Taking Rohloff oil on planes?
 

I'm going on a world trip and while I would like to avoid planes as much as possible, there are sometimes seas and oceans between where I am and my next destination. In many developing countries you can't find Rohloff oil to maintain the speedhub so I have to take my own. Airlines prohibit taking flammable substances I think. I don't think they actually check your checked luggage though. Also maybe it would cause problems in some countries when they check your luggage as you pass through customs when you land. Do any of you have any experience traveling with it? What do you think? I bought 1L of it (also 1L of the cleaning oil, so 2L altogether) because buying it in large quantities is much cheaper than buying the individual 25ml packs. It would be costly to have it confiscated though. Not being able to take it on planes would cause some problems since in many cases I won't be able to purchase it where I arrive.

I suppose many chain lubes have the same problem though. Also deodorants and other personal care products are flammable as well and I have never had a problem taking them in checked luggage. Hell, maybe I should just put it in deodorant (or shampoo) bottles.

Check with Rohloff to see if there is a suitable sub for their oil.

I thought you go half way around the world, change your oil, then do the other half.

Carrying oil seems antithetical to the whole no-maintenance-thing.

1. do you need the 1L bottles?
2. how much oil is required per change?
3. how many miles between changes?
4. special cleaning oil? for what? assume you
can find local substitutes for cleaning oil?

It's not no-maintenance, it's low maintenance. You're supposed to change the speedhub oil every 5000km/3000mi. The world is far bigger than that.

25ml, 5000km/3000 miles, you're supposed to use the rohloff cleaning oil before changing the speedhub oil to clean out all the old speedhub oil

I'll probably just put it in small shampoo bottles anyway. I don't need to take all of it.

The oil should not be flammable, but it might be classified as combustible. Ask Rohloff if they can provide any documentation of it not being a flammable liquid. They might be able to provide an MSDS for each oil. If they have such documentation, you can keep that with the oil to answer any questions. But, you never know what an airport security inspector might say, they might not believe that it is the same stuff in the bottle that the label on the bottle says.

I have not flown with any Rohloff oil, other than what is in my hub. If I was going to do so, I would instead buy some 100 ml bottles and carry as many of those bottles as I am allowed to carry in my carry on bag. In USA the limit is the number of 100ml bottles that you can put in a quart sized zip lock bag. Packing 100 ml bottles is probably easier and less likely to get crushed during your tour than full liter sized bottles too. The small plastic 100 ml bottles I usually use for things like cooking oil can leak if I do not tighten the lid really tight, so if you go this route, make sure you really tighten the lids.

Thorn recommends 15 ml of lube oil, not the 25 ml that Rohloff recommends. But they use 25 ml of cleaning oil. I usually use 15 ml of cleaning oil instead of 25 ml. (The first oil change on a hub, I would recommend the full 25 ml of both oils, as wearing in a new hub will result in more porticulate matter in the oil.) I give the hub a very thorough rinse with cleaning oil, I do a 2 or 3 km ride and use every gear to make sure that the cleaning oil is well circulated in the hub.

If I was carrying my oil in 100 ml bottles and using 15 ml of each per oil change, that is about 6.5 oil changes per pair of bottles. At 5000 km per oil change, that is 30000 km for a pair of 100 ml bottles. If I had two 100 ml bottles of each oil (four bottles), that would give me 60000 to 70000 km. If you wanted to use the full 25 ml of cleaning oil that is recommended, bring an extra 100 ml bottle of that oil for a total of five 100 ml bottles.

I do not know if this is the best way, but this is what I would do if I was in your shoes.

If you have any friends or family that can ship stuff to you on your trip, if you pre-packed some 100 ml bottles of oil for them to ship to you later, that might be a good plan too.

You would obviously want to make sure you never submerge your hub in a stream crossing. If so, you would likely want to do an oil change very soon after that.

Good luck with your trip.

dollar store. travel section.
tiny 'poo bottles.......25 or 50 ml sized.
take a couple of each.
tighten the lids, add some duck tape.

