As I have just ripped the mech off the 456 and trashed the rear wheel I was wondering about fitting an alfine 8 hub so, any experiences please?
Also – there’s the genesis, on one, anything else alfine off the peg?

Been a fair bit of discussion of Alfines on here – have a search.

I have one – an 8 spd.

Its only the range of a 1×9 setup and it concentrates weight in the rear hub. However it is reliable and just works. a bit draggy in some gears and some shift can be a bit slow.

I like it however.

thanks TJ, I’ve read a lot of the posts on here & I’m not to bothered about draggy, Im after the “just works” bit really.

Yeah, it just works. Any frame suitable for one-speed is suitable for Alfine. I have a Chumba HX1 which has an EBB.

The cabling is a lot tidier now BTW.

I have a Genesis IOID

You can fit the alfine in any frame using a tensioner. The 11 speeds seem to have some reliability issues – the 8 speeds far less so.

Like most shimano products tho spares are not available – the only spare is a complete new cluster – you cannot buy individual parts if something breaks

I hired a bike with one on (8sp) and it constantly didn’t pick up and I nearly went over the bars on a number of times when it dropped out. would randomly select gears or not when I wanted it. Put me right off getting one. that said I liked it when it worked with instant pick up and being able to change gear without that horrible crunching you get with mech anf cassette and it was a hire bike after all though I was surprised that it happened given a lot of people rave about them

You can also fit the Alfine on a frame with ordinary vertical dropouts by using what the single speed crowd call a magic ratio.

Basically experiment with different size cogs until you get reasonable tension. I’m using this so I can fit an Alfine on my fatbike. There is a calculator online somewhere so you can work out which is the optimum. Going a tooth larger on the front or rear can make quite a difference to tension.

Highclimber, the symptoms you describe are those you get with a sticky cable and are nothing to do with the hub, ie poor maintenance.

Highclimber, the symptoms you describe are those you get with a sticky cable and are nothing to do with the hub, ie poor maintenance.

you’d have thought the guy in the shop would know that! still, we got our money back

TandemJeremy – Member
I have a Genesis IOID

You can fit the alfine in any frame using a tensioner.Or a Philcentric BB adapter

First off road ride on mine today. (8 speed) Felt good, not noticeably draggy, slightly delay downshifting but easing off resulted in an instant change. No rattling chain/mech and no noisy freewheel.

I’ve not looked at the numbers, but it feels like a 2×9 setup. First gear close to second on a normal setup (22×30) so easily low enough for winching up hills (using a 32 tooth chainring and 20 tooth sprocket) and once you run out of gears it doesn’t matter as you are going pretty quick.

Alfine 8 is a 300% range – same as a 1×9.

I’ve run a 8 speed for 2years on the comuter, no problems at all. There is the ocasional slip/crunch when putting the power down when changing certain gears, but no worse than trying to do the same on a cassete. The ability to change when stood still at lights has been great. (just sold the bike yeasterday though)

I’ve also had an 11 on the MTB for about a year now – the 8 on the commuter persuaded me to try the 11 on the mtb when it came out last christmas as an alternative to upgrading to 10 speed. The 11 is much much smoother than the 8, shifting is so much sweeter, far fewer crunching ocasions. Having the shifter the right way around is good too. The only problems i’ve had have been cable related – twice putting a kink in the cable when putting the bike in the car with the wheels off, got to the destination and found that i didnt have half the gears, and the ones i did were slightly out of sinc so crunched.

The other thing is i installed a middle burn cable oiler, i have full length cables on my bike and haveing a well oiled cable every 4th or 5th ride really aids the shifting performance. I think that the return spring in the 11 isnt quite up to the job, its not as strong as on the 8 and requires a bit of lube through cable much more regularly (i didnt have the same problem on the 8, infact i never oiled the cables).

As with any gear system there are negatives (i’ve not touched on the rear end weight), although in my opinion, for certain riders, the positives over a conventional system are huge – but it has to be for a certain type of rider. Riders that do large rides, and rake up large mileages will get huge benifits, racers will not. It also depends on the bike, imo its a bit pointless on a carbon frame (like one on), also beware cable routing (it’ll not work on internaly routed cables). If you have slot/tensioned dropouts or an EBB then great, if not then you’ll neeed a tensioner which kind of negates one of the benifts of a clear, uninhibited chain line.

Or a Philcentric BB adapter

if you have a spare £150 (+ fitting cost of the bike shop fitting it as recomended).

My 11 speed was gear slipping a over the shop at the end of Thursday’s nigth ride.
I took it to the LBS who built it up for me, with a bit of cable tightening and lining up the yellow dots in 6th gear I think he sorted it as on the test ride outside the shop it worked better than ever.

I haven’t tested it in ernest as yet though.

more than likly its a cable kink – at the slightest hint of a kink mine goes all funny.

I have an Alfine 8 on my road bike, never used one off road. Never had any issues with it, and now into my 4th year with no maintainance.

The 8 speeds are more than enough for me on the road but i would think the 11 would be much better off road. The 11 used oil for lubrication, the 8 uses grease.

The 8 is reportedly more reliable but like everything on a forum is anecdotal and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

a 18 tooth on the Alfine gives you as close as you’ll ever get to a 9 speed 11-32.

I’ve been running mine on a Trance for a good 6 months or more now and I’m a full on convert. I doubt I’ll ever own a standard geared bike again.

Alfine 8 is a 300% range – same as a 1×9.

I gave this a little thought, and realised I was comparing to a triple set up. On a triple you would only use half the cassette on the granny ring which I why I suppose, it gives the impression of a wider range of gears 🙂

(Obviously anyone that has ridden 1 or 2×9 wouldn’t notice this as they can use the full cassette.