Rohloff Oil - alternative

[Brucey]

What makes you think that it isn't already a fully synthetic gear oil from a leading manufacturer?

FWIW the 'ludicrously short change intervals' are probably there for two reasons;

1) there isn't much oil in there anyway and it tends to leak out. You could easily be riding around with next to nothing inside the hub; I have seen this often with badly-maintained rohloffs.

2) the oil tends to accumulate wear debris and unless it is changed at intervals it stands a pretty fair chance turning into nasty abrasive 'swarf soup'. Again I have seen this in IGHs, esp those that have not had frequent oil changes.

The Rohloff hub design suffers from having many gears and with the best will in the world, keeping track of the shifts that can be made safely under some power and those that can't is tricky. A lot of the shifts are made with square-edged dogs and these can get chipped in use if shifting is done in a clumsy fashion; you don't want that stuff floating around in the hub indefinitely, especially not in a hub that is expected to last well like a Rohloff.

cheers

[alexnharvey]

What would happen if you use more oil? Would it be lost very quickly or could it provide some benefit?

[Brucey]

IIRC in recent years Rohloff have changed their fill recommendation from 25ml to 15ml. I rather suppose that this limits the rate and possible total amount of leakage from the hub.


So yes, more oil would help to extend the drain interval (by simply diluting the crud and having more corrosion inhibitors which take longer to be consumed etc) but probably the leakage rate would be too high in many cases.

Needless to say my preferred option would be to use a semi-fluid grease but this is a whole different discussion.

cheers

[crg]

Btw, Rohloff's oil is manufactured by Klueber.

[crg]

This is the same spec as Rohloff oil. ISO 12925-1 Type CKD 68 EP. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1L-Shell-Oma ... SwMBlcsHDn The flush is mainly white spirit with about 10% of the same oil.

This explains https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/forum/b ... sted=0&v=M

Is the Shell oil synthetic?

[pete75]

This is the same spec as Rohloff oil. ISO 12925-1 Type CKD 68 EP. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1L-Shell-Oma ... SwMBlcsHDn The flush is mainly white spirit with about 10% of the same oil.

This explains https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/forum/b ... sted=0&v=M

Is the Shell oil synthetic?

No.

[crg]

This is the same spec as Rohloff oil. ISO 12925-1 Type CKD 68 EP. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1L-Shell-Oma ... SwMBlcsHDn The flush is mainly white spirit with about 10% of the same oil.

This explains https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/forum/b ... sted=0&v=M

Is the Shell oil synthetic?

No.

Probably why it costs less than Mobil SHC 626

[pete75]

Is the Shell oil synthetic?

No.

Probably why it costs less than Mobil SHC 626

Synthetic oil is not always better.

[crg]

No.

Probably why it costs less than Mobil SHC 626

Synthetic oil is not always better.

Just saying synthetic is more expensive not better.