Muluk Maintenance: Part 2

New bottom bracket, chain ring, and chain installed.

A couple of weeks back I mentioned that the Ti Muk 2 was up for some work. I decided that since the Ti Muk is priority #1 for Fall/Winter commuting/errands/just riding, that I'd better make the funds available to repair it. That I did, and so I was able to scrape up enough funds on my own to purchase a new Race Face bottom bracket, a Race Face 32T 'narrow-wide' chain ring, and I found a new chain in my stash to complete that part of the job. 

This left the annual Rohloff servicing to be done. I had a Rohloff Oil Service kit on order from Waterloo Bicycle Works since March. (Thanks supply chain issues!) and what do you know?! Earlier this week it showed up. So, more money scraped up, more maintenance to do.

Since Rohloff hubs are kind of rare 'in the wild', I figured I'd share a bit on the oil service for this hub. I won't do a break down in images and text to guide you on a servicing of a Rohloff Speed Hub, but I'll give you the gist of it and how it helps the hub life and operation.

The Rohloff's drain plug is shown here in the center of the hub.

First off, many don't know what this is at all, so a brief introduction. The Rohloff Speed Hub is an internally geared hub meant to replicate the gearing range of a mountain bike. Inside the hub shell is an array of 'planet' and 'sun' gears which are shifted in such a way that you get 14 "gears", or gearing choices, to use. The range goes from really low to moderately high, and this will be dependent upon your chain ring and rear cog choices as far as where that range falls. 

So, for instance, if I were using this on a touring bike, I might go for a larger chain ring and smaller rear cog to move the gearing range toward the speedier end. Conversely, my set up has the Rohloff's range shifted into the lower speed stuff, which makes sense for a fat bike. That said, I have a gear to cruise at 12mph-15mph easily, which is good on fat bike. The lower gears can move me and this bike through 6" of fresh snow, deep mud, or scale steep dike walls with ease. So, for my needs, this range is awesome. But again- if I were using this on a strictly pavement bike the chain ring and rear cog would be different. 

Why spend the money on a system like this? Well, for me, it is because of Winter and the snow, slush, and chemical road treatments used here which destroy derailleur drive trains and make them work poorly in a hurry. Exposed cable bikes are even worse here. The Rohloff is unaffected by this. The chain, being a single speed set up, is up and out of the way of the slop, and therefore it lasts longer, plus being a single speed outwardly, that chain can be a heavier, more durable chain anyway. The only maintenance I have to do regularly is this oil change which is required once a year, or at every 5000Km/3,106 miles. This is to insure that the hub has the required 25ml of oil in it and that this oil is not contaminated or dirty. 

The Rohloff Speed Hub Oil Maintenance Kit.

So, for about 30 bucks a year and about an hour of my time, I can keep the Rohloff happy and full of oil. The kit I have used now three times has a bottle of cleaning fluid, a bottle of the special oil, a new grub screw with thread treatment for the drain hole, a plastic syringe and hose, and instructions. 

The first step is to introduce the cleaning oil and spin the cranks, shifting through all the gears and especially between 3 ad 5 for about five minutes or so. Then you drain out that fluid into the syringe and discard that properly. Re-introduce new oil into the hub, screw in the new drain plug, and that's pretty much the overview on servicing the Rohloff Speed Hub. 

The instructions say that if the thread treatment looks okay on the old drain grub screw, that you can reuse it, but I never do. I suspect that the treatment is an oil resistant one that seals that grub screw because I've never had oil leak from there. 

The old oil mixed with the cleaner oil.

I made a mistake when I did my first oil change procedure on this hub and I did not get all the old oil/cleaner oil out. That left me with an over-filled condition after I put the new 25ml of Rohloff oil in. (This is a clear oil in color, by the way) 

I remember that when I started riding the Ti Muk afterward that the hub was super-silent! I suppose all that oil in there was damping the gear noises. But I would also see a big oil spot on my concrete floor after every ride. The oil was seeping past the seals due to the overfilled condition. 

So, the next time I did service I concentrated on the draining of the cleaner oil/old oil. I got out approximately 40ml of fluid. (25ml was the cleaner oil) This time I reached that same amount, so I was down about 10ml, or maybe less, in the hub to begin with. I doubt you can get every drop of old oil out, and so I figure this amount I got back out isn't completely accurate to gauge what I had in there to begin with. I would guess that instead of the 25ml I was down about 5-7ml due to leakage or what have you. 

I did notice each time I've done servicing that the hub is quieter and that it shifts incrementally better than it did just before servicing. And obviously, getting that dirty, contaminated oil out is a good thing. 

Idea: I'm thinking about running this old oil, (I have it from three changes of oil so far) through a filter, mixing it with something like alcohol, and running that as a chain lube for single speeds. Might be a dumb idea, but what the heck! Gotta do something with it or take it someplace to recycle.it.   

So now I'm good to go, right? Not so fast! The next ride after servicing the hub, I had the generator lights quit on me. Gah! Back in the shop and it is time to bust out my volt/ohm meter. An update will be forthcoming.