Fatbikes are made for nasty conditions. Snow, mud, sand, where normal mountain bikes have long since given up the ghost, the bikes with the mega-shoes plough casually through the terrain. What could be more obvious than to banish the susceptible derailleur from the bike and switch to the weatherproof Rohloff Speedhub. Until now, however, this has failed due to the enormous rear triangle width of fat bikes. Now Rohloff has the solution with the Speedhub XL. The housing of the hub has been widened to 170 millimetres. The inner workings remain virtually unchanged. Reinforcements in the housing and bearings positioned further out should be better able to absorb the increased forces. The Speedhub XL should be available by Eurobike.
cinq Shift:R for Speedhub hub
Rohloff will be presenting a brand new thumb shifter for the Speedhub hub in Willingen. Many Rohloff fans have probably been waiting a long time for this. Now the gears can be changed not only with the twist grip, but also with two separate thumb levers. The Shift:R come from the German manufacturer tout terrain and have been adapted to the Speedhub hub. The left lever can now be used to select a heavier gear, while the right lever can be used to select a lighter gear - or vice versa. Two gears can thus be changed at once. The shift mechanism is located at the rear of the hub and runs via a ratchet system. The shifters feel nicely defined during the first few gear changes. The price for a set including the shifting mechanism is 299 euros.
Stefan Frey
Editor
