Can any owners help with the following questions?

1/ Cable pull? can you use it with other 8spd shifters?

2/ Does anyone run it with anything apart from 32t up front?

3/ How is it lasting, thumbs up/down, servicing?

It seems like a great saving on the Rohloff, anyone used both?

Ta very much

1/ No (other than Nexave)
2/ You can fine tune it how you like. I know of at least one person running a 42

3/ I don’t have one but so far there don’t seem to be loads of horror stories.

I have ridden both an Alfine and Rohloff though not for huge mileages. I found the shifting similar enough to make the Rohloff redundant for my plans though if you need the full range, the Rohloff clearly has the edge with 500ish% compared to 300ish% for the Alfine.

1) You need either a Nexus or Alfine shifter. No others will work correctly.

2) Stick on what you like, You can run it with a double or triple up front if you want.

3) Mine spent the Winter being abused by me and the rim broke not the hub. I had the hub serviced as the rim was replaced and all was well. A clean and reassembly was all that was required.

I really like mine. I’ve got one on a Cove Stiffee. The gears are high (I run a 34T) for the steep stuff but you just MTFU and ride the gear you’ve got. You do need to learn to change gear earlier though. It doesn’t change down under load (like you can do in a normal set up) so you need to shift early.

Some people can adapt to that, some can’t. IMO, it’s no different to adapting to ride a FS compared to riding a HT or rigid.

They are heavy though and it does pull the back of the bike down. Also the bolt-in axle is very stiff and tightens up the rear end loads. I’m running 426 coil Pikes up front which has balanced the bike nicely – it’s now heavy front and back!

It was great during the Winter and following a strip down it’s almost ready to roll again. Will be riding it during the Summer as the OH has started riding and the Hustler is a bit overkill to potter around the bridleways on.

If you want one, I have a 3 ride old one im selling for £150 complete build and shifter etc

text me on 07974 758574

1- As mentioned above.
2 – I think there is a minimum rear cog, 18T off the top oy my head.
3 – I was gutted yesterday when I had to perform my first bit of maintence on saturday, I had to brush the chain down after 4 months of riding it in all weathers.

Interesting to read of people’s experience with Alfines. I’m tempted to get one for my hooligan slidey dropout InBred, the get ISCG mounts brazed on and save for a Hammerschmitt on the front. Hmmmm…

Can you run an alfine set up on a full suspension bike or does it have to be a hard tail?

mine runs just fine….

34 front, 18 rear. Its a bit of a pig on the really steep up’s, and i spin out on most fast bits….. but shifts fine, nice and stiff (bolt on hub)

I dont notice the weight change/balance etc: but then i’m 18st, and its on a tough/heavy hardtail.

you have to use the shifter, for differing cable pull reasons.

servicing….. not sure yet only had it 8months of mild use.

BUT, the bike runs real quiet, which is nice. I can also use a singlespeed chain which wont explode on me when putting loads of power down (which is what those crappy 9 speed swiss cheese chains do)

i like it.
i’ll keep it.

Yes you can run an Alfine on a FS but you’ll need an appropriate tensioner to allow for chain growth – if the suspension design has this.

Been running mine since last August. 32/18. works perfectly, no fuss

turnip – can you send some details through to jsrwalker AT googlemail.com as i am after an alfine too.

Thanks for the info, now very tempted to buy into it.

turnip, have texted you (RC-31’s)

It works great as an everyday chug along, if your looking for outright speed/effienceny then stick with a derailuer.

I don’t feel any drag when cycling but with the wider spread (inc uneven steps) I tend to sit in a gear more and plod along unlike a derailuer where I would keep spinning at the same speed and swop the gears. I’m on a 32:20 which is lower then most (a bit higher than normal gearing) so i tend to spin out when on the road occasionally.

My bike is 32lb (minus about 12 grams), which is built for toughness and low maintence (ok, ok – ignore the Rc41F, which is the right length for the frame) – I could get it lighter by removing the latex, UST,2x 8″ rotors and buying better finishing kit but to be honest I don’t notice it when cycling and it feels planted when going downhill.

