Rohloff hub gear charts:

One of the questions we are asked most often about the Gates carbon fiber belt/Rohloff hub drive train has to do with the gear ratios and gear range. People are curious to know if the system offers an adequate range, and sufficiently low and high gears.

Briefly, yes, the gear selection is good and, considering our aging bodies, for us the range is better than the range on most of our derailleur-equipped bikes. The Rohloff gear range is shifted to slightly lower gears, giving us good low climbing gears, but still offering plenty of high gears for knee mashing on flats and for descending.

But judge for yourself. Take a look at the gear ratios in the chart below.

The gear ratios and range vary with wheel circumference and with selection of chain ring and cog sizes. Typically, crank ring size is either 50 or 55 tooth while rear cog size is most often 20 tooth. There are regular steps through the gears (each shift changes the same relative amount). You can see that in most instances, the low gear with the Rohloff corresponds to a 24/34 chainring/cog pair on a derailleur bike, while the high gear equals about a 52/14 combo. This means the low gears on the Rohloff system are likely lower than you are used to on your derailleur equipped bike, while the high gear is also perhaps slightly lower. If you are racing, the Rohloff gears probably aren't for you. However, if you are touring or riding recreationally, they are most likely better suited for you than those on your derailleur bike.

As we age, in our opinion having a good selection of gears at the low end is more important than having super high gears at the upper end. We can coast if we spin out on a descent, but we really like those low gears for the climbs.

In the following charts, most of the gear data come directly from Co-Motion Cycles, from their website. The only chart that I prepared myself is for the 26 x 1.25 tire size - the gears in this chart I estimated based on the chart Co-Motion published for the 26 x 2.0.

​Gears are given in gear inches. the top pair of numbers for each column is the tire size; the pair of numbers just below that is the ring/cog size combo.

TANDEM  Diversity

Rohloff gear          700x32          700x28          700x28          700x35          29x2.0          26x2.0          26x1.25

                               50/20             50/20             55/20             50/20             50/20            50/20            55/20

1                             18.8               18.8               20.7                19.0               20.2              18.0              19.8

2                             21.3               21.3               23.5                21.5               22.9              20.3              22.5

3                             24.3               24.3               26.7                24.5               26.1              23.2              25.5

4                             27.6               27.6               30.4                27.8               29.7              26.3              28.9

5                             31.3               31.3               34.4                31.5               33.6              29.9              32.9

6                             35.6               35.6               39.2                35.9               38.3              34.0              37.4

7                             40.5               40.5               44.6                40.8               43.5              38.6              42.5

8                             46.0               46.0               50.6                46.3               49.4              43.9              48.3

9                             52.2               52.2               57.5                52.6               56.1              49.8              54.8

10                           59.5              59.5                65.4                59.8               63.9              56.7              62.4

11                           67.5              67.5                74.3                67.9               72.5              64.4              70.8

12                           76.6              76.6                84.3                77.1               82.3              73.1              80.4

13                           87.2              87.2                95.9                87.8               93.7              83.2              91.5

​14                           99.0              99.0              108.9                99.6             106.4              94.4            103.8

​Again, many of these are estimates, but you can get a pretty good idea of the gears you will have available with any given tire size and ring/cog size pair. And once again, the Rohloff provides excellent low climbing gears with adequate high gears, in our experience.