teacherlady

2000 mile review of my Rodriguez Rohloff touring bike with S&S Couplers, Son dynamo hub, and Luxos U light from R&E Cycles

Why I bought the bike:

I tried making an LHT work for me. I tried and tried, for more than 4000 miles of mostly long day rides and short commutes, with a few 3-4 day credit card tours. The 50 cm was too long, and the 46 was just --not right--.

I bit the bullet on a custom bike, a Waterford light touring bike. I told the shop owner who spec'ed my bike (Tony Tom of Bicycle Odyssey in Sausalito) that I put in very long days on the bike, that I wanted absolutely no toe overlap, that I wanted a very, very, very low low gear, that I thought I would never do a camping tour, that I didn't know enough to spec components, and what my out-the-door budget limit was. My Waterford has been a delight and a revelation, expanding my sense of the possible -- but it doesn't have 26 inch wheels, I couldn't fit couplers into my budget, and I shouldn't carry more than 25 pounds of luggage on it.

So when, after paying a small fortune to ship our bikes 4 times in two years, we decided to do a trip that would involve winter camping in a part of the world where the only tires available were either 26 inch or 700c racing tires, we realized we needed new bikes. My traveling companion had a friend who raved about his Rodriguez UTB, and we're always looking for excuses to visit Seattle. We went to Seattle, tried some Rodriguez bikes, then went home to think about it for a month. I settled on the Rodriguez Rohloff tourer with a custom frame, and my companion went with the UTB with a 3x9 speed derailleur drive train with some custom specifications.

How I've ridden the bike:

I now have close to 2000 miles on the bike, a little more than half at home with light or no load, and the rest in Argentina with close to 20 kilos in 2 rear bags, a front handlebar bag, plus water and food in bottle cages and on the rear rack as needed.

My reaction to the bike:
I can't say enough good things about the Rodriguez' fit. The Rodriguez fitter, Smiley, worked with my traveling companion and me for most of 8 hours on a slow Saturday, adjusting 2 different bikes so we could each do substantial test rides, putting us each up on a trainer on our existing bikes, and then on his fitting bike. He suggested changing the stem on my Waterford, and improved its comfort substantially. He suggested a change to how I held my bars that improved my comfort. When I received the Rodriguez, I immediately found myself descending more quickly and confidently than I could on my Waterford. Long days in the saddle are comfortable. I can go up and down stairs easily after a long ride, which I could not do with the Waterford. My companion is an experienced rider, a former bike messenger who has ridden 1000s of miles a year on good bikes for more than 30 years for utility and pleasure. He is acutely sensitive to minute details of bike fit. He has very average proportions; it's easy for him to buy clothes without alterations, and it's easy for him to find bikes that he can make fit very well. He says his Rodriguez fits much better than any bike he has had, that it is more comfortable, and that it handles better with weight.

I love, love, love having the couplers. Packing the bike in an S&S case for airline transport is finicky and time consuming. It will probably get faster, but it will never be fast and it will never be easy, and if I can pack the bike in a bigger box and pay for shipping, I can imagine choosing that option. However, I can split the bike and put it in the trunk of my car, or of an ordinary cab, or under a bus that officially doesn't take bikes, in about 2 minutes. I can put the frame back together and reconnect the cables (with the special cable splitters) so that it is safe to ride, racks, fenders, dynamo, and all, with luggage attached and locked on, in less than 5 minutes.

I wouldn't have attempted a winter tour without a generator hub, since batteries are heavy, environmentally awful, and run out. The wiring on the Luxos U seems a little fragile. It cracked, and we had to solder it together. I'll accept that tradeoff, since I really like that I can lie in the tent and read a book on my phone till the battery runs down, but still use offline mapping tools after a few minutes of riding the next day. I do carry backup USB rechargeable lights -- that I can keep charged off the Luxos!

My feelings about the Rohloff are more mixed. First, it's heavy. Since I'm fat, I don't think the extra pound and a half from the Rohloff really makes that much difference climbing, but every ounce matters, right? Also, the weight is all in the rear, and that does matter. The bike doesn't balance as well when I have to carry it. The weight seems to affect the handling, though that might be my imagination. Second, shifting the Rohloff is slow. It's not an issue on long ascents and descents, but it is an issue on rolling terrain. A different shift mechanism might help with shifting speed; I have the default shifter for drop bars, a twist shifter on the end of the right drop. Third, it was expensive. (I made a couple of wrong choices on the Wateford because of budget, and I didn't want to make the same mistake with the Rodriguez.) There's a fourth, but I can't think of it right now.

