Rohloff mated to drop bars...

[kazafaza]

HELLo,

Hope you're well and enjoying the great outdoors as I type this from the work's bunquer...

I'm planning to use my Rohloff with the drop bars, ideally I'd have the shifters incorporated to the STI levers. I'm aware of the Gebla Rohbox as well as Cinq Shift:R.

I've seen some reviews regarding both and the opinions vary massively, great write up by Bob as well:

http://geared-facile.blogspot.com/2016/ ... -long.html

I'd love to know your general opinions as well as does it make a huge difference if I was to convert Force rather than Apex levers?

Many thanks for all the info!

[pistonbroke]

Worth talking to Thorn Cycles aka St Johns Street Cycles in Bridgwater as they have experience of what works on their Audax bikes. The neatest setup I've seen was using SRAM (Red as I recall) levers on a bike Guy Martin had built to do the Tour Divide.

[BigdummySteve]

Worth talking to Thorn Cycles aka St Johns Street Cycles in Bridgwater as they have experience of what works on their Audax bikes. The neatest setup I've seen was using SRAM (Red as I recall) levers on a bike Guy Martin had built to do the Tour Divide.

That’s mostly likely mated with a rohbox with the shifting mech removed.

I wish I’d gone back to rohloff, switching to dropbars and derailleurs was not a good experience, the SRAM stuff eventually led to AXS 12 speed, granted lighter than a rohloff but potentially fragile and with bigger gaps in the range.
Let us know how it works out.

[lune ranger]

This is a subject close to my heart!
First thing to say is that I’m very much a committed Rohloff user having got my first one in 1999 (still in use). I now have 3.
Second thing to say is that after I found out about the Rohbox I really wanted one and thought it would be exactly what I wanted for a drop bar Rohloff bike. I wanted to love it and gave it plenty of time. Ultimately I never got on with it and sold it on after about 18 months use.
I had it paired with modified SRAM Force brifters on an audax/CX bike initially. In this use it was at best acceptable. I can’t describe the frustration of getting the thing working. The levels of faff are high. The cable run needs to be absolutely perfect and the adjustment process is excruciating. Once set up you can change only two gears at a time max and the lever throw means it takes a while to come back for 2 more. Changing through lots of gears at a time takes a lot of time. On road ride this was ok, off road this didn’t really work for me. You loose the luxury of not needing to think to closely about gear changes you get with Rohloff and need to be thinking ahead all the time.
The feel of the gear changes is not vey satisfying either. Gone is the crisp click, replacing it is a spongy porridge mush.
I persevered with the system switching it onto a Fargo for full off road use. At this point I’d had enough.
Thinking about the replacement I looked at the Cinq5 trigger shifters, CoMotion twist shift and Gilles Berthoud twist shift.
My experience with the Rohbox put me off the Cinq5 system. The Speedhubs are designed around a twist shifter and I didn’t want to get stuck with only one or two gear changes at a time. I think in use I often flick trough 3-4 gears at a time.
Thus left the two twist shifters. The CoMotion gets all the plaudits. I’m sure it’s great. The problem as I see it is it needs to go on the 31.8mm oversize bulge on the bars, ie next to the stem. I think that would create difficulties in fitting bar bags and other accessories.
In particular I wanted to run aero extensions and the CoMotion precluded this.
So I have the Gilles Berthoud twister and am satisfied. It sits on the narrower diameter part of the bar. For me that’s outboard of aerobars,bar bag and gps.
It’s not perfect. When I first fitted it I found the rounded metal twist section hard to turn. This has been made much easier with a wrap of bar tape glued on. The shifter has an annoying clip on plastic cover over the cables that has a tendency to slip off. This can be overcome with some small bits of gorilla tape.
These slight problems apart, the system works well.
I was worried that moving my hands out of the drops to shift off road would cause problems. In reality it’s been absolutely fine and I can recommend this shifter with enthusiasm.

[lune ranger]

Article:

https://www.cyclemonkey.com/blog/tech-t ... dhub-50014

And

https://www.cyclingabout.com/rohloff-hu ... andlebars/

[FLV]

.
Thus left the two twist shifters. The CoMotion gets all the plaudits. I’m sure it’s great. The problem as I see it is it needs to go on the 31.8mm oversize bulge on the bars, ie next to the stem. I think that would create difficulties in fitting bar bags and other accessories.
In particular I wanted to run aero extensions and the CoMotion precluded this.

The Spank vibrocore drop bar range are a nice shap and the 31.8mm size remains all the way along the flat section and doesn't taper until its in the bends to allow the brakes to fit.

This would allow running the shiter much further along the bars.

Ive not tried it, but thought I'd add it here in case it was of use.

[lune ranger]

Sounds a fine solution.
I already had bars I liked so that influenced my choice of the Berthoud.
My suspicion is that the CoMotion twister is probably more pleasing than the Berthoud version. It’s what Shand use as standard which is a pretty good endorsement imo.

[Cheeky Monkey]

No experience but curious to ask - is there a bar-end shifter for Rohloff hubs?

It was part of the solution on my Gryphon (peeps on here provided good info and advice for which I am still grateful) and despite some initial misgivings about the change from STI to bar-end I've found it easy and comfy to use. Dont recall ever seeing such things mentioned on other Rohloff related threads.

[ripio]

Not a bar end shifter per se, but you can fit the standard Rohloff twist shifter to a bar end using a Hubbub adapter or a similar homemade adapter.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares ... rip-73-mm/

I've had the Hubbub adapter on my touring bike with Rohloff for years.

[kazafaza]

I appreciate all the replies! Tons of great feedback, many thanks!

I've acquired some cheap old Apex and Rival 10sp shifters, I guess that might be the easiest way to convert once I've bought the Rohbox from SJS. The GB shifter looks very nice indeed, I'd be tempted to try it with the Thorn bars if I was to find the 1-by-1 gear change annoying.

I'll post some pics and feedback as soon as it's all done and tested. Thanks again.

Happy trails!

[stevenshand]

I've acquired some cheap old Apex and Rival 10sp shifters

Note that not all shifters can be converted, you need the Zero Loss ones really. I don't think you can convert the Apex.

I don't share lune ranger's experience of high levels of faff setting it up. In fact I don't find it any harder than the normal Rohloff setup and it seems to stay setup pretty well. Good cable runs and tension definitely help and if done well, I find the the crisp shifting can still be had. The lack of ability to shift more than 2 gears at a time is definitely a down side, especially on technical off-road stuff but I think is still better than trying to shift a derailleur and the ability to shift while stationary remains and is a huge plus point I think.

[lune ranger]

I've acquired some cheap old Apex and Rival 10sp shifters

Note that not all shifters can be converted, you need the Zero Loss ones really. I don't think you can convert the Apex.

I don't share lune ranger's experience of high levels of faff setting it up. In fact I don't find it any harder than the normal Rohloff setup and it seems to stay setup pretty well. Good cable runs and tension definitely help and if done well, I find the the crisp shifting can still be had. The lack of ability to shift more than 2 gears at a time is definitely a down side, especially on technical off-road stuff but I think is still better than trying to shift a derailleur and the ability to shift while stationary remains and is a huge plus point I think.

Maybe the set up problem is just me then. Usually I’m fine with bike mechanics but the Rohbox made me want to gouge my eyes out.
Ultimately it was the inability to shift quickly through the gears that made me switch to a dropbar twister and I certainly have no regrets .