Bernhard Rohloff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bernhard Felix Rohloff (21 February 1950 – 19 May 2023) was a German businessman who was the founder of Rohloff AG,[1] and the inventor of several innovative products, amongst others, the 14 speed Rohloff Speedhub 500/14 planetary gear hub.
Rohloff studied machine engineering at Olympia while working part-time at Henschel und Thyssen, a German locomotive manufacturer. After graduation, he worked at Mercedes-Benz with the development of automobile driveshafts.
Later he struck out on his own and founded Rohloff AG, where he first invented an advanced narrow chain that soon became the industry standard for road-bikes and was used by several Tour de France winners, and the manufacturing methods therefore. He personally designed "the green beast", a proprietary machine for manufacturing SLT-99 chains.[2] Rohloff AG became an OEM chain manufacturer for Campagnolo.