HOWEVER, the Rohloff is less finicky than derailleurs when we put the bikes together. I put the couplers together, attach the cables, and go. My companion has to adjust his derailleurs just a little every time. It is much less vulnerable than derailleurs. We were descending a good dirt road. I was going a little too fast. I hit a rock, hard, with my pedal. If I had hit my rear derailleur, I would have been looking for another derailleur -- which might have meant a bus ride to the next country! I'm not a confident mechanic, and I like having gears that are a black box. I like fuel injectors on my car, and I like my Rohlff. Other people have complained about the noise a Rohloff makes -- for me, that's been a non-issue. The noise is only in the low gears, it's already much less than when the bike was new, and the bike is quieter than my (very quiet) Waterford in the higher gears.

I'm still not sure I made the right decision when I chose a Rohloff - but I don't know that I made the wrong decision either.

The bike did not handle well with just a few more pounds on top of the rear rack; it felt like the rear end was deciding where to go, and not me. However, I've been quite happy with the handling once I gave a couple of pounds to my companion, and, more importantly, got the weight off the top of the rear rack. I have not tried the bike with weight on a front rack. I will when I get home.

I mostly let R&E choose the other components, since I'm not a gear geek, and am mostly happy with their choices. I don't like the tires for the conditions here in Argentina, but they would have been fine in the US east of the Rockies or in Europe. I should have upgraded to Schwalbes, but that's on me. I was surprised when they chose mostly black components, when I was expecting silver. If it had occurred to me, I would have specified silver, but it's still a very pretty bike. My traveling companion thinks I should have gone with 36 hole rims, but I've never yet had a problem with 32's. They were happy to let him spec 36s.

Overall, I am very happy with the bike. I'm also really impressed by R&E, the home of Rodriguez bikes. Everyone we dealt with there was knowledgeable, competent, patient, and loves bicycles and bicycling. If I'm ever in the market for another custom steel bike, it will be another Rodriguez -- as long as Smiley is the fitter, and Dan specs the frame from Smiley's fit.

My companion thinks I should add that R&E builds a lot of Rohloff bikes, and it shows in some small details. Nobody here in Argentina has a bike remotely like either of our bikes, but the only two other bike tourists we've seen in two months (not together) have had Rohloff bikes from European builders. Both had klugey shift cable mountings and hanging derailleur-style chain tension pulleys. They made him realize how elegant and how much less vulnerable the R&E custom Rohloff cable braze-ons and eccentric bottom bracket chain tensioner are.

A note about the expense: I have weird proportions (I'm a seamstress, so I know just how weird) and need a custom frame. However, I'm afraid people will look at me and think, "What's that fat old lady doing with two custom bikes?" My Waterford was my middle-aged little red sports car, and the Rodriguez will be my retirement RV. When I think about them that way, my bikes are quite inexpensive.

Custom road bicycles and custom tandem bikes hand-built by Rodriguez and Erickson in Seattle

B. Carfree

+1 to Smiley's fitting skills and the joys of working with the crew at R+E. You should ask Smiley how he got his name; it's a funny story.

Part of your bike handling issue might be the location of your load. While rear panniers and a handlebar bag were fairly standard in the early '70s, once Blackburn came out with front low-riders, most folks figured out that a heavy rear load and high front load were the worst possible way to carry gear in terms of bike stability. You might consider getting some front bags and taking advantage of the stabilization effect of having the load even with the front axle.

teacherlady

Like I said, when I get home, I'll try the bike with a front rack. However, I haven't seen any for sale here in Argentina.

Until I crossed some fairly abrupt weight / loading limit, the added weight of a front rack and panniers didn't seem worth it. Now, I see their value!

Tourist in MSN

Congratulations on finding what works well for you.

There are many other options for where to mount a shifter, maybe one of them would be quicker for you.

CyclingAbout.com ? 21 Ways to Run Rohloff Shifters with Road Drop Handlebars

Number 7 at the above link (Thorn Accessory Bar) is a very common choice, a short stem with a short piece of handlebar might accomplish the same thing for lower cost when you factor in shipping from the UK. But this method requires that you have enough steerer tube to install it.

Thorn Accessory Bar T Shaped 55 mm Extension - £16.99

I hope that some day I can pack up my S&S bike as fast as you, but I suspect I will always take much more time than you.

DropBarFan

Interesting post, esp the detailed info on the Rohloff. Pretty amazing how much time the Rodriguez fitter spent with you. A long time ago a builder (Zinn?) was pushing front racks as helping handling. When I later bought front rack/panniers I saw that was true. Front load doesn't mess up steering like one would expect. Requires a bit of extra turning effort but actually seems to stabilize handling. OTOH my heavy-duty low-rider/high-rider front rack with platform is heavy so I don't normally use it. For loaded touring it might help to put heavy dense items in the front.

