I have of late been incredibly fascinated by the Rohloff Speedhub 500/14, perhaps the most technically advanced bit of bicycle gear out there. It is a 14 speed, internally geared hub, much along the lines of the Raleigh 3 speed man folks remember from their youth. The difference is, the Rohloff is a completely sealed, evenly spaced internal hub, with 13.6% gain between each gear. The service life of the hub is apparently near unlimited — there are stories of these hubs being ridden almost to 100,000 kilometers without repair. The only external pieces of the hub are the cog (steel, and reversible for even wear prior to replacement), the tension arm (which holds the hub in place in the frame) and the shifter itself, which is a simple twist grip that simply pulls cables up-and-down — all of the logic for the shifting is in the hub itself, not in the shifter.

This makes for, obviously, an incredibly durable and reliable setup — this rider toured India and Sichuan riding an On-One 29er frame with a Rohloff hub, and as always, Sheldon Brown has a fantastic page with information from Andy Blance (touring bike builder Thorn Raven’s designer.) Andy also has put together useful pages on changing the Speedhub’s oil, explaining Rohloff gear cables, and reversing the sprocket on a Rohloff hub.

Sadly, outside of Sheldon’s efforts, the Rohloff is hardly known in the US — they only employ one person here, and seem convinced that only hardcore mountain riders would want one (explaining why the Speedhub’s shifter doesn’t fit on standard drop bars, a situation somewhat remedied by solutions from titanium builder Rewel Bikes, Ohio builder HubBub, and German company Norwid, all of whom offer variations on stem/bar extensions to allow mounting of the shifter to drop bars.

In Europe, however, it’s a totally different story. The hub is widely available, including in a couple of rather delicious looking commuter options from Cannondale, the special production G-Star, and the regular production Bad Boy Rohloff. It’s unfortunate that the US is stuck with very so-so internal hub offerings from Shimano rather than a performance hub like this, as I imagine many commuters/tourers would be quite intrigued by the hub. I am actually working on a project to put together my Co-Motion Nor’Wester with a Rohloff, but I’m somewhat torn as a derailleur setup is so much more familiar, and the compromises involving drop bars aren’t 100% satisfying. We shall see as we get towards sunnier weather though. I have a distinct urge to ride from NYC out to the small town where my Aunt and Uncle live over the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. Seems like a nice ride.