To me this is a classic case of manufacturers pointing at each other trying to avoid responsibility. Fortunately I have a retailer with integrity in my corner. My issue is clearly a flaw in the hub itself and has nothing to do with E14 or electronics. The thing started leaking oil.
In early January, the Rohloff on my 9 month old Riese & Muller Homage, with 3,500 miles on it, started leaking oil into the center passage where the spindle passes through the hub. The oil was seeping out all over the the E14 mech (which has never had a problem even when covered with oil). The oil was getting on the inner ring and lattice of the brake rotor but had not yet spun out to the outer braking ring surface. I am pretty meticulous in my maintenance so I caught it right away, before it started dripping on the floor.
My Riese & Muller dealer, LA Fly Rides, is 1,300 miles away, I called them asking for help. They authorized me to to take my bike into the local Trek shop, who will work on any bike, to have the wheel removed and shipped to Cycle Monkey in Richmond, California. Cycle Monkey was the only Rohloff authorized service facility. Fly Rides opened up a service request on my behalf and told me that Cycle Monkey estimated a 2 week turnaround for my repair. A month went by and I called Fly Rides who tried to contact Cycle Monkey but did not hear back from them. A pattern emerged of no communication, no answering of voice mail or email...nothing. I spend much of February on my bike in California, so I did not stay right on top of it.
@Dionigi has an even worse tale to tell about Cycle Monkey and an oil leak on his Rohloff.
Supposedly Rohloff is training up another service center for the east coast. They need to get a supply of parts into North America. Right now all parts have to be ordered from Germany causing ridiculous delays.
After the passage of another month, I called Fly Rides to request that they contact Rohloff and Riese & Muller about the unacceptably poor service Rohloff provides in North America. I asked that Fly Rides get my wheel and hub back to their shop and put a new Rohloff on it and get my bike working again. Fly Rides contacted Rohloff and got them to agree to a fix. They put all new innards in my hub, new gears, seals, bearings, etc. The only original part remaining is the case which has the original serial # on it. They also replaced the E14 and brake rotor. The wheel was shipped back up to me with the new hub parts arriving this past Tuesday, April 13 almost exactly 3 months after it was sent in.
My take is that:
- Rohloff has drunk too much of their own kool-aid, claiming their product is totally reliable and will never need anything except an oil change....clearly not true
- Rohloff has a lousy service provider for North America - Cycle Monkey clearly has a culture of no communication, not with retail customers, not with dealers. They are the show and we have to accept it.
- Claims that Rohloff with Gate belt offers a maintenance free drive train are hype. There is no such thing.
- The above may have been true for bike powered by legs alone but clearly on ebikes there are problems showing up.
- I suspect, but cannot prove, that the forces applied to the gear box by an e bike is revealing weaknesses in the Rohloff design.
- Riese & Muller needs to reevaluate how they support their Rohloff equipped bikes. Rohlofff's problems with service and communication are reflecting poorly on Riese & Muller and hurting their brand.
- Without the help of LA Fly Rides, a solid dealer who is committed to customer satisfaction, I would have been screwed.
- Cleaning, oiling and replacing the chain on a derailleur system is not such a big pain after all....way better than not having your bike for three months.
- Will I ever buy another bike with a Rohloff? Probably not. If it worked as advertised I would... but it doesn't.
