Originally Posted by
enfilade
I'm considering getting one when I have the money (always the biggest obstacle with cycling upgrades!). Anyway I'm looking for some opinions on them first, preferably if you've used both internal gears and a derailleur system, but it doesn't matter if not. I don't know a great deal about them, but they seem to have many benefits. Why are they so rarely used by the big names in cycling?
...I've owned and maintained a number of them, going all the way back to my first bicycle as a kid, with a SA AW hub (which was a common item back in the 50's and 60's). AS stated so well by others, unless you spend an insane amount of money on one, it's difficult to achieve the same range of gearing you can with a relatively cheap and simple derailleur system.
There is a good website you can read while you are saving your money for a Rohlofff wheel,
Hubstripping. It reviews a number of the ones commonly available today, and also some of the historical greats. You can pick up a lot of knowledge over there. My personal choice is not to ride on anything I can't fix myself, so that lets out Rohloff because they don't want you tinkering with them...it voids the warranty. People have been stripping and rebuilding Sturmy Arccher AW's for longer than I've been riding a bicycle. It's a pretty straightforward process. You can lower the overall gearing on one of those by installing a larger 24 tooth cog (available online.)