[Colin MacKenzie]

Enjoying my TSR 2 but I need more gearing to deal with the steep hills of British Columbia! Is it all feasible to upgrade the rear hub on the TSR 2 with the Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14? Without the Sturmey-Archer coaster brake can a simple caliper brake be attached for rear braking or would the rear triangle need to be replaced or altered by a framebuilder?

Has anyone considered this upgrade? Am I mad?

cheers,

Colin

[Anwar Rahim]

Hi Colin,

Measure the width of the rear dropouts. I think on the TSR2 it’s about 120mm. For the Rohloff you’ll need 135mm. If this is the case you’ll need someone to spread the dropouts but this may not be possible/easy with the spaceframe rear triangle. This is one of the reasons I’m not a huge fan of the TSR2, as it’s not easily modified. Another issue is that I don’t think there are any cable guides.

I believe a Sturmey archer X-RF8 will fit (120mm width), giving you 8 gears. Or a Sturmey Archer S-RF5 (111 width) giving 5 gears. This may be the easiest (and much cheaper than a Rohloff) to gain extra gears. Another option is to buy a different rear triangle and fit that in, which I think is both possible. Though as mentioned there are no cable guides on the frame for the rear brake or gear cable, so you’ll have to zip-tie the cables to the frame, which you may feel look untidy.

I have no idea if a rear brake can be fitted but if there is a mount in the right place, I don’t see why not.

Anwar

[Ian]

There are at least a couple of TSR 2’s that have been converted to SRAM 5 speed and kept the belt drive. Whether you can do that with a Rohloff hub I have no idea, but I would have thought that you might like to start with a bike with rear brake mounts of some type.

Having said that Rohloff hubs have been fitted to TSR’s – see The Moultoneer No97 for Tim Evens’s very neat Paul Villiers built conversion.

[Gavin Clark]

Hi Colin

I have a TSR2 and can confirm that the rear spacing is only 120mm and the rear triangle is only drilled for a midguard mounting not a caliper brake. So without surgery, your choices for updating the gearing are limited to (I think) 3 speed hubs and Sachs/SRAM 5 speed hub with coaster or drum brake.

For any other rear hub, you’d either have to have the rear spacing widened and have brake mounts added, or buy a complete TSR27 or TSR30 rear triangle for £250.

Also as Anwar mentioned and as I’m sure you already know, there are no cable guides on the TSR2 so if you had a different hub and added a non-coaster brake, you’d have to come up with a solution for that too.

IMO if your riding needs exceed the TSR2’s limitations, you’d be better of selling it and getting a TSR8 or whatever else better suits your requirements.

Gavin

[Pandora]

A TSR2 may have cable guides etc, dependent on date of manufacture.

Also to permit beltdrive, the TSR2 rear triangle is purposely designed for such, the belt cannot be split, unlike a chain, the TSR2 rear triangle is seperable along the stay to introduce the belt to the hub and chainwheel, (or should I write pulleywheel?).

The Tsr2 is very light and responsive, so, a simple upgrade to a 3-speed with a coaster brake, the pulleys are standard Sturmey 3-spline drive, would that not give you the hill climbing gears you desire?

[NeillSlater]

solution 1 : 3 speed sturmey archer cs-rf3 with 10 speed cassette 11-34 plus double chainring 31-58,steep climbs sorted.

solution 2 : 8 speed sturmey archer hub with double chainring 26-52.steep climbs sorted.

both solutions are easily affordable.

The Rohloff Speedhub idea is an excellent one as the Speedhub is a joy to use.but its a costly one.if you have the funds and your hearts set on it go for it and enjoy.otherwise the 2 suggestions mentioned above are perfectly fine and far cheaper.

[Roger Cantwell]

Will Moulton sell you a rear frame from another model of TSR? Those are usually 132.5mm spacing and are designed to accommodate either 130mm or 135mm hubs. You’ll need a torque arm and all that unsprung weight won’t make the suspension work any better.

[Gary Dawes]

Hi

I upgraded my TSR2 initially with a P5 hub and coaster brake from SRAM. I had an issue with the hub, and never liked the immensely fiddly gear change so replaced the hub with a Shimano Nexus 3 with coaster brake.
I have it setup so that top gear is my cruising/normal gear. That leaves 2nd for headwinds or draggy climbs, and 1st gear as a “winch” It seems to work quite well.

I have a couple of P clips which have a seat post bolt hanger for cantilever brakes attached

I have looked at the SA 8 sp, but the lack of brake has prevented me, along with some poort online reviews of the thing.

Gary

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