Thorn has regularly supplied their touring bikes in an "illegal" ratio. It isn't anything to worry about. Rohloff may have some worries about what a 275 monster off road racer would do to their gear, but Mr. Twiddles on a touring bike is no threat to the health of the hub. I don't really care what the guarantee says since the correct ratios are more important to me than some hypothetical situation of making a return.

http://www.sjscycles.com/pdfFiles/Li...RohloffWeb.pdf

In my browser, the relevant sections are next to the heading "Further developments".