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Home > Product Reviews > Other > Rohloff Speedhub 500/14 Reviews

Rohloff Speedhub 500/14

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Rohloff Speedhub 500/14
More about Rohloff

Average Rating: 4 out of 5
No. of Reviews: 6
RRP: £540
Year: 2000 - 2005

Description: MTB hubgear transmition system. Advanced shifting technology with high efficiency and low maintenace.

REVIEWS

1 to 6 of 6 reviews, to post a review you need to be a member - Join now.

dan wynn

Posted: 29/03/07

'CHOSE A GEAR, ANY GEAR!'

Strengths:
Reliable in all weathers and in all conditions - has survived two winters and regular submersions - NO MAINTENANCE!!!

Weaknesses:
Weight and cost

Overall:
No problems with mud and submersion in muddy water. Have frequently kept going when others are clogged up with mud. Never had a component that requires NO MAINTENANCE!

Performance		80%
Reliability		80%
Value		60%

Overall Rating

73%

luke holliday

Posted: 17/06/01

'Revolutionary, ultra-dependable, fit and forget gears! '

Strengths:
To put it simply this baby out performs the 100 year old derailluer system in all departments.

526% gear range in 14 evenly steppped gears with user tunable development. ie 14 gears with a wider than normal ratio, no doubled up gaers as with the traditional system, every gear usable - how many real gears does a 27 speed have?

Fast shifting in any conditions. Completly sealed 'gear box' means mud, sand or grass cannot disturb the gear shift.
Change gear when not pedalling, under heavy load, even whilst back pedalling.

Never miss a shift due to incorrect or disturbed indexing. Gears indexed independently of the cable within the hub itself. Twin cable single shifter - One cable to upshift one to down shift - Never rely on spring tension again - not affected by dirt inside the cables.

Virtually matenance free. One oil change per year. No more indexing and adjustment. Constant chain line means better sprocket, chain and chainring durability.

Stronger wheel due to dishless design, and shorter stiffer spokes.

Weaknesses:
Weight possibly. Or more truely weight distribution. The system compares favourably to a complete XT system for weight but its all in one place. This weight is also revolving mass, which gets effectivly heavier when the wheel is spinning. However it is at the hub so this effect is reduced.

Highly reliable but what if some thing goes wrong? who can fix one of those or provide spares in far off places? Well no one but that goes for almost any modern MTB parts.

Tensioner jockey wheel cartridge bearings are not so good. One of mine collapsed in Nepal but as you don't rely on them for shifting I just shoved a ceap Indian one in with no bad results.

Hub is prone to loosing oil in hot weather. I had a problem with that in Nepal as well. However, see below.

Some people may be put off by the whopping price tag of £500+, alot of money for sure, but a Speedhub's for life not just for Christmass. This puppy will outlast tens of sets of Shimano (dead after 2 months) drive parts reaping financial rewards in the long run.

Overall:
Overall I would reccomend this system outright to all but the highest class of pro XC racers for who weight is so crucial. The system is mud proof and knock proof (DH'ers what are you waiting for?) it is also very reliable and very sexily engineered!

Just fit it and frget it!

In relation to the oil leaking in hot weather. I e-mailed Rohloff from Kathmandu regarding this and they said two things. Firstly in tests they had run one for a year with no oil with no problem and secondly that they would send to an address in Nepal an oil change kit. This kit arrived within 5 days at no charge! In my opinion faultless customer service, what more could you want.

Performance		100%
Reliability		100%
Value		80%

Overall Rating

93%

Graham Neale

Posted: 29/07/01

'Moving in the right direction'

Strengths:
Fit and forget. Genuinely weatherproof operation. I used my bike for 9 months(inc. winter) with virtually no maintenance thanks to the combined Hope/Rohloff brake and gear combos.(None of my other bikes could do this!) Superb engineering-top quality finish and efficient(for a hub gear). Mostly reliable-certainly more so than constant maintenance of derailleur gears. Pretty impossible to break through crashing. No duplicate gears. Perfect straight chainline. Shorter chain. My frame has horizontal dropouts and is a hardtail so no chain tensioner is required. The lack of chain-slap is a revalation-Stealth bike!