I get extra clearence with the 32T ring(and tiny bash) up front and it’s deadly silent…

i had some comments to make on mine when it was first put together here:
Del
since then it’s ‘run in’ and rolls better than it did when new – ie pretty much as good as any other hub. don’t ride it that much as i either take the ss out, or i’m running the FS more recently in a run up to our holiday, but it’ll get used when there’s a long steep hill to climb 🙂
i like it.

so has anyone actualy tested one through a couple of realy pooey british winters?

Much as i hate the idea of dragging the extra weight arround, im coming arround to the idea as i could just pop the wheel out and chuck everything in a bike bag before going upto the flat, at the moment im convinced im going to **** the derreilieur on something and mash it.

Is there a QR option?

I’ve had it through one pooey British summer and one winter and it’s ideal. I run mine tubeless though as I pinched much more frequently than usual. It’s amazing, really like it and it takes very little time to get used to. To me, it’s more intuitive than a standard system.

there’s a trail centre bike shop up north somewhere running a fleet of genesis’ as hire bikes – have done for a year or so i think. Brant popped up a few months ago and said they’ve had zero failures. have a search around.
also someone here has done a season’s guiding in the alps on one too.

no QR i’m afraid.

Del. Glentress has a fleet of them

Bothy Bikes in Aviemore also run them, and they’ve been sweet.

Oh, and I run 32/20 by the way – spin out at over 20mph so no good for pedalling downhill or fast flat. However, I use it for rides from my front door (the hills are only 400m away!) so it doesn’t matter to me. With this ratio, I can get up some steep hills and don’t miss smaller gears too much (Central Scotland, Ochils).

With a 20 tooth cog, the Alfine hub will give you a “virtual cassette” with 12 – 14 – 16 – 20 – 24 – 27 – 31 – 38 tooth cogs.

Can you feel any loss of power?

“With a 20 tooth cog, the Alfine hub will give you a “virtual cassette” with 12 – 14 – 16 – 20 – 24 – 27 – 31 – 38 tooth cogs. “

…And from that info, we can extrapolate that an alfine hub with an 18t cog equals an 11-13-14-18-22-24-28-34 tooth 8 speed cassette and one with a 16t cog equals a 10-11-13-16-19-22-25-30 tooth 8 speed cassette, gearing wise.

So:

16 cog alfine = 10-30 cassette
18 cog alfine = 11-34 cassette
20 cog alfine = 12-38 cassette

hmmmm, if it were BB mounted I’d be convinced

Come on Mr Shimano!

A BB standard, that fits an 8speed gearbox and HTII style axels (or BB30 if it’ll fit) and then allows the use of any normal single speed parifanalia! The old ammerican BB standard must be ripe for this! I’d even pay rolhoff money if it was comparable in quality.

Other advantages
– massive chainstay/Downtube weld area
– massive space to fit bearings, no more excuses about small bearings!
– could have an integraded EBB.
– luddites could still buy the frames and convert them back to “normal” singlespeeds/gears
– full sussers no longer suffer form poor cable routing as theres no need to get from the front trianglle to the rear.

why doesn’t someone build one? surely there’s a talented custom frame builder out there who could do up a prototype (could you use the current Alfine hub as a MASSIVE bottom bracket? Just to prove it can be done?)

Cynic – no, I can feel no loss of power. I actually feel more assured when I’m in gear for some reason – i.e. it kind of feels like a singlespeed and that I can put a lot of power through it without the chain potentially slipping into another gear.

As far as shifting is concerned, as has been mentioned, you have to alter the way you shift – i.e. before you get to a hill but that’s not so different from normal.

It would need beefing up to run at the BB, because the torque is higher (by the ring/cog ratio). The Rohloff has a 2.35:1 (~40:17) ratio limit for this reason, presumably the Alfine has a similiar restriction.

the internals might need beefing up, or would they…………..
add an extra planetary gear set to drop the torq right down, then have a 1:1 ratio of chainring to sprocket say 36-36 to reduce wear?

Just needs a slight re-design and a 30mm hole in the middle…………….

Come on nicolai/shimano/honda/suntour forget your stupid oversized things wedged into DH bikes, we need something simpler in hardtails first!

The exception to 1 is the Jtek bar end shifter. I set one up for a customer a while back – works really nicely if you want to use drops.