I have been looking into the alfine gear hubs and i'm thinking of putting one on my bike.
Firstly it would probably be the 8 as they are much cheaper and possibly with a dual ring up front.
Anybody got any thoughts on them or know of any good deals to be had for a full set up?
Thanks
No point in using a duel ring - you might as well use dérailleurs as you loose one of the best bits - fixed centres chain and you would need a rear mech or a tensioner that can take up a lot of slack.
I have one and its great bar the slightly restricted gear range - same as a 1x9
i've been running one on a swift for the last 18 months
pretty much faff free
are they heavy and do thery alter the way your bike handles?
IMO yes, just gone back to 1 x 9 and what a difference!
I'd only do it if I were going belt drive.
I stuck an alfine on my roadrat a few months back. Was running a 1x9 (11-27) beforehand so the restricted gear range doesn't really bother me. Would really have liked the extra flexibility of the 11 speed version but the price was a little off putting.
Looking forward to seeing how it copes with winter commuting as I tend to chuck the bike in the shed and forget about it, which was the main reason I went for it rather than just replacing the drivetrain I salted to death last winter. It's already much less hassle to look after than derailleurs. (Belt drive would have be ace but the frame wouldn't allow it, unless I got the hacksaw out)
There's a tiny bit of drag in a few of the gears and the shifting takes a bit of getting used too as you have to ease off the power a little.
Being able to shift while stationary is really useful around town and I imagine it would be great on an mtb too. Takes a bit of getting used to the shifter paddles being the 'wrong' way round and I miss the multi release that some other shimano shifters have a wee bit.
on-one and rosebikes had good deals when I was looking. I went for this shimano stock wheel from on-one and added on a shifter (which came with cable included) and an 18t sprocket.
Fitting is pretty straightforward, just make sure you get the correct non turn washers for your frame and that you have lots zen calm in reserve for fitting the springy lockring for the sprocket.
I have an On One Alfine Pompetemine and it's a great bit of kit. The downsides are the weight and needing a spanner to change the rear wheel. Pluses are slick shifts and very little maintenance to keep it that way.
The 8 speed has some quite large gaps in the ratios which are supposed to a lot better spaced in the 11 speed version. I've only got the slow shifting under load if the cable tension isn't right i.e. lining up the yellow dots on the hub.
i'd agree with all of the above. only thing i would add is that compared to a normal setup, i find on mine there is a little bit of squish in the drive under power ... think of it more like having a slightly elastic chain. its not much, but i cant feel it.
for 99% of the time, though, especially on a commuter, its simply not an issue.
alfines are great ... love it on a commuter ... but i dont think i would have it on a all out road bike ... and not sure i would have one on a mtb ... undecided about that one.
No point in having one with a dual ring up front as said above, you lose most of the benefits of having hubs gears if you run 2 rings up front. Besides, if you need the extra gear range, just stump up the cash for the 11spd version.
As it is, the 9spd Alfine is a very good bit of kit. It has its faults, but overall it performs respectably as an offroad, or even commuter hub. The gear ratios are a little wide-spaced in parts (namely 1st-2nd and 5th-6th), but I used to ride mine in 5th pretty much everywhere offroad, and use the lower gears only when really needed (using it like a Singlespeed with bailout options), and 6th and above for DH or onroad riding.
I'd have one again, definitely, especially if it was purely for a bike to deal with the winter slop. But I'd probably go for the 11spd version now it's available, the wider range (equivalent of 2x9 setup) would be welcome.
And despite what the nay sayers say, the "extra" weight isn't really all that much, OK it's concentrated in one place, but it really doesn't add much weight to the bike. The bike will feel a little more rear end heavy than it did before, but its certainly no biggie.
I'm fitting one to my trance. full suspension hub gears a go go.
psst, im selling my full Afine 11 set up nice and cheap (£280) in the for sale thread...
Can give you the low down on both 8 & 11 if you like?
i've an Alfine 8 on the commuter and an 11 on the mtb. If you like the idea of low maintainace, do some heavy miles or are always bashing rear mechs then they are worth it.
i bought the 11 over going 1x10, as it was marginally cheaper at the time and i'd had good experiances with the 8 speed. The 11 is greatly better than the 8, and tbh i dont know if i'd be prepared to run the 8 on a mtb now - i know lots of people do, its just the 11 is sooo much smoother, and easier to use.
carrying a small adjustable spanner or propper 14mm ring spanner is a must. Also, it can be a bit of a fiddle removing the rear wheel on the 8 (another thing thats much better on the 11). Be aware as previously said it does effect the bikes handleing as there is a greater amount of weight at the rear, however you get used to this quite quick.
The Alfine's great for long distance 'spinny' type riding but the slow pick-up from freewheeling can make any trialsy type moves a lot harder to get right.
Ash from TrailAddiction ran an Alfine. He'd be a good person to ask about it's performance.
I've run an 8 on my commuter for about 1800 miles now (since Jan this year). Took thing to bits out of curiosity and gave it an ATF bath the other week. It was like new inside just a little metallic dust left over after the bath. Very impressed.
As other have said though the pick-up can be slow and it can skip a little if changing and then quickly hammering it out of the pedals. The split ring for the sprocket is a pain to get back on but it only needs doing once in a blue moon. My sprocket, chain and chainring are showing no appreciable signs of wear yet. I wouldn't go back to normal gears for the commuter.
Great bit of kit.
it can skip a little if changing and then quickly hammering it out of the pedals
And I have a belt-drive singlespeed proto thing, the long term plan being to merge them all together... Although my brother-in-law has a Civia Bryant which has pretty much done that.
