Rohloff Bikes


We create bicycles fitted with the excellent Rohloff hub gear system.

Ridgeback Motion 21″, powder coated in ‘Pure Bronze’. Continental 700 x 28 road tyres.

Bikes are great things but…

…are you tired of crunching the chain and sprockets on your bicycle when changing to a different gear?

…are you sick of  having to mess around lifting your bike up and pedalling by hand when you find yourself in the wrong gear before you start off?

…are you finding yourself clicking twice on the left lever and 4 times on the right then hoping it is the gear you want?

There is a solution to all of this.

The Rohloff Speedhub 500/14 is a German made Internal Gear Hub (IGH) with 14 ratios. 

Click on www.rohloff.de to read all about it.

A lot of precision engineering in there…

There are a few shops in the U.K. which offer Rohloff equipped bikes. These bikes are high specification, of excellent quality and often suitable for ’round the world’ tours. This, however, is very much reflected in the price.

The truth is, though, there’s not actually that many people who want to cycle around the world. Most just would like to have a week away camping or staying in B&Bs so don’t want to be ‘over biked’ for the journeys to be made.

Over the years, we have spoken to numerous cyclists who mentioned that they would love to own a Rohloff bike but cannot really justify the outlay, so we sat down and worked out a way of creating them at more affordable price.

We buy in a new bike with a frame and fork of good quality and a ‘middle of the road’ specification. Using our extensive knowledge and experience, we then strip it of the bits it doesn’t need and fit it with the necessary components to make it work with the Rohloff. Nothing too fancy, just good, solid, workable parts.

We’ll fit it with an automatic chain tensioner which will prevent the chain from being over tightened.

We take time to make sure that all parts fitted have total compatibility with each other and are readily available in most bike shops when they eventually wear out.

Once the bike is built up, it is taken for a test ride to make sure that it works exactly as it should.

We tend to use the frame and fork of Hybrid bikes as they are quite adaptable and work very well as commuter bikes, light/medium tourers or simply ‘cycle around the countryside for fun’ bikes, but we do occasionally use other types of frame as well.

The bikes we put together are very capable machines despite being literally hundreds of pounds less expensive than those offered by others.

Belt drive bikes – Just so you know, If you want a belt drive Rohloff bike, you’ll need to look elsewhere. We don’t build with belts, only chains that need cleaning and lubricating every now and then. A belt drive system adds hundreds pounds to the price of a bike, that’s not what we’re about. What we’re trying to do is to get bikes equipped with Rohloff gears to those who don’t want to spend all of their money on a bicycle…

If your heart is set on a belt drive, pop over and have a look at the excellent offerings from these lovely people https://www.shandcycles.com/ .


The benefits of a Rohloff Speedhub

It has 14 gear ratios which are sequential and equally spaced

The ability to change gear whilst standing still

Twist the shifter in one direction to climb a hill, the other to go faster

Straight alignment means less wear to the chain and sprockets

Reliable and easy to live with


Our Rohloff equipped bikes have a starting price of around £2,000.

Some examples of what we have built…




Ridgeback Motion 23″ on the Water Rail Way Lincoln/Boston 2018

If owning a good quality but relatively inexpensive Rohloff bike is of interest to you, contact us by clicking the link below. We’ll have a good conversation in which we’ll work out the size and type of bike that will fit you and suit the purpose it’s wanted for. Based on that, we’ll send you a specification and a price and we’ll take it from there….

Click here to ask us questions… https://planetary14bikes.co.uk/contact-us/

Please note that we do not sell by mail order. Only after extensive consultation by phone, email or face to face will we accept your request to supply a bike. This is to ensure that what we are supplying is correct for you. This prevents the disappointment of a bike not being the correct fit or unsuitable for the purpose it is wanted for. The completed bicycle must be collected from us in person.