 This used to be my dream bike but now it seems so ordinary :(
Someone else that finds the Rohloff inefficient in low gears, an ISIS BB, limited climbing ability and no miracles downhill.
A good report Mike but it was like finding out Debbie Harry was going out with Chris Stein.
#Well late feedback is better than no feedback at all#
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 I suppose it depends how you read the review:
"Long-term Rohloff users tell us that the gears all smooth out after a few months" which they do - the one on the TFR mike had yet to do that many miles.
"Suspension performance is great" " the suspension performance and ground clearance to charge through pretty much anything"
"tendency to wallow under out-of-the-saddle efforts, but a bit of air in the Fox DHX shock's Boost Valve soon sorts that out"
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I'll do a long term test for free if you like Simon. I promise to ride it to the limits of my ability and endurance for as long as you want.
My last post was a little tongue in cheek (the above offer is not). It's an exceptional bike and I think Mike's review was very fair unlike some magazine reviews that fail to point out minor niggles and compromises.
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 That's a sh!t load of money, even for a Nicolai!
I'll stick to dreaming of a Saturn :-)
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The ti-mag kit does make a significant difference to the weight - it includes the majority of the g-boxx casing and the shock linkage in magnesium and all bolts in ti.
It's another £900.
If that's not enough for you then the single production run 'team issue' TST has a different, pierced&machined, seat tube and shock position which shaves a fair bit of weight. We don't have a price yet...
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To be honest it's not the weight that's stopping me simply the price tag. I think buyers will buy it for the concept and a few grams here or there won't enter into the equation.
If I was serious about buying one (which I'm not for the moment having just bought a new bike) the biggest obstacle would be the twist shifter. Can't you persuade Rohlof to develop something like the Shimano or SRAM trigger shifters. I have tried a Rohlof by the way (a new one) and really didn't like the shifter whilst the coffee grinder feel in low gears and gear spacing I could happily live with. I use a Sachs Super 7 with a basic thumb shifter which is OK but clearly wouldn't be any good with 14 gears.
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The thing that really bugged me with the Rohloff was the delay in between ratios.
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John - having ridden nothing but Rohloffs in the last 18mths i've two comments on this. Given the 'pull/pull' way that the shifting works it's a bit difficult to see how to put this into a trigger shifter. Secondly, I'd never been a fan of gripshift and never had it on any of my bikes but, having got used to it, now find it completely natural. It does have the advantage of there being less on the bars and thus more space for your fingers.
Mike - do you find the spacing between the gears too wide or the speed of the shift to be the problem?
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Speed of the shift is more annoying than the ratios Simon. It seems better if you ease off the pedalling but then you lose one of the benefits of the hub.
I suspect that they'll offer different ratios in the future, it's probably not worth it right now.
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Interesting - i've not heard anyone complain of that before. I've raced on my Helius Rohloff and never had an issue with that. I always eased off shifting with conventional gears and although the technique is slightly different it's something you adapt to.
The real advantage is shifting whilst NOT pedalling, whether stationary, braking or coming round a bend to find an unexpected sloped.
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The any gear in a second and a half is nice. I couldn't shift and brake though. It would be OK with a Continental brake set up but my front brake is on the right.
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Not so much while braking but when you've finished - brake as you need to and change as you come round the corner and know what speed you're at and the terrain ahead.
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 What? Debbie Harry was going out with Chris Stein? That's another childhood illusion shattered...
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 If Simon is reading this I hope CAT9 is doing ok 
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 My biggest problem with Rohloff is the feeling that what you are pedalling doesn't seem to have a direct relation to your speed. However I do think that internal gears arethe future in MTBing but it just isn't refined enough yet.
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 what you are pedalling doesn't seem to have a direct relation to your speed Surely the same is true of any system that offers a choice of gear ratios?
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I mean you don't have a direct feeling that the power you are putting through the pedals is going directly to the wheels in the way that you do with a conventional set up. It is probably something you get used to but just an observation after using a rohloff hub for a day.
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I've ridden another Rohloff since this thread was started and come to the conclusion they absorb quite a few watts, especially in 7.
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7's pretty bad. Shift from 8 to 7 and it actually feels harder to pedal  It's actually a seven-speed box with an extra high/low bit on the end, so in the bottom seven gears there's an extra bunch of whirliness going on. I suspect that 7 feels particularly bad because it's next to the gear without said extra whirliness - I'm not sure that it's any less efficient than 1-6 really. I still kind of like the idea of them, but if I had to have a hub-geared MTB it'd have an Alfine on it.
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