Comments on: Shimano Alfine 11-Speed.

By: uphillsg

uphillsg — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:40:45 +0000

I’ve had a alfine 8 on my bike since last december, and an 11 on for the last 2 or maybe 3 months now. Prior to that I had a very old Rohloff. I am writing some sought of reveiw since it seems strange that none have been posted, despite them being available in NZ since august. The 11 is better in most respects, for me. I’ve had problems due to the sealed end caps supplied on the gear cable which put too much drag on the cable giving it an ugly feeling at the lever, and slow shifting to harder gears, and a few horrid noises due to this slow shifting. Unsealed end caps seem to have solved this (its full length cable and has a worm thing at the hub end anyway), but these are not problems I had with the 8 at anytime. The gear spread is good, it adds up to about a 8-34t cluster, on whatever chainring size you drive it with, if you have the 18T drive sprocket onboard. Shimano I don’t think have torque limits on it, but in my experience I have blown the left clutch on a 8 by driving it with a 32-20 input, so I’d tend to stick to 32-18 as the hardest input, which doesn’t give you are proper granny gear, if you are going to use it as a rear wheel. (My bike is gearbox type contraption, so I have further reduction to rear wheel) The 2 click shifters of the 11 are quicker to change than the 1 click either way on the 8, and I prefer the old fashion thumb for easier gear trigger for harder gear shifting direction. The LH side of the hub is about 6mm wider than the alfine 8, so it has a spacer to hold a centrelock rotor on. I don’t think it changes under load as well as an 8, this could be cable related and it doesn’t change to harder gears as well, due to the actuation direction. I imagine a DH racer would prefer an 8 for that reason, and the wider gear spread shouldn’t be important to them. The gear spread is almost the same as a 11-34 cassette, except there is an extra bailout gear as granny, depending on ratio, it adds up to about a 46, so I normally think of it as a 12 speed hub, only gear 2 is missing. The alfine hubs are pretty quiet – near silent, though my 8 got a bit rusty inside, and became noisier, and the clutch half dissolved, but was still functional. Long term we’ll see how they go, Everything in Rohloff is bigger etc, but these do shift better, and are quieter / feel smoother, though probably indifferent effeceincy. Gear range is something which matters to some people, but more on paper than trail in my opinion. Alfine come with a trigger shifter, which many people, including me prefer, although a grip shifter does have advantages, in being able to change 10 gears in one movement. The trigger shifter’s indicator stuffs up your placement of brake levers, so on the 8 I removed it, but currently I have it on, on the 11. Sorry about such a ramble.. maybe some useful information there though..

By: gilesjuk

gilesjuk — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 21:40:31 +0000

The ratio of front to back of 1.91 seems to limit its use for MTB. Some say this is due to the amount of power you can put onto the frame using no turn washers. Rohloff use a torque bar or more robust dropout.

By: 18bikes

18bikes — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:00:03 +0000

ahem.

http://18bikes.co.uk/news.php?articleshow=433

By: jambon

jambon — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:30:23 +0000

Anyone know if the new Alfine is easier to unhook when removing the rear wheel? Is the cable quick release or do you still have to un-screw and re-tension the whole thing?

By: thisisnotaspoon

thisisnotaspoon — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:02:46 +0000

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Why wont they make it compatible with everythig (or even anything) else?

Would it be so hard to make (for example) 105 levers with an extra click? It’s probably too much to hope that the cable pull is the same as campag levers isn’t it?

I can’t be the only person who’s not buying an alfine just because it’s instantly obsolete as it doesn’t work with anything else?

Come on shimano, your missing out the entire touring, winter bike, and fakanger markets!

By: DoctorRad

DoctorRad — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:32:28 +0000

You can get aftermarket drop bar and bar-end levers for 8-speed Alfine, so I guess if Shimano don’t make ‘em, someone else will.

Also really glad they’re going to make the trigger shifter work the right way around.

“Start looking for it on bikes from about September onwards” is all very well, but when are we going to be able to buy it on its own or as part of a wheel?

By: matt_outandabout

matt_outandabout — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:52:31 +0000

2×11 – I want!

By: glenh

glenh — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:24:59 +0000

Yup, same spread as a 2×9 setup, so perfectly usable.
Certainly looks interesting. I hope it’s cheaper than a Rohloff….

By: cupra

cupra — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:38:27 +0000

anyone want to buy an 8spd alfine in september, will be cheap!!

By: nunuboogie

nunuboogie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:17:04 +0000

also glad i waited for an alfine, now just got to wait alittle longer……….