Quite fancy a new bike that can do winter SS duties and summer commuting but then geared touring / kiddie trailer work. So an alfine bike with a spare rear wheel to go SS is appealing, but I have no idea how long / awkward the swap might be…

Would probably be a 29er, so I’m guessing SS I’d want something like 32-18. Would the ratio work OK on an Alfine and any thoughts / experiences anyone can share?

Never bothered going back to ss on mine but the longest job would be taking the shift lever off which means take off brake lever and grip, I use full length outer cable so just snip the cable ties to release the cable and unbolt the wheel abd it comes off as one unit. Move wheel along dropouts to adjust chain tension as required.

I went from ss to alfine 8 for winter duties and am in no hurry to swap back

Sheck – I did this a few year ago and it worked fine. The opposite to kilo though, I never went back to gears apart from using the wheel for touring.

Mostly I kept the shifter on the bar and just zip tied the cable out the way of the rear dropout when SS.

Eventually I did a bit of sawing and drilling and make the shifter bolted on each side (like a Hope brake lever) made swapping a 5-10 minute job.

Get in touch if you want pics or fancy buying the wheel and shifter – 29er Alfine 8 on Mavic TN719 with choice of 160 or 180mm rotors. Email in profile.

Thanks gents, that’s encouraging

Were you able to get away with the same chainring / sprocket combo?

I did this for a while with a Cotic Simple, i used to tape the full outer cable to the frame with black insulating tape (frame was black too) and use a lock on grip so it was easy to get the shifter on and off

I did the same with a 29er. I was on 34:18 and that worked well although I very rarely used 8th on the Alfine. I also seldom used 1st to 4th and 6th and 7th so I built the Alfine into a tourer and sold it. Using lock on grip makes the swap easier. I had it down to 15 minutes.

I have done this on a surly km (29er) and currently do it with a sanderson soloist (26). I use 33/17 on the 26inch wheels to stay close to a 2:1 ratio and I can’t remember the other but I suspect it was 32/18