On Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 7:40:50 PM UTC+1, wrote:
On Tuesday, June 11, 2019 at 11:20:06 AM UTC+2, Andre Jute wrote:


It is the gradual recognition of these facts that drive more and more road-cyclists to fit hub gearboxes to their winter training bikes.

I have a Rohloff hub equipped winter training bike and the advantage is low maintenance. I don't care about weight and I don't care about cost but the big disadvantage are the 13.5% gear jumps. So as weather/street conditions allows I take my derailleur equipped winter training bike with 5-6% gear jumps. YMMV.

Lou

Re "YMMV", I'd like to have your mileage, Lou.

The Rohloff is a boon to cyclists who don't have the sort of cadence control that can use/demands close-coupled gears.

Of course, my argument about efficiency is pari passu, all other things being equal. If you introduce a very skilled rider capable of using the closer gears of the derailleur then, if the journey is long enough to get the derailleur and chain dirty, the derailleur bike will appear to be more efficient. But that just puts off the moment when the Rohloff's average inevitably overtakes the derailleur's average efficiency.

Andre Jute
The pride in craftsmanship of the derailleur rider is a separate issue