# rohloff hiccups



## glenndandy (Aug 5, 2006)

I'm getting a very consistant hiccup in gear 8 and 11, at least once/twice a minute. My hand is not on the shifter when this happens and it doesn't need to be pedaling under load ....it just kind of feels like a skip. Doesn't do it it any other gear. Cable tensions have been checked and are good. Any ideas about this?


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## -jes (Feb 6, 2011)

What do you mean by a hiccup/skip = loss of drive, pedal slipping forward?


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## glenndandy (Aug 5, 2006)

The hiccup feels like the chain is skipping forward over a tooth...the pedals spin with no resisitance for a split second,like the hub internals release, then it catches and resumes in the respective gear....did a recent oil change....the cable ferrules at the shifter have split so the housing enters the shifter at kind of a weird angle but this problem only ever happens in gear 8 and 11 so I don't think that's the culprit.....any reason why only gears 8 and 11 are suffering?.


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## fokof (Apr 24, 2006)

glenndandy said:


> The hiccup feels like the chain is skipping forward over a tooth...the pedals spin with no resisitance for a split second,like the hub internals release, then it catches and resumes in the respective gear....did a recent oil change....the cable ferrules at the shifter have split so the housing enters the shifter at kind of a weird angle but this problem only ever happens in gear 8 and 11 so I don't think that's the culprit.....any reason why only gears 8 and 11 are suffering?.


Gear #11 is the 1:1 ratio , direct drive, so that's very very strange.

Possible that your chainring/combo is worn ?


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## glenndandy (Aug 5, 2006)

I just looked everything up and down again. Have a Rohloff made chain wear checker...chain is good,not stretched. Front chainring is a heavy Blackspire downhill single speed ring and is far from worn, quite crisp actually. I just have to doubt that the issue is related to the chain/ring/cog mostly because it only happens (and it happens a lot!) is gears 8 and 11 but also because the drive train parts look quite good and it doesn't need to pedaled under load to do what it does,...kind of a release of the internals than an instantaneous catch (maybe 1/8 to 1/4 of a crank revolution) and everything is normal again, except it keeps happening, intermittently but multiple times a minute. I'm going to put it up on the Park stand and see if I can make it act up.(though things have a habit of "disappearing" on the Park stand, hard to simulate sitting and pedaling by hand from the side of the bike!). Also Neil of Rohloff USA replaced the internals under 300 miles ago (under warranty, go Neil!) so I'm especially perplexed. What now?I.... Bueller..........


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## -jes (Feb 6, 2011)

The only two time I have experience this on the Rohloff were -

1. Fitted a new chain, didn't think the previous one was that worn and the sprocket and chainring looked ok, certainly no sharks teeth. However I needed to flip the rear sprocket to resolve the issue.

2. After trying an old school trick for self cleaning the hub, the only thing I could think was causing it was the rear sprocket was dragging on the hub body or the self cleaning devise producing the same sensation you describe. From memory it was happening in the lower gears when grinding up hills. Removing the self cleaning devise resolved the issue. 

The other thing to check is the two small springs that are pushed in with the two location pins on the gear box, maybe sticking or one could be missing if youv'e had some work done recently.


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## 2_dogs (May 15, 2012)

What chain/ring/cog are you running..


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## glenndandy (Aug 5, 2006)

It's a blackspire downhillring,pc850 and stock 16 t rohloff cog. took off the axle plate and the gearplate...the springs are in placeand aren't stuck....any grease was a tad gritty like small sand was present ..but again why 8and 11....have to ruleout chain/cog/chainring..


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## Climbercraig66 (Oct 16, 2010)

That is bizarre. From what I know, I would say that it is specific to the shifting shaft inside the axle. If it were gears 1 and 8 as well as 11 and 4 that were having problems, then it could be narrowed down to a more specific area or function of the hub. But, since it is only 8 and 11, and none of the other gears that use the same pawls and clutches are affected, I would put my money on that central shift shaft. Just a guess though.

Also check your QR (or threaded axle bolt) tension and give it a smack with a mallet. Seriously.







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## MichiganClydesdale (Mar 24, 2004)

*same*

I had the same problem, on a relatively new hub, about 800 miles on it when the issue started. It was infrequent at first, but started to occur with more regularity almost immediately, but was never as frequent as you described. At first I just lived with it, not a big deal, just a quick hiccup and then back rolling along. Same symtoms, not always under load, and gears 8, 10 and 11 for me (if I recall correctly).

I called Neil at cyclemonkey in CA and he asked me to send it to him, so I sent the whole wheel. I was concerned that I had damaged it, because it lives on an XXL 29er mountain tandem with total rider weight of 400+ pounds and a lot of hammering in races. But Neil said that it was a known issue with Rohloff, and occurs in about 3-5% of hubs, although I never got a clear explanation of the problem. Take that for what it's worth.

Neil replaced the innards (that's about my comprehension level) and we've been rolling along smoothly for the last few hundred miles since. So, my suggestion is contact cycle monkey - he seemed to know exactly what I was talking about when I explained it.


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