Finally put my Pompetamine together over the w/e with the 11-spd alfine and the matching Versa shifters. Did a few short shake-down tests on saturday and sunday, but tired it for the first time in anger commuting this morning. First impressions are that its lovely 🙂 Smooth as silk to ride, the Alfine works as I’d expected and the VRS-11 levers just make the whole thing make sense. There are a few tweaks to be made, but initial observations:
– started with 44/18 gearing to give the same spread as my geared 10 speed road bike. I’ve not noticed huge jumps between ratios, but I’m also not using the top few gears so I will go for a smaller ring in the near future.
– the BB7 caliper is a faff to align if the rear wheel is near the end dropouts.
– not noticed any drag from the Alfine, or the front dynamo hub – commute time was the same as for the geared bikes.
– yes the hub is a lump, but haven’t noticed it while riding. In fact it “feels” like the weight is lower overall on the bike (I know this isn’t actually the case) as it seems more nimble.
I have pics, but nowhere to host them 🙁