Hello All

I’ve just treated myself to some goodies that are now in the post, in the form of an Alfine 8 speed wheel and a Sanderson Soloist frameset.

I’m planning on transferring all the other parts from my town/hack bike across to start with but I am a bit confused as to the ratios front and rear to be running with the alfine hub.

This bike is only for town/towpath use with slicks on, but I do live in Bath where the roads are very far from flat.

So, what would be the recommended chainwheel/sprocket combination? Also, am I right in thinking that some combinations will be much the same/similar but just kind of smaller overall? Is there any benefit to this other than saving a tiny bit of weight and a link or two of chain?

The Alfine wheel is coming with a 20t sprocket and I would like to acheive a similar range of geatrs to what I currently run in a 2×9 setup with 11-32t cassette and 32/44 chainrings – is this a possibility?

Gears & numbers have always been a bit of a black art to me….

Thanks for help in advance, Tom

On the road with 700cc wheels I run 36t up front and a 16t on the rear, which is perfect. Off road I ran a 16t/34t but I was always looking to snatch a lower gear on the realy steep stuff. I think 34t/20t works better.
Not really scientific, I know.

well you may as well run the 20 for a while. then think about either gearing it down using a 22, or going the other way with an 18. i use a 32 on the front. you won’t get the full spread of your 2×9, so you’ll either me somewhere in the middle, or towards one end.

With a 20T sprocket the Alfine hub is equivalent to running a 12-38T 8 speed cassette. So you can’t get the full range that you have at present but something around a 40T chainring would give the middle range of what you currently have.

Also, am I right in thinking that some combinations will be much the same/similar but just kind of smaller overall? Is there any benefit to this other than saving a tiny bit of weight and a link or two of chain?

Fi the ratio of chainring to rear cog is the same then they clearly offer the same mechanical advantage. Small small advantages are very slightly lower weight but small small combo will wear quicker than big big. For a commuter i would go big big. I run big big on my fixed commuter and get a noticeable longer life out of my chain / cog.

forgot to add that I already have a chainset with a 36t single ring to use first up front.

I shouldn’t have spent this money really, so I’d like to try to get away with using the parts I currently have….initially, so 36t front & 20t alfine. What does that equate to top and bottom? or rather what can I compare that to in terms of cassettes/chainrings?

I have tried looking at sheldon brown, but the fog comes down too quick for me..

@ TheBrick – thanks for that, I suppose the ponce factor was playing a part for me, in that small/small does IMO look maybe a bit nicer?

The alfine is almost exactly the spread of a 1×9. You can raise or lower the overall gearing by either the chainring or the sprocket.

I use an alfine on my commuter – 32 chainrings and 16 sprocket on 26″ wheels. If anything that is a touch low – I live in Edinburgh with hills.

Rear sprockets are cheap to swap to get different ratios – I have a couple of powerlinks in my chain so I can swap around ratios. Nexus sprockets are cheaper than alfine and are dished so you can fiddle with chainline

Your current hardest gear is 44/11 ie the rear wheel turns 4 times per complete crank revolution. This will go to 36/12 ie the rear wheel turns 3 times per complete crank revolution.

EDIT – maths fail.

At the bottom end you have 32/32 so every crank turn is one wheel turn.
With the alfine you would have 36/38 which is 0.94 wheel turns per crank turn.

So you actually get a slightly lower bottom gear but lose a lot of top end.

Thats cleared that up then……….. 😯

I’m running a 32/20 on mine (what it came with) I find I’m sometime lacking the gear for climbing, then again it could be my legs.

11 speed on order and in the shoppee what would be the combo to go with the 11spd? 90% of my riding in the woods.

shonky world double post 🙄

There is a gear calculator on Sheldon brown and I have a copy of a spreadsheet someone on here did if you want to compare gear ratios. email me for a copy.

With the 20 t rear I would be going for at least a 36 front for commuting maybe bigger.

Thanks Mr P, so if I found I missed the top end speed and started to feel a little less unfit, the first change would be to buy a slightly smaller rear sprocket, say an 18t?

Thanks, Tom

18T would increase your gearing slightly but not as much as I reckon you would need.