Originally Posted by
Jipe
Current Rohloff do not leak anymore and they do not need the long break-in of several thousands of km of the first type of Rohloff.
There are 3 major generation of Rohloff than can be distinguished by the marking on the hub:
- first, oldest one: Rohloff and marking are written on a yellow-blue sticker glued on the hub. Red hub is painted in red.
- second: hub anodized, marking are engraved, Made in Germany is not underlined.
- third, current: same anodizing+engraving but Made in Germany is underlined, flange are different 'require different flange reinforcement rings than previous generation), no long break-in, no leakage anymore. Noise is different too, less noisy on 7 first gear first.
I have one hub bought in 2012 second gen, it leaks.
And a second one bought mid 2016 gen 3 it doesn't leak.
Mid 2016, the way the cog is mounted changed too. There is a retrofit kit to put the new mounting on older hubs. This change of cog mounting also slightly changed the chainline.
I am not hearing that the newer ones don't leak, it is more a hit and miss sort of thing, some do and some don't.
Mine leaks but I know of others that are older that do not leak. Mine is anodized, no underline, serial number 180XXX. Leaks out of the gear change mechanism on the non-drive side.