Yesterday saw me take my first ride on a Rohloff internal gear box rear hub. This follows me becoming a Rohloff sponsored rider. Thanks to Chris from Puresports for fitting my Ellsworth Evolve with the alternative gear system.
I now have 1925km of mountain biking to wear it in. This is required to allow time for the internal parts to mesh efficiently. From then on the hub should only need an oil change every 5000km to perform flawlessly.
I won’t attempt to explain how the system works, mainly because I don’t fully understand. But there is a link to the Rohloff site and Puresports on the right, both of which explain the finer points. There also will be photos of this hub in action once I find my camera.
After a 50km ride it is clear there is a huge range of gears. The 44 tooth chain ring I am running may have to be changed for a 40 or 38 tooth ring. The fact that it makes no noise upon free wheeling is uncanny, seeing as my last rear hub was the loudest on the market. Although in the higher ratio gears you can hear the planetary gears whirring, I think this will decrease as the hub wears in.
So I plan to get that 2000km out of the way long before the 24 hours of N-Duro in March next year. This means loads of summer single track, poor me.
One of the rides I plan to do apart from my everyday training is to have another go at the Queen Charlotte track. In the past I have tried to ride this return in one day. At 72km one way it is New Zealand’s longest piece of single track. Past attempts have fallen short on the return trip because of light failures and time restraints.
This time there will be substantially more day-light as the plan is do it in late November. Also I will be using Ay Up lights, so running out of power won’t be a problem. Mountain bikes are not allowed on the furthest section in the peak season of December and January so late November is the best time for me to reattempt this 142km ride.
I don’t know of any previous record for this ride. But upon talking to the Blenheim information centre about the ride they thought it was impossible.
Closer to hand there is the 12 hours of Woodhill on the 8th of November. Not sure what kind of form I will be in by then, but it should be a fun race all the same.
I now have 1925km of mountain biking to wear it in. This is required to allow time for the internal parts to mesh efficiently. From then on the hub should only need an oil change every 5000km to perform flawlessly.
I won’t attempt to explain how the system works, mainly because I don’t fully understand. But there is a link to the Rohloff site and Puresports on the right, both of which explain the finer points. There also will be photos of this hub in action once I find my camera.
After a 50km ride it is clear there is a huge range of gears. The 44 tooth chain ring I am running may have to be changed for a 40 or 38 tooth ring. The fact that it makes no noise upon free wheeling is uncanny, seeing as my last rear hub was the loudest on the market. Although in the higher ratio gears you can hear the planetary gears whirring, I think this will decrease as the hub wears in.
So I plan to get that 2000km out of the way long before the 24 hours of N-Duro in March next year. This means loads of summer single track, poor me.
One of the rides I plan to do apart from my everyday training is to have another go at the Queen Charlotte track. In the past I have tried to ride this return in one day. At 72km one way it is New Zealand’s longest piece of single track. Past attempts have fallen short on the return trip because of light failures and time restraints.
This time there will be substantially more day-light as the plan is do it in late November. Also I will be using Ay Up lights, so running out of power won’t be a problem. Mountain bikes are not allowed on the furthest section in the peak season of December and January so late November is the best time for me to reattempt this 142km ride.
I don’t know of any previous record for this ride. But upon talking to the Blenheim information centre about the ride they thought it was impossible.
Closer to hand there is the 12 hours of Woodhill on the 8th of November. Not sure what kind of form I will be in by then, but it should be a fun race all the same.
2 comments:
You should be able sneak in to some "single speed" events now too with no deraileur :-)
How's the Rohloff working out with the Evolve and could you provide an overall photo and a close-up of both sides of the Rohloff on the Evolve so I can see how it's setup? I have a Speedhub and I'm considering getting the Evolve to put it on.
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