I had Alfine 8 speed installed a few weeks ago on my Cotic Simple. I had been riding single speed quite happilly for 3 years but fancied trying the Alfine out. I've done about 100 off road miles on it so far and the jury is out still. Mines 32 on front with a 18 tooth sprcket.
Reasonable spread of gears and good to have a bail out gear coming from SS. Changes up are fine but as others have said, you do have to get used to backing off when changing down otherwise you clank and grind away for a bit until it finds the gear you want.
The weight is very noticable when you lift the bike, but not too bad when riding. I can't make my mind up yet whether it affects the ride or not. Obviously you can notice it when you have to lift the rear over an obstruction.
I also had a tendancy in the first couple of rides to use too easy a gear up hills I was mashing up easily in 32:16. Dont want to waste all that SS fitness 😀
Getting the rear wheel out is alot easier than I thought it would be and obviously maintenance (hopefully) should be minimal. I know people who haven't touched the internals for 2 years and its running well still.
I'm going to perservre for a bit longer with it. I thinI agree with a poster in an old thread that I wonder if the extra heft is worth the relatively small gear range. On yesterdays ride I only used 3 gears.