Roloff
 

Anyone know where I can buy a Roloff hub? Google isn't great at sorting the wheat from the chaff...

UK ideally, but given the exchange rate at the moment the USA could be great...

Try spelling it "rohloff".

http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/rohloff1.shtml
Ben Cooper it the proprietor of Kinetics bicycles in Glasgow. I bought my first one from there.
Very nice folks, full of esoteric bike tech.

www.bike-components.de has some very good prices. In the UK SJS cycles sells them.

Thanks for the responses, I think I will save for one of these as I think my commute will be better in the long run with an internal gear hub.

Harris Cyclery sells Rohloff hubs. Here is the link: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/rohloff.html

Check if their prices are attractive compared to what you have been quoted.

I also sell Rohloff hubs. Please contact me with your needs.

Dave Bohm
Bohemian Bicycles
http://www.bohemianbicycles.com

A perspective:
I would love to obtain and build up a bike using a Rohloff hub. I currently have 5 bikes (three of my kids use them, one is a touring build, and one is my commuter) using Shimano Nexus-7 internal hubs. I have found my commuter nexus-7 to be rock solid, --AND I consider it my experiment in non-maintenance. I do absolutely nothing to that bike but fix whatever stops working. In 4 years I've replaced exactly one rusting and neglected chain (and am maybe due for another soon).

I'm not sure I would gain anything from a Rohloff for the huge cost increase. And the down side of internal hubs (only one I can determine) is the significant increase in complications for pulling the rear wheel off to fix a flat. Standard derailed rear wheels pop right off and back on. Internals have to be disconnected and re-connected to the gear shift mechanism, and have to be aligned correctly. I am totally comfortable doing that for my bike --but I build these things. If my kids had a flat somewhere, someone unfamiliar with the linkages would have trouble.

The Rohloff hub does not have this issue. If designed around rohloff specific drop-outs all you have to do to remove the rear wheel is this.

1. put shifter in either 1st or 14th gear
2. unscrew thumb screw on shift box on hub and pull off
3. undo quick release and remove wheel

Reverse to assemble.

Dave Bohm
Bohemian Bicycles

P.S. I think the biggest improvement that could be made to any of the lower end gear hubs is to make them easier to remove from the bicycle. I am surprised that Shimano/Sram has not emulated the Rohloff mechanism as this is the largest hurdle for your recreational-commuting cyclist.