Rohloff-Equipped Ellsworth Moment Trail Bike

This Ellsworth Moment was built for a customer in Walnut Creek, CA. He had been a long-time Ellsworth rider and was looking to replace his old bike with one that had more travel. The 160mm travel Moment offered this extra travel along with geometry suited for more aggressive riding. One of his riding buddies had been riding a Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14 for many years and this customer had seen both how reliable the hub had been and the advantages it offered for technical riding. With the frame, and drivetrain selected, there were only a few other parts to choose to round out the build kit.


We laced the Rohloff rear hub and Chris King 20mm through axle front hub into No Tubes Flow rims for a lightweight, all-mountain tubeless setup. These 28mm wide rims provide increased tire contact and torsional stiffness along with a decreased tendency for the tire to roll when pushed hard into a corner. They setup tubeless super easily, are only slightly heavier than other brands' XC rims, and offer good durability, making them one of our favorite mtb rims. They are offered in all the common wheels sizes: 26", 650b, and 29", so they're sure to work with your next build. We like to use them on hardtails as well as full suspension bikes. As with most of the wheels we build, we used Sapim spokes and nipples for these wheels. The double butted Race model was used here with brass nipples in a 2x rear, 3x front lacing pattern.

The SPEEDHUB 500/14 is well known for it's durability and lack of maintenance, making it the most desirable drivetrain for self-supported touring and daily commuting, but it also offers a host of features that are ideal for mountain biking:

• The 526% gear range provides plenty of gears to get up, over, around, and down all kinds of terrain.
• Indexing occurs in the hub, so there is no cable adjustment required between the hub and shifter, and no tuning of the shifting system is needed.
• The hubs require very little maintenance and offer unmatched reliability, which means more trail time.
• The dual cable system means one cable is always pulling the hub into its next gear, so there is no dependence on a spring for making a shift in either direction. As the cables get dirty, it may take more effort to move the shifter, but you can still shift reliably into all the gears.
• Gears can be changed at any time and as many as you want, whether you are pedaling or not. This offers numerous advantages—from tackling technical singletrack more easily and keeping a more constant cadence, to easily transitioning into a steep climb following a descent and selecting the perfect gear as you exit a switch back.
• You always have a perfect chainline between the front chainring and rear sprocket, and the chain doesn't need to move laterally as it does in derailleur systems. This results in noticeably longer chain life, no derailed chains, and virtually eliminates broken chains.
• The hubs have comparable efficiency to a perfectly clean derailleur system and best derailleurs when things get muddy and gritty.

Build details

• Frame: Ellsworth Moment
• Fork: Fox 36 TALAS
• Headset: Chris King No Threadset
• Stem: Thomson X4
• Handlebar: Groovy Cycle Works Luv Handle
• Shifter: Rohloff
• Seatpost: Thomson Elite
• Saddle: Terry Fly
• Front Hub: Chris King ISO Disc 20mm
• Rear hub: Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14
• Spokes: Sapim Race
• Nipples: Sapim Brass
• Rims: No Tubes Flow
• Tires: WTB Moto Raptor
• Rear Skewer: Shimano XT
• Cranks and Bottom Bracket: Shimano Deore XT
• Chainring: Surly Stainless Steel
• Chain Tensioner: Rohloff
• Brakes: Shimano XT
• Rotors: Rohloff rear, Shimano front
• Rear Brake Adapter: Cycle Monkey Monkey Bone