Weaknesses:
Twist-shifter only. I have always preferred rapidfire.
Fiddly initial setup of twin cables-especially on the disk version which uses a rather nasty cable routing mechanism to avoid the disk caliper. This routing also gives a poor feel to the shifter. The standard routing is much more positive. Have experienced small amounts of gear slippage which can catch you unawares when standing on the pedals! The 7th-8th gear shift is reached through top gear in the planetary gear setup. Under normal conditions this is not noticeable but under full power quick-shifting race conditions, the chain tension is never released and this shift sometimes dumps you in top until pedalling pressure is eased. Not good for quick starts on the dual course! Unless you have an OEM frame such as my Nicolai with altered dropout configuration, the torque-arm required and usually also a chain-tensioner reduce the wonderfully clean look to the bike. These parts look like a real afterthought compared to the engineering that has gone into the hub itself. Weight is pretty horrendous at around 4lb for the hub itself! Thats one heavy wheel. The best solution would be to hide this baby in the BB area to give a nice low centre of gravity and not upset the balance of the bike or it's suspension operation.
Noisy in some gears-deathly quiet in others depending on the planet gears being used in each gear combo.

Overall:
The only real alternative to the nasty derailleur system. Weight must come down. Gear slippage must be sorted-dangerous! Cleaner and simpler fittings to 'standard'(not OEM) frames and sort that disk cable routing! A superb effort marred by details!

Performance		60%
Reliability		60%
Value		60%

Overall Rating

60%

Dod Peters

Posted: 22/01/03

'JUST GET OUT AND RIDE!'

Strengths:
Reliability - it works perfectly all of the time, and needs virtually no maintenance.
It will still be working perfectly even at the end of a long and gruelling ride, which cannot always be said of derailier systems.

Weaknesses:
Weight, I think it is a little heavier than a light derailier set up, but that is a very small price to pay.
Cost, it is a real "leap of faith" to buy one, but now I could never go back.

Overall:
Absolutely excellent, I would recommend it to anybody who just wants to ride their bike.
I've been running it for a year and a half now and it has had a real effect on the overall reliability of the bike.
Full marks for value, even though it costs several times what a decent derailier system would cost, but it will probably work out a lot cheaper in the long run.

Performance		100%
Reliability		100%
Value		100%

Overall Rating

100%

Tim Ngyou

Posted: 30/09/05

'ENGINEERING AT ITS BEST'

Strengths:
Simple, bomb-proof construction;
All-weather ... all gears ... no chain suck;
Minimal maintenance required;
Allows you to concentrate on riding, not worry about your gears;
Year-round grin-factor.

Weaknesses:
Some wearing-in noise;
Having to back-off a little during gear-change;
Retro-fit may require odd-looking cable routing;
Initial monetary outlay.

Overall:
See my comments in the Rohloff forum:

http://www.bikemagic.com/forum/forummessages.asp?UTN=60724&URN=22&SP=v/2&V=1&searchdate=0&cp=3&dt=4

I've had the Rohloff retro-fitted to my Giant NRS1 (2004) and it is truly a revelation. You have to ride it to believe what a positive difference it makes.

The Rolly is an investment all bike manufacturers should seriously consider.

Performance		100%
Reliability		100%
Value		60%

Overall Rating

87%

Guy Woodhouse

Posted: 04/10/05

'NO FUSSING JUST PEDALING'

Strengths:
Near maintainance free use throughtout the year, no issues with muddy conditions, guarantted gear shifting and a good range of gears.

There is no real weight gain overall but it just push the centre of gravity further back on the bike, this actually seems to improve handling when going downhill.

Quite easy ot set-up on the bike once you go through the instructions and kit, also with the right parts you can fit it to all bikes.

It seems to be very energy efficent and allows a lot of power to be put through it without complaining, not gear crunching grinding noises like somethings going to snap that you can get with derailleurs.

A year of use and it now is a lot quieter than originally and it should just get better and better.

Allows gear changing when stationary so you need never be in the wrong gear to pull away.

Weaknesses:
I'm not a huge fan of grip shift but it is surprisingly easy to get used to.

Takes a little while to get used to changing gear at a point in the pedal stroke when you are not exerting maximum force.

Some would say cost but for the quality and reliability of shifting and the expected lifespan of the hub I think it will turn out to be a very sound investment.

Overall:
Excellent shifting all year round, no matter what the weather and how little maintainance work you do on it. No real weight gain just a relocation of the weight. Once you get used to it it's difficult going back.