10-gear hub dynamo by Rohloff und Schmidt (SON) *UPDATE*

Last year in September – BentBlog.de did not exist by then – I met Wilfried Schmidt and Bernhard Rohloff by chance during a meeting at the EuroBike. As you can see on the photo, they were in a very good mood, we started talking about recumbents, technical developments and the blog I was starting soon. The two of them let me know about something, which I had to keep secret up to now:  SON-producer “Schmidt Maschinenbau” from Tübingen, Germany and the Rohloff AG developed a combined rear-hub. It is a mixture of a “reduced” Rohloff gear-hub and a hub-dynamo. Schmidt and Rohloff are negotiating with SRAM currently, trying to buy the trademark rights of the brand “Sachs” from them; the hub could thus be sold under a variant of the traditional name “Sachs-Elan”. *UPDATE*

The hub, probably called “Sachs-Elan-X” then, will in contrast to the Speedhub 500/14 not have 14 gears and 526% gear ratio, but provide only 10 gears and 412%. This reduction was a necessary measure to make space for the dynamo-parts of the hub. A further difference compared to the  Rohloff will be that the inter gear steps will not be evenly distributed anymore (Speedhub: each approx. 13.6%) instead, there will be smaller gears will be shifted with higher, higher gears with smaller steps, as it is known from chain gear shifts.

Looking at the dynamo-mode of the hub, we can find that it is in conformity with German (and thereby European) legislation. The energy output will be a little lower than that of the legendary SON, the idle running resistance will be a little higher than those of the hub dynamo.

The ultimate application of the hub will, according to the producers, be the use in tadpole trikes, concentrating gear shift and energy supply systems behind the driver. The varying, mostly single sided front wheel bearings of the different trike producers had made a standardisation of a possible hub dynamo for trikes difficult.

First production samples (see picture, there still in Rohloff-Branding) of the Sachs-Elan-X are already running on the testing devices of the producers. The time of market rollout is yet unclear. Rohloff and Schmidt do not want to bring an insufficiently tested product on the market. BentBlog.de enters the game here: on behalf of Rohloff and Schmidt, I can (quasi as a reward for not publishing this so long) exclusively distribute 10 pre-production hubs (rim size of the wheel as you wish) to interested testers. Of course, you will have to fill in test reports in return. These testers should be frequent drivers (for high mileages), who further had the “old” Rohloff and SON on their bikes. As the new hub makes use of the housing of the 500/14, all known variants are possible (disc brake, Speedbone,…) If you are interested to become a tester for the new hub, write a comment below this post, please. Include reasons why you have to test this hub. I will choose those which I will propose to Rohloff and Schmidt. Please do not bother Rohloff and Schmidt with corresponding questions, as they want to keep the organisation of looking for testers with me.

By the way, phase 2 of the cooperation is in an earlier stage of development: the classic external switch-box of the gear hub will be replaced by an electro-mechanical device. Inside of this a small e-motor will create the movements of the gear shift mechanism. By adding a rechargeable battery and charging electronics, shifting without turning the wheel remains possible. In a near future, dérailleur cables of current gear hubs can be left aside. Instead, you will shift the gears electrically. Necessary electrical cables can be led in any way through the frame and shifters can be designed to the wish of the customer (Grip-Shift, Trigger, rocker switch,…).

*UPDATE* Most of you have realized already: This post was an April Fool’s joke. No such hub is in development (according to my knowledge). I promised Rohloff and Schmidt to clarify this within a day. Both firms were very positive towards this joke and even supplied me with the photo of Bernhard Rohloff and Wilfried Schmidt. Thank you for this!