has been pre owned, as a rule you would usually have a visual inspection and a general play around with it. My question is if  I were to buy a pre owned, and used rohloff, which had been disassembled form its wheel, as well as a visual inspection, what else should I be looking out for.

Regards Alfie. 

[geocycle]

Good question.  I guess the age would be of interest which you can determine from the serial number.  There have been a few refinements to seals etc after the early models.  If its an internal version (I've no experience of the ex box) you should be able to move the cable relatively easily through the gears, check for 13 clicks..... not sure what else you can do without trying it on a bike.

Oh, you might want to check wear around the flanges where the spokes exit as these can be a weakness.

[Andre Jute]

I have zero experience of buying a used Rohloff, but it occurs to me that I'd rather have seen it in the wheel right after it was taken out of the bike, or at least filthy dirty right after it was cut out, because then leaks would be obvious. Once it's been cleaned up, there's not much you can tell except, possibly, that there are 14 gears.

If it is a pre-laser-serial model, the blue and yellow sticker should be attached. If it is not, don't buy it because you may not be able to get service.

You should know that the normal ownership for a Rohloff isn't genteel tourers but mud plugging offroaders, so a secondhand Rohloff, unless you're able reliably to determine its previous ownership and use, or unless it is visually pristine, is very likely to have led a hard, dirty life. That's why people try to buy a pre-loved Rohloff within the forum or club or from a source where the prior use can be guessed at with some accuracy.

[phopwood]

I think I would add this to the above.  Buying it depends on the price, as for getting it fixed I would check with rohloff if they will still service it,  I am sure they will.

The extra checks I would do are.

Check it has oil in it,  by removing the oil plug and letting a drip out.

I would get some one to hold the axel ends tight and then move the sprocket in the direction of pedaling the hub should rotate faster or slower than the socket depending on which gear you are in gear 11 will be the same speed,  repeat for each gear. You will also feel the gears turning and how smooth they are.

Ask lots of questions, is the seller the original owner, has the oil been changed regularly, how many miles.  Any owner of a hub like this should be able to give reasonable answers to these types of questions.  If you get vague answers then there is something a miss.

I ordered mine from Germany and it was significantly cheaper that buying in the UK.

Peter