One more thing, I do not know if you have flown with a Rohloff or not. But last year I changed the oil shortly before a trip. And for the first several hundred km after I got off the airplane, I found that a lot of the oil was seeping out of the hub, see photo. I have done one oil change since that trip and the oil is not seeping out now any faster now than normal. I suspect that the pressure differences in the airplane may have force oil into a different part of the hub that is not sealed as well (perhaps the gear change mechanism) and accelerated how fast the oil would seep out after the flight. I was concerned that I had some bad seals or gaskets, but now that it is back to normal, that has convinced me that it was just the flight and there is nothing to worry about. So, if you find oil is seeping out of the hub faster than normal after a flight, I would not worry about it. And there is no need to top it up if that happens either because all of the internals will still be coated with oil.

There might be some other trivia in here that you might want to scan through before your trip.
http://www.sjscycles.com/thornpdf/Th...loff_LoRes.pdf

But you will find that the author is somewhat opinionated, I do not agree with everything he said. He says you only need 8 ml for an oil change, I continue to use the 15 ml that I mentioned in my other post above where I cited the video.

rose, I may have suggested the crazyguy site when you asked about 700 vs 26 wheels, but again I would suggest looking there for trip journals of folks who have flown with and used rohlofs for long extended trips, to see what they did.
I know a fellow who biked down africa over 6 months with a rohlof, so folks do it, but it should be easy enough to find trip journals etc and or contact people directly to ask them about details.

I didn't realize it was that often. I just watched one of those maintenance videos. That seems like a lot of work, considering a derailleur needs nothing, other than a simple wipe-down.

It's very easy actually, once you get the hang of it (after only one time really), it only takes a minute. The hub is supposed to last a lot longer than a derailleur before needing (partial) replacement. Derailleurs are also more sensitive to outside influences and can break if they accidentally hit something like a rock, or they can break in airplanes from getting crushed or through rough handling etc. Also the Rohloff causes the drive train in general to require a lot less maintenance because my chain and sprockets are completely enclosed in a chain guard, so they pretty much never need cleaning and they need lube only rarely. I'm sure that my bicycle requires far less maintenance and replacement of parts than your (average) derailleur bicycle with similar usage. I also enjoy the ability to switch gears while standing still, and I just love the way it feels. It also makes cycling almost completely quiet. It's an elegant, tough system.


Thank you everyone for your recommendations. Yeah, I figured I'll just do that. Put some oil in shampoo bottles and if some gets confiscated I'll have my family send over a package with more oil.

Tourist in MSM... I'd rather use Rohloff's recommendations. I'll play it safe and I'm not going to play with the hub's health to save a little money or packing volume based on speculation and hearsay.

I'm curious, how many miles do you have on your hub and did you have any problems with it?

I am not sure how many miles on my hub, but it is less than 3000 miles a year, I have had it for four years. I do one oil change a year. I regularly ride several bikes so no individual bike gets a lot of usage.

No problems other than I was concerned about my oil loss after that flight, until I realized that was not anything to worry about.

For an around the world trip if you are carrying a heavy load, I think the Rohloff bike can't be beat. Photo is of mine in Iceland last summer.

There have been some reports of flange cracks at spoke holes or needing a different shim inside the inards, but those problems usually crop up within the first few hundred miles. I would be nervous about starting a bike trip with one that had less than 500 miles on it, but a hub with a few thousand miles on it should be quite dependable.

These guys have done some long distance on a Rohloff, they might have more comments that are pertinent.
Thorn Nomad MK2 2012 Touring Bicycle
Bicycle Review Thorn Nomad Mk2 - BikeHikeSafari

seven continent anecdote for Rolhoff reliability
 

On my bike tour to Alaska I met a woman cycle-tourist from the UK whose was heading from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. She was riding a Rohloff equipped Thorn. Her three year world-tour was to include ALL SEVEN CONTINENTS. At the time she'd done Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, and was working on North America. South America was next, then Antarctica would complete the set with a sail from Tierra del Fuego before heading home to UK.

Anyhow, she told me she knew nothing about bike repair except fixing-a-flat. She told me she carried no tools but would just stop periodically at bike-shops along the way for maintenance & checks-ups. She said she had no major repair issues for those two years. I will say her's was a nice anecdote for Rolhoff reliability.

it might not be a good idea to buy her rohlof used however if never changed oil, kinda like dear old aunt martha's car that never got an oil change.
(but yes, a good example of how usually they are pretty solid)

oh, and tourist, i remember that british couple on cgoab who did tons of ttrips also had that oil leak issue,

You have a QR hub. That is the leak problem. JMO.
With my bolted hub, I get about 37 ml out when I drain it, after letting it drip for hours. I use the full 25 ml for both. I took the 2 small bottles on my trip, but didn't get around to doing it. Was 4,200 miles.