Scummer

I have the Thorn t-bar on my Norwid with Rohloff and find the shifting OK. It's a little harder than using the long levers of my Dura Ace brake shifters (obviously) but the Rohloff shifts fine and is nice and quiet in gear 8-14.
Here is a picture of the Thorn bar with the shifter.

fietsbob

FWIW, As it is with my new bike, the R'off in the 406, 20" wheel, takes things lower .. within the hub designer's comfort range.

Since the hub cog is 3/32nd" type an even lower gear is just a double chainrings. (or Schlumpf speed drive, if $ flush)

Low, the designers spec a minimum of 17:40; 16:38; 15:36 [2.35] and in a smaller wheel its a lower gear ..

the 53:16 in a 20" wheel is like the 38:16 with a 26" wheel as far as the general range of the IGH gear set.

Bike Friday Pocket Llama . folds and comes apart, by design, to pack into a Suitcase..

ShortLegCyclist

Thanks for posting, really enjoyed reading your story!

I have a Rohloff, S and S coupled steel touring bike from R + E as well, fitted by Smiley and built (and already frame repaired once) by Dan Towles.

In my own experience, I've found that the Rohloff shifts much faster than a derailleur setup, nearly instantaneous as opposed to a half second or so delay with a deraillleur, but then again none of my bikes have a high end derailleur system. Plus, you can go from 1st to 14th much, much faster than any derailleur system could make a similar jump.

I have trekking bars on mine but am converting to drops once the Van Nicholas divisble drop bars I have on order arrive, as they can run the standard Rohloff shifter right on the tops.

The only "negative" for me on Rohloff so far is that if you don't hit the exact right detent on a shift, you default into 14th gear, which can be disconcerting on steep climbs, however my understanding is this is a conscious design choice and felt to be much safer than if the default were to go to first gear, which would abruptly leave you pedaling air and could cause you to lose control if really hammering.

Tourist in MSN

I suspect that the delay she was having was moving the hand down to the end of the drop bar to shift. On most of my derailleur bikes, I have bar end shifters or on one bike downtube shifters. So I am used to the delay time to move my hand, which is why I assume that was what she felt the delay was. But if you are used to other shifters, I can see how that can be seen as a delay.

On the missed shifts, I rarely have that problem anymore. I let up a bit more on how hard I pedal when I shift, it almost always drops right into gear. Also when I loosened up my cables a bit, that seemed to help too. The shifter feels like it has a bit too much slack in it with the looser cables, but it does shift better that way. And my most recent oil change appears to have loosened things up a bit too.

fietsbob

I only have a slight hesitation in the 7 to 8th gear change. which makes sense , there is a lot going on inside

8th is the lowest gear in high range, 7 is the highest gear in low range , so its a double shift .

I do something like that MountainDrive 2 speed crank + the BSR 3 speed hub /...

4th is low in high range, Next Lowest gear is Hub High, and the reduction gear in the crank engaged .

teacherlady

I find shifting the Rohloff slow in comparison to shifting bar ends because it's slower for me to twist 5 gears (say) than to throw a bar end lever halfway across the cassette. I have no other comparison, because except for my new Rodriguez, I rarely ride a bike without bar end shifters. I understand that the Rohloff is supposed to be faster to shift. My perception is that, in practice, it's been slower. As a result, there are a couple of times where I've ended up in unrideable gears and have had to put my feet down to avoid falling over, stop, shift, and start again.

fietsbob

the crossing over the 7~8 does have some delay, because there is a double shift going on inside the hub.

8th is the lowest gear in high range, 7th is the highest gear in low range..
(if pushing with pedal force default is High range, maybe even high in both, IGH work best with a pause in force on it)

its somewhat like if you had 2 chainrings very widely different one the largest cog on the big chain ring,
the next gear the smallest cog and the little chainring..

that would be a more valid comparison .. like the granny gear, T count half the size of the big ring ..

8 -14 is all in high range, 1 - 7 all in low range .. then the shifting is within the 7 speed
(ala 3,3 speeds 9 - the 2 direct gears that are redundant)

my Around town Brompton was fitted with a 2 speed planetary crank with a low of 2.5:1 reduction gear

and a 3 speed hub, It Also has a double gear and range shift bogged down on a hill the 2 shifts are

the crank with a button shuttling thru the BB .. & the 3 speed on the handlebar .. badda_bing .

Rohloff shift sequence does that with a twist of the cable ..

fast shifts that crucial? Australian company made a shifting electric motor to make the R'off shift with an up/down button.