Cheers for all the replies on this.
Missed out on the one in the classifieds unfortunately
But plenty of food for thought.
D
having used mine a couple of times now, I'm a full on convert.
Fit an FSA Metropolis crankset and you have derailleurless front end as well
I'd not seen that, looks good, though i can climb everything i need to in 8 gears so not much call for it on my bike i guess
Get a secondhand Rohloff. Genuinely, they're a lot better than an Alfine.
I've not ridden a Rohloff,in what way are they better? I've put nearly 4000Km's on mine, 800 of those on a recent 4 day tour in France. In terms of shifting performance and range, there are no complaints for touring use. For the price it can't be beat.
Most Alfines I've heard of have given problems, and the 8-speed doen't have quite the range that you might need.
Unrepresentative sample etc, but when used in mud on a consistent basis they seem to have problems. As you say, however, for the price they're excellent.
What kind of problems? I've heard very little.
as for gear range, I only ever used the middle ring anyway and with a lot of people going 1 x 9/10 I figure it'll cover most people.
I'm not suggesting its for everyone but there seems to be a lot of random "a mate of a mate once knew some one" kind of tales.
Just Google "Alfine problems" for a fair number of problems.
2 people I know (personally, not via the web or 'mate of a mate') have given up with them because they simply couldn't get reliable shifting, and, in one case, had a majorly failed internal component as well. Broken gear of some sort. I know another bloke with one but he's not hugely sold on it,
My understanding is that they're very sensitive to cable setup, which the Rohloff is not, but if you can get it well-sorted, great. The broken Alfine I came across never did get sorted - it was too expansive to repair.
An alfine is the same gear range as 1/9. I personally have no issues with mine and not many folk on here have had. Shifting is clean, setting up the cables is easy. Ride it with cable not indexed you could kill it
Its not comparable with a rohloff - less than 1/4 the price for a start off
My first alfine commuer I've done 15,000 miles on (and am now selling - nothing wrong with it). I now own a Genisis Day 1 and am very happy with it.
Alfine is the way forward for a day in day out bike. I reckon it would be good on the mtb too.
Not tried the 11 speed. Too pricey atm.
i thuink that a 'ggogle' search will bring up issues mostly wit Alfine 11, not the Alfine 8.
I've had my 8 for three years on a winter off-road hardtail, and i've not once adjusted it, or cleaned it, or changed the (cheap, BMX, unbreakable) chain.
Brilliant, if slightly compromised gear ratio's, but well worth that compromise. all IMHO of course.
I had an 8 speed one for a while but didn't get on with it. For all its undoubted benefits it felt like pedalling in treacle and the weight at the back made the bike feel dead on the flat and uphill (i quite liked it downhill). if they were as good as some people would have you believe mechs would already be extinct....
I had an 8 speed one for a while but didn't get on with it. For all its undoubted benefits it felt like pedalling in treacle and the weight at the back made the bike feel dead on the flat and uphill (i quite liked it downhill). if they were as good as some people would have you believe mechs would already be extinct....
it felt like pedalling in treacle and the weight at the back made the bike feel dead on the flat and uphill
it's a flattyre, flattyre.
very good lardman. Although a flat tyre with an alfine wheel is not that funny if you forgot your spanner (as I did once).
the same if you forget a pump, spare tube or puncture kit
also i very rarely need to remove a my rear wheel to get to a pucture on bikes.
The broken Alfine I came across never did get sorted - it was too expensive to repair.
I was under the impression that the entire internal assembly was replaced in a broken Alfine 8. Less than £100 or so. Am I wrong? Less than the cost of a new hub, less than the cost of anew wheel build. Must be affordable to someone?
it felt like pedalling in treacle
On mine (weatherproof commutter), freewheeling resistance is minimal. Pedalling resistance is more than a well maintained and clean derailleur set-up, sure. But am I racing on it? Do people have to wait for me at the top of hills? Do I begrudge the extra training effort? Does it require any daily/weekly/monthly maintenance? No!
11-spd user here - first ~200 miles, bag-of-nails.... since then, rock solid. Using it as a road commuter in a Pompetamine. Makes a lot of sense in this application. It does ride/heavy/a bit draggy compared to my 'nice' geared road bike, but this is offset by zero faffage.
Should have had it's first oil change last week - despite explaining on the phone when booking it in and at the time I dropped it off that it was 11 SPEED and that the maintenance procedure was utterly different to an 8 speed, the lbs still took it and then gave me a sheepish phone call a couple of hours later admitting they didn't have the service kit or oil/ would need to order it/would I like to book it after they get it from Madison (in nearly two months time.....)
So, for any Bristol-dwellers, Bike UK will have the 11-speed service kit and oil after Sept 14th and will have practised on mine first! 
I guess I must be real lucky with my Alfine as I weigh 21st, it covers about 15% of it's miles on road, the rest off road. Setup hasn't been difficult and probably easier than setting up Derailleur gears. Put the shifter in fourth gear adjust the cable tension until the yellow dots line up and crisp shifting is your reward, no rocket science required. Changing a puncture is a bit of a chore compared to a derailleur setup but I can now do them quite easily without rushing within 15mins including removing the mudguards. I can track stand it without the hub buggering up, the BB and pedals will undoubtably go first.
As I mentioned earlier the hub weight is noticable when climbing but then so is my belly. The ratios could be improved and they have with the 11 speed.
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