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Cycle Monkey Shifts Into Distribution of Gebla Rohbox for Standard Shifters for your Rohloff Hub

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gebla rohbox rohloff shifter cycle monkey red bearGEBLA-Rohbox-Serie-11

If you wouldn’t consider any drivetrain other than a Rohloff hub for your next bike, you probably already know about the Gebla Rohbox. For those less in tune with the eccentricities of a Rohloff, the internal gear hub uses a unique gear set up that requires the use of Rohloff’s twist shifter. That is, if you don’t take advantage of one of the options from third party manufacturers like the Gebla Rohbox.

The news here isn’t that the Rohbox exists, but that it will now be much easier to get your hands on if you happen to be in the U.S….

gebla rohbox rohloff shifter cycle monkey red bearIMG_8826

gebla rohbox rohloff shifter cycle monkey red bearDSC_3554 gebla rohbox rohloff shifter cycle monkey red bearIMG_8806

The defining characteristic of the Rohbox is the ability to use standard mountain or road shifters rather than the traditional twist shifter. The contraption requires two standard shifters that have to be modified by disabling the ratchet mechanism. Once installed, one shifter will shift up, and the other will shift down. Users can choose which shifter does what. Adding to the customization possibilities, even some brake levers and dropper post levers can be made to work.

gebla rohbox rohloff shifter cycle monkey red bearRohbox-Montage-05

The Gebla Rohbox will be offered from Cycle monkey in the ratchet box alone, or in complete conversion kits with pre-modified shifters from SRAM and Campagnolo with cables and housing. Available with a black or silver housing, the Rohbox retails for $245, or in the complete kit in a box from $310 (SRAM GX) to $1,230 (SRAM Red Hydro). Speed Monkey will also offer the SPEEDHUB 500/14 with a Gebla Rohbox kit.

CycleMonkey.com

Rohbox.com

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19 Comments
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The Man
The Man
8 years ago

I’m an mechanical engineer, highly trained with many years of experience. This is a good idea, well thought through with good execution.

SB
SB
8 years ago

Rolloff just needs to build one of these with a return spring in it, and a 14-speed trigger with normal (read: not German) ergonomics. I appreciate the reliability of push-me-pull-you, but really they’ve only cornered the weirdo market. (My XTR is super-freaking reliable, too.)

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen
8 years ago

I love it. I don’t love Rohloff’s prices.

drosser
drosser
8 years ago

Rohloff needs some competition here in the US. I talked to one of the guys at Co-motion a few weeks ago. They would love to sell bikes with Pinion’s crank-mounted gearbox, but they can’t until Pinion officially supports US distribution.

Internal_hub_guy
Internal_hub_guy
8 years ago

Looks useful, but they may as well go all-in and make an electric shift version as well. BTW, shouldn’t any Rohloff patents on the Speedhub be running out about now? They could use some price competition from some highly-automated parts factory somewhere.

Gillis
Gillis
8 years ago

There have been times where I’ve considered a Rohloff but held off because I hate twist-shifters. While I’m not in the market for a Rohloff now, if and when I am again, I will definitely be getting this.

Daniel M
Daniel M
8 years ago

SB: The bulletproof reliability of the Rohloff shifting is in a large part due to the lack of a return spring and the fact that as a result, the shift cables are under zero tension while not shifting. In addition, the shifting effort and cable pull on a Rohloff is pretty high, so that would have to be one hell of a return spring! Finding a retrofit like this that maintains the “pull for both upshifts and downshifts” characteristic of the system is really a better approach.

Erwin
Erwin
8 years ago

There are now a different options to use a trigger with Rohloff speedhub and comes from Tout Terrain sub brand Qinq5.
Regarding Pinion there are plenty of great builders. One US brand is Reeb and the other is HILITE-Bikes Titan.

michalis
michalis
8 years ago

and there are still 14 gears available, right?

MB
MB
8 years ago

YESSSSS! Thanks Cycle Monkey! Will be snagging one of these for a spring-time conversion for sure.

Naytan
Naytan
8 years ago

Thats a production product? It looks like a first generation prototype.

Adam2
Adam2
8 years ago

I really don’t understand why twist shifters are such a problem for some people. I’ve been riding them for years on my Yeti and they’re ultra reliable and work great.

Tim
Tim
8 years ago

Side question: how is Rohloff is keeping up with things like 142×12 and Boost rear thru axles?

ginsu
ginsu
8 years ago

@Adam2 – Here, here. I prefer triggers, but tried out a twist shifter on a commuter build and they work awesome! It’s nice to be able to dump all your gears at once, and I find the indexing to be more natural, so you might actually know what gear you’re in by feel instead of having to look at the shifter window (if you have one).

That said, the biggest drawback for me was the fact that you completely compromise your hand grip to use a twist shifter. You are basically stuck with the the grip that comes with the shifter because it’s a proprietary size.

Matt Hunt
Matt Hunt
8 years ago

Georg, looks like a cool product. Nice work. Can you make it work with a single shifter?

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen
8 years ago

@Adam2 you can’t put twisters on a drop bar.

emanuel
8 years ago

you can put twisters on a road bar
https://instagram.com/p/6nQX4ZCYiE
co motion makes one, Berthoud makes another.

leonardo
leonardo
8 years ago

@Tim

next year Rohloff are releasing their thru axle compatible option for 142mm, 177mm and 197mm (but no word on 147mm Boost).

Georg Blaschke
8 years ago

Hi Matt,

nice to meet you here after such a long time! 🙂

It would be possible to actuate the Rohbox or the original shiftbox with a single shifter, but it would have to be a special shifter. You could not use what is on the market today…
And IMO it is not possible to make a low quantity Brifter that can keep up with the big players ones if it comes to ergonomics and price. The tools needed for housings and hoodies would be just too expensive.

Greetings and have a good time,
Georg

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