Des49 wrote:Don't worry too much Ivor, these hubs have proved to be very reliable. There have been cases of flange failure, but must be pretty uncommon.
I have two Rohloff hubs, the first since 2003 has had two replacement shells, the first after 7 years the second 5 years later and Rohloff attributed that crack to be a result of changing wheel size.
Neither of my hubs have the support rings, on one it'd be impossible to fit without changing the spoke pattern and on the other the advice from SJS was that it'd be better to wait till it next needed a wheel build.
As for Thorn - The very much have their own way of doing things! They don't always follow Rohloff's advise, you can agree or disagree with them but my experience is they stand by what they do, my two broken flanges were replaced without fuss by them despite Rohloff disowning the second.