FWIW I have been following Stephen Peel's perambulations when I've had little to do(and really should be doing better things). His Roholff hub seems to be playing up...or something's gone wrong. Sheesh. I thought these were tried,tested,gold standard. Shome mistake on this one,perhaps. A lemon? Can't think what's going wrong...and if I was given an exploded diagram of the internal mechanism wouldn't be able to understand it,but....£4k spend on a bike that's spluttering after the first 200 miles doesn't augur much faith. Better the old and trusted derailleur maybe. Hope he paid for his machine by Credit Card!!
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Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Who the hell is Stephen Peel?
Aushiker
Über Member
According to Dr Google ... http://stephenpeel.co.uk/
The Lone Rider
Active Member
- Location
- North Kent
wow! lucky sod lol 
jay clock
Massive member
- Location
- Hampshire UK
The layout of his blog makes it very hard to follow. I want to start at the beginning and go forwards
I guessed.
Apologies. I should have done a link, but excuse myself for being a techno numpty. If you put in 'Stephen Peel cyclist' you should find him. I go to Facebook to catch up on his whereabouts and wotnot(tho I haven't registered with Facebook). The guy seems a Mr Joe Normal of 40+ who has decided to sell up and go cycling the world(make as little or as much as you like about him and his reasons!)
I was just a little interested in his £4k bike and Rohloff having problems. I sorto thought any problems with this hub was exhausted and the mechanism had achieved a gold award by world travelers. Bit surprised to see it go tXts-up,as it were. He now seems to be flying back to GB to get it all sorted as there seems confusion/difficulty in correcting its operating properly.
I sorta follow him cos I wonder if he knows where he is going...tho this may well be transference from myself. He seems to have set himself a loose goal but I wonder whether it is too loose for him to come undone(as it were).He seems pretty positive(besides his present setback)but I wonder if time and mileages might question his activity. We hear about those who have achieved their goals and success,but less about those who have fallen aside. This is quite understandable...but more interesting reading,perhaps
I was just a little interested in his £4k bike and Rohloff having problems. I sorto thought any problems with this hub was exhausted and the mechanism had achieved a gold award by world travelers. Bit surprised to see it go tXts-up,as it were. He now seems to be flying back to GB to get it all sorted as there seems confusion/difficulty in correcting its operating properly.
I sorta follow him cos I wonder if he knows where he is going...tho this may well be transference from myself. He seems to have set himself a loose goal but I wonder whether it is too loose for him to come undone(as it were).He seems pretty positive(besides his present setback)but I wonder if time and mileages might question his activity. We hear about those who have achieved their goals and success,but less about those who have fallen aside. This is quite understandable...but more interesting reading,perhaps
Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7YLVXwd4UUtcnzmgzkVQbQ/videos
I just need to correct you on one or two points.
I too followed Stephen. FWIW I found his blogs hard to follow and they weren't particularly interesting either. Rather dull. He seems to me to be a chap with little cycling experience or know how. He had a desire to travel around the world so after a little bit of research went out and bought the best and most expensive touring bike on the market a Koga World Traveller with Rohlof hub and belt drive. A fabulous bike more than up to the task you would have thought. What would you think could go wrong? Well quite a few things. Having not done very much cycling and very few miles on this bike he set out on it with all his gear hoping everything would be fine and why not? Before even leaving the UK he had problems with the eccentric bottom bracket. He took it to a bike shop in the UK but as soon as having left them it was playing up again. He found another bike shop and another without AFAIK getting it properly fixed. It would make an annoying click although despite a few people asking him to post an in depth video of the problem he failed to do so and continued into France. He had a poor experience at a French bike shop. So he continued.
If the Rohloff hub is now playing up then this is something new. Perhaps he has not run it in properly or neglected to do the oil changes as specified, who knows?
All I can say to counter your obviously gleeful post that you have stumbled across a Rohloff hub owner experiencing problems with their bike, make sure it is actually a problem with the hub itself and not another totally separate problem such as the eccentric bottom bracket that he was having problems with. It might also be something that is easily remedied, but because he appears to have little knowledge of maintaining his bike he is reliant on bike shops and if they can't fix something, he is well and truly stuck. The first rule of long distance cycle touring is to be able to do basic maintenance on and to be able to diagnose and fix most problems that will occur with your bike. Rule 2 is make sure you comply with rule 1.
