My wife wanted me to put a Rohloff Speedhub on her ICE high performance recumbent trike. The Speedhub is a 14 speed internally geared rear hub. When I asked why she wanted to spend all that money, she started mentioning the skis I'd bought...'nuff said.
Performance wise, she describes it as being like an automatic transmission with paddle shifters...manually select, automatic shifting. It has a 14-click twist grip shifter. She loves it. Every nice day she rides 15 to 25 miles. She kept the middle & big chain rings on the bottom bracket, and with the Rohloff gearing ratios hill climbing is no problem. The Rohloff chain tensioner only allows about a 10 tooth difference in chain ring diameters.
I had the shop build a new wheel around the Speedhub. The shifter has two cables, one to shift up & one to shift down--not a spring return. The cables must be cut exactly as specified using the same cutting technique for cable & housing as any others. It took some experimentation to route the cables to avoid too-tight bends and excessive cable drag. The old rear shifter, complete rear wheel, and rear derailleur are gone (I think the old rim could have been reused.)
Now she wants a Schlumpf High Speed Drive for the bottom bracket. She started to say something about skis.... This is a 2 speed gear assembly that is shifted by pushing the center spindle with a heel. It has a 1:1 drive and a 2.5:1 drive. It is like pairing a 30 tooth chain ring and a (2.5x30) 70 tooth chain ring. I won't install this. The bottom bracket housing needs an interior chamfer milled into it, and the shop has the tool.
Performance wise, she describes it as being like an automatic transmission with paddle shifters...manually select, automatic shifting. It has a 14-click twist grip shifter. She loves it. Every nice day she rides 15 to 25 miles. She kept the middle & big chain rings on the bottom bracket, and with the Rohloff gearing ratios hill climbing is no problem. The Rohloff chain tensioner only allows about a 10 tooth difference in chain ring diameters.
I had the shop build a new wheel around the Speedhub. The shifter has two cables, one to shift up & one to shift down--not a spring return. The cables must be cut exactly as specified using the same cutting technique for cable & housing as any others. It took some experimentation to route the cables to avoid too-tight bends and excessive cable drag. The old rear shifter, complete rear wheel, and rear derailleur are gone (I think the old rim could have been reused.)
Now she wants a Schlumpf High Speed Drive for the bottom bracket. She started to say something about skis.... This is a 2 speed gear assembly that is shifted by pushing the center spindle with a heel. It has a 1:1 drive and a 2.5:1 drive. It is like pairing a 30 tooth chain ring and a (2.5x30) 70 tooth chain ring. I won't install this. The bottom bracket housing needs an interior chamfer milled into it, and the shop has the tool.