I think it depends a lot on what the bike looks like. The worst thing that could happen is if water got in the hub. So, if the bike looks like it was stored outside or worse yet, stream crossings in deep water, that would be a big danger sign. But if the bike looked like it was stored properly and used by a careful owner, I would not worry about buying an older Rohloff hub.

Even some outside storage is not a problem. My trip last summer, there was a lot of rain and my bike was outside for all of it. But there was no sign of water in the oil when I changed it later.

If the hub did not "feel" like everything inside is ok on a test ride or shifting it or when turning the pedals by hand, that of course would be a danger sign. But unfortunately, you would have to be experienced at riding a Rohloff to know how it should behave unless something was pretty serious in it.

There is a vent hole inside the quick release axle, I suspect that my wheel (in an S&S case) was on its side (horizontal) during the flight. The seals in the hub were of course designed to keep the oil in the hub when the wheel is vertical, not horizontal.

it was more in jest about that ladies bike. Although like a car, if the oil doesnt get changed at more or less the regular recommended distances, its not that great for the internals.

and yes, the leaky bit re horizontal, could be that. I have read of that being a cause, but just reading on my part.

I did modify my post (for clarity) to say she stopped at bike-shops for checkups & maintenance, because that was my understanding (earlier I omitted maintenance). She freely admitted her inability to do ANY maintenance/repairs herself but did rely on the shops. Anyhow, she was a solo-woman-tourist, doing-the-dream, and I was impressed and inspired. I realize you were funnin', but I would not categorize her as an aunt Martha.

Aura, I apologize for that, was not being serious. Anyone who does a trip like that is one tough cookie, and good on her. As you say, very impressive.

I find it kind of strange, since on a real world trip she had to have gone through many developing countries where Rohloff oil is unavailable. If she can't change it herself (it's very simple really) and doesn't carry the oil herself, then that would mean that she cycled many times Rohloff's recommended distance without changing the oil.

Roseml, what bike did you get? I just remember the last thing was 700 vs 26 questioning.

A big part of the reason for oil changes is to make sure if there is any water in the hub, that it gets changed so that the water is removed.

And one reason for using oil in the hub instead of grease like in many other IGHs is that almost nobody ever re-lubricates a greased hub due to the difficulty where oil is easily changed. For example, I have no intention of ever taking my Sram Dual Drive IGH apart to put in new grease.

While I think that the first couple of oil changes are pretty important to perform to remove any particulate matter that accumulates, after that I think that strictly following the mainenence schedule is less important. I do an oil change each year although I probably could skip it some years (I use my Rohloff bike less than 3k miles/year), but it is easy enough to do so that I just do it. But if I was on a world tour and for one reason or another had to go a thousand km or maybe a couple thousand km without an oil change, I would not worry about it.

But, if my hub was ever submerged in water at a stream crossing, even for just a second, I would want to get an oil change very quickly. Since I also have a dynohub up front, I have two reasons to avoid stream crossings.

In USA it could be hard to find a bike shop that could do an oil change, as Rohloff hubs are quite uncommon here. Thus, it might not be that much easier to get a shop to change your oil here than in Elbonia. A neighbor of mine is a bike mechanic at one of the largest bike shops in town. He has told me that my Rohloff is the only one he has ever seen, nobody has ever brought one into the shop he works at for service and no dealers in my community have ever stocked a bike with a Rohloff. I have never seen another Rohloff within 100 miles of my home, other than mine. Thus, you won't find a mechanic that would have a clue how to do it unless they watch the video.

At least in USA you could get an oil change kit shipped to you very fast from Amazon, that might not be so easy in a developing country.

I got a second hand barely used custom built touring bicycle built by a small Dutch touring bicycle building operation (Avaghon). I got it for a small fraction of the original price and everything on the bicycle is still in perfect shape. In a few days (literally) I will start my trip off by touring Scandinavia. In the past few days I've been preparing by testing out all my new camping equipment etc and putting the final touches on my bicycle. I'm excited to finally begin the trip after all this preparation.

If you're curious about what wheel size it ended up being, it's 26 inch.

World trips are easily many tens of thousands of km though. It's not just a couple thousand.

Perhaps I was unclear, I was talking about between oil changes. I would never suggest completely forgoing oil changes on an around the world trip.