Many RTW, long distance cyclists and commuting cyclists use Rohloff hubs and many of them have had many tens of thousands of happy trouble free cycling with them. I have had mine two years now and ridden nearly 15k miles without so much as an hiccup. I do the oil changes every 5,000km as specified and it is has been fine. It is the best piece of cycling engineering I have ever bought and worth it not to have to use crappy derailleur transmissions again. I can't imagine Mr Shimano being that helpful if I had a problem with one of his derailleurs or indeed Alfine hubs.
Obviously if Stephen does have a problem with the Rohloff hub itself, Rohloff will sort it out as their customer service is second to none.
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jay clock
Massive member
- Location
- Hampshire UK
I just watched a few videos of his. Seems a bit naive. I agree he seems unprepared in bike mechanics.
Bodhbh
Guru
To be fair - apart from the annoying techno - I'm quite enjoying those videos. It's nice to see something other than 'touring jedi' doing RTW/hardcore stuff with aplomb, which you can't always to relate to much - and I suppose being honest, see him suffering problems which you could foresee or have worked out how to solve and feeling a bit smug. Viva la differance anyhow.
FishFright
More wheels than sense
I used to follow a young Korean woman, oi, on CrazyGuywotsit and she set out on a RTW tour barely knowing how to ride and she got a fair way before the posts dried up. It was also interesting to see cycle touring from a very non western perspective
The dullness in SPs blogs may well be the 'most interesting' aspect of his ride. They could sa a lot: about the person,country or the ride. Sometimes silence speaks a lot...then sometimes,I guess,it doesn't!
I don't think I've taken a 'glee' in finding any fault in the Rohloff,for the most part I've read good reports. Maybe his report is what surprises me. I think his £4k on the bike was somewhat of an investment!
For my own part,I trust in simple mechanics,and that with a simple and well known mechanism,someone/somewhere will be able to repair it,should things go wrong. I'm not too sure about the Rohloff: disassembling and re-assembling that mechanism might be like a job 'too far'.
I read that RTW cyclist Anne Mustoe didn't know how to mend a puncture.
Peel's pedestrian prose and confusing postings speak of an Average Joe and maybe not the professional hyped adventurer. I can go with him. Was it some Simon Cowell X factor big-up that had to have Mel C urinate over Bear Grylls hands that saved his hands from imminent amputation...that sorta stuff I kinda find OTT. Or bulldust. Still,it's click bait and makes ££££
I don't think I've taken a 'glee' in finding any fault in the Rohloff,for the most part I've read good reports. Maybe his report is what surprises me. I think his £4k on the bike was somewhat of an investment!
For my own part,I trust in simple mechanics,and that with a simple and well known mechanism,someone/somewhere will be able to repair it,should things go wrong. I'm not too sure about the Rohloff: disassembling and re-assembling that mechanism might be like a job 'too far'.
I read that RTW cyclist Anne Mustoe didn't know how to mend a puncture.
Peel's pedestrian prose and confusing postings speak of an Average Joe and maybe not the professional hyped adventurer. I can go with him. Was it some Simon Cowell X factor big-up that had to have Mel C urinate over Bear Grylls hands that saved his hands from imminent amputation...that sorta stuff I kinda find OTT. Or bulldust. Still,it's click bait and makes ££££
Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
Seriously though his videos are boring. There are quite a few cyclists on Youtube who have made and continue to make some excellent films of their tours. I would post a few links to them but cba as they, or I, will be criticised, no one will say thanks, it's a waste of my time. But trust me there are FAR better cycling vlogs out there. Perhaps Stephen should watch a few of them to get an idea how to make a few. Producing them takes time but the good ones get a lot of hits and in Youtube land, hits mean cash. He needs to take a course on film production and editing. But not wishing to be too harsh on him I wish him well. If he is returning home hopefully it is only temporarily and he can get back out on the road soon learning lessons from his first attempt. A cycling vlog firstly has to inspire you and he has some way to go yet for his films to inspire me.
John Peel
Senior Member
- Location
- Cheshire England
I came across these posts about me completely by chance, and I have to say they are mostly quite fair, and brutal at the same time
I have started a new thread about my RTW cycle here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/c...return-for-major-repairs.227214/#post-5056989
stephenpeel.co.uk
I have started a new thread about my RTW cycle here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/c...return-for-major-repairs.227214/#post-5056989
stephenpeel.co.uk
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