WHEEL STABILITY

When the Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14 is built up into a 32 spoke wheel, it is considerably more robust than the common 36 spoke wheels. The stability is approx. the same as a 48 spoke tandem wheel.

The spoke flanges of the Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14 are built symmetrically. This allows the spokes to be at the same angle on both sides of the finished wheel, this in turn leads to a much stronger wheel due to the evenly distributed spoke tension. To build up a strong wheel, the spokes must be tensioned to a minimum of 700N. On wheels with normal cassette hubs, the tension of the spokes on the cassette side is considerably high (over 1200N) and this can lead to problems with the nipples sitting correctly within their holes of the rim (see the MTB comparison underneath, the pretension in the 8-speed cassette here is just 600N). Due to the increased diameter of the hub flanges of the Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14, the spokes cross only two times but at roughly the same angle as a three cross lacing pattern on smaller flanged hubs. There is less load on the spokes because of the large spoke hole diameter. The spokes pull further away from the axle center, therefore the hub flange has a better lever to pull the wheel around (torque = force x lever length).

The comparison shows the maximum spoke loads (the numbers in brackets are the pretensioned force of the spokes after truing):