2 Rohloff Hubs: One shifts harder than other?

[(Pete Cresswell)]

Putting a hex wrench directly on the shifter of each, the older one shifts
considerably harder than the newer one and makes a different noise.

It's hard enough so that when the grips are wet, it's almost impossible to
shift.

Anybody heard of such a thing?
-----------------------
PeteCresswell

[næstep]

The immediate explanation that comes to mind is Rohloff's recent
change to a softer detent spring. I've got three Speedhubs in the
house, and the newest one has the softer springs installed. There is
a notable difference between new and old, both when using an 8mm box
wrench on the external shifter and when operating the twist shifter.

I'm not sure if I like the feel of the new springs. The shifter
almost has a "mushy" feel to it, and the detents have lost a bit of
their definition. I'm probably just resisting change, though — I'm
used to the sharper detents on my other two hubs, and the "soft"
springs are in the hub on my wife's bike (and she's really pleased
with the feel).


"(Pete Cresswell)" > wrote in message >...
> Putting a hex wrench directly on the shifter of each, the older one shifts
> considerably harder than the newer one and makes a different noise.
>
> It's hard enough so that when the grips are wet, it's almost impossible to
> shift.
>
> Anybody heard of such a thing?
> -----------------------
> PeteCresswell

[næstep]

Pete, I meant to ask, how do you prep you cables?

From day one I had nothing but bad luck with the Rohloff-provided
housing. I found the removable liner to be too delicate; it crimped
causing excess drag that was readily felt at the shifter.

I've since switched to standard brake cable housing and 1.2mm
derailleur cables, along with a healthy dose of silicone spray
lubricant applied to each housing. This has given me much better
results.

Another help I found was to pack up the external shifter box with
grease ? in my case, lightweight TriFlo synthetic, but I'm sure any
light grease would do the trick. This not only gives the cable pulley
a continuous supply of lubricant against the back of the shifter box,
but keeps a lot of the grit and grime at bay, away from the cables.
This, too, resulted in a noticable improvement in shifting action.


"(Pete Cresswell)" > wrote in message news:

> It's hard enough so that when the grips are wet, it's almost impossible to
> shift.

[Edward Kleinbard]

On the same theme, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that Nokon,
the manufacturer of high-priced low-friction cables, offers a set for
the Rohloff Speedhub:

www.nokonusa.com

Ed Kleinbard

(næstep) wrote in message >...
> Pete, I meant to ask, how do you prep you cables?
>
> From day one I had nothing but bad luck with the Rohloff-provided
> housing. I found the removable liner to be too delicate; it crimped
> causing excess drag that was readily felt at the shifter.
>
> I've since switched to standard brake cable housing and 1.2mm
> derailleur cables, along with a healthy dose of silicone spray
> lubricant applied to each housing. This has given me much better
> results.
>
> Another help I found was to pack up the external shifter box with
> grease ? in my case, lightweight TriFlo synthetic, but I'm sure any
> light grease would do the trick. This not only gives the cable pulley
> a continuous supply of lubricant against the back of the shifter box,
> but keeps a lot of the grit and grime at bay, away from the cables.
> This, too, resulted in a noticable improvement in shifting action.
>
>
> "(Pete Cresswell)" > wrote in message news:
>
> > It's hard enough so that when the grips are wet, it's almost impossible to
> > shift.

[(Pete Cresswell)]

RE/
>Pete, I meant to ask, how do you prep you cables?

I've been through so many sets of cables (fooling around with different
installations...) that I've lost track of what I'm using.

I'd give it 97% that they're off-the-shelf Performance bike shop housings with
Rohloff cable inside, thought.

Re/Ed's observation, I thought cable routing was the root of it for awhile
because the "hard" hub was on my hardtail - which has a more tortureous routing
by far. I discovered the "real" diff when I swapped wheels recently to
re-tension the spokes on my FS. So, in this case, cable routing is not a
factor...as confirmed by the 8mm wrench test...

The detent spring explaination seems to fit the best. The new one has started
leaking just like the old one did and maybe when I ask Thomas for the little
axle plate gasket that fixes the leak I'll ask him about a replacement detent
spring as well....I really like the easier shifting, especially when my hands
are wet.
-----------------------
PeteCresswell