FUNKTIONAL PRINCIPLE

In the Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14, there are three planetary gear sets placed in order behind each other. The number of gears is decided upon by the multiplication of the number of gears per planetary gear set.

The first two gear sets both consist of three individual gears (one decreasing, one increasing and one fixed = 1:1). Therefore, a theoretical 9 (= 3 x 3) gears are available for the rider to select. Due to the symmetrical arrangement of the gear sets, two of the possible combinations (a combination of decreasing and increasing ratios) result in the same gear ratio of 1:1.

For example, if the first planetary set had a ratio of 1:1.47 but the second gear set had a ratio of 1.47:1, then this is a fixed gear as each set cancels out the other. This means that there are three gears with the same ratio, nine gears minus two (from the three with the identical ratio) leaves 7 different gears to choose between.

The third gear set consists of just two gears, this effectively doubles the number of gears in the complete hub to 14!


All further information about the technical details you will find in our CD "Tour de Hub"