9 speed vs. Rohloff

[daveB]

At a recent race (Vermont 50), the conditions were muddy in the extreme.  At the end of the day I needed a new cassette, chain, rear derailleur, rear wheel, and brake pads.  Ouch.

In light of my local experience, and my interest in mechanically surviving any possible yuck on the Tour Divide next year, I am considering taking advantage of this situation by switching to a Rohloff Speedhub, geared 40x17. 

So, what is your opinion of choosing between SRAM x9 and Speedhub drivetrains for use on trails (no DH), dirt roads, and the TD, sometimes with typical overnight gear, sometimes not.

[Pawel]

I rode a connondale bike equipped with Rohloff speedhub for couple of days. I still hesitate to join Rohloff's community. It is difficult to compare speedhub with derailleur system. It is just different and you must try on before making decision.
Pros:
1) almost maintenance free set-up which works well in a muddy terrain
3) no needs for adjusting shifters
4) stronger wheel
5) better correlation between cadence and gear than in derailleur system
6) smooth shifting
Cons:
1) Heavy - adds more than 500g in comparison with derailleur
2) Speedhub needs some break-in time (about 5000 km) in order to run in
3) Speedhub seems to be not as efficient as derailleur on gears 8-14. It means that on uphills you will feel distinct drag due to friction inside the hub. That is my most concern because gears 8-14 are about 2% less efficient than 1-7. I don' think that after 40000 km speedhub on gears 8-14 will be as smooth as derailleur
4) Shifting on loads on pedals is impossible but this is not big problem

Some article about efficiency which is worthy for reading:
http://www.ihpva.eu/HParchive/PDF/hp55/hp55p11-15.pdf

I hope that helps.

[Pivvay]

Jefe and Jim probably have the most experience with the Rohloff. I admit that it's a very tempting idea to me but so far I still feel like it's "not quite there".

[bmike-vt]

Dave -

Check out and maybe contact Vik the Lazy Randonneur.
He's using them on several bikes, maybe even his Pugs which he did a loaded (not bikepacking style) tour of the Canadian Divide recently.

-Mike

Edit - Looks like Alfine on his Pugs that did part of the GD in Canada...

[jhl99]

At a recent race (Vermont 50), the conditions were muddy in the extreme.  At the end of the day I needed a new cassette, chain, rear derailleur, rear wheel, and brake pads.  Ouch.

I'm curious, how did mud cause your rear wheel to go bad?

[daveB]

I'm curious, how did mud cause your rear wheel to go bad?

My rear wheel hadn't been holding true for a couple of weeks and was on its way out anyway.  The 28 spoke machine built wheel was probably never truly adequate for my 215#.  It began to get noodly during the event; obviously unrelated to mud.  Despite lubing every 8 miles, I had chainsuck, skipping, and other rear end noise.  I did have a couple of slow speed crashes related to screwy cornering in slippery goo.  Maybe the derailleur hanger got tweaked a bit.  The wheel was certainly out.  I don't know exactly what happened, but the derailleur broke off and jammed between the cassette and spokes. 

Clearly the mud wasn't 100% responsible, but in a couple of hours the tension pulley's teeth were worn to sharp points.  It just wasn't a bike-friendly day.