I bought a Ridgeback Flight ’04 in November and have so far done around 1300 London commuting miles on it. The bike was around a grand and came with Deore Discs, and seems fairly light for it’s type.
The Alfine 8 took me a few miles to adjust to. The shifter is ‘backwards’; when i do use my MTB (not so often as i’d like..) if find i’m shifting the wrong way all the time (2005 XT), which is frustrating. Also you have to back-off a little when shifting otherwise it g’grinds’ a little.
Maintenance-wise, I justed swapped the chain for a new one at around 600 miles and will put it back on, all clean and shiny, shortly.
Bear in mind the Alfine 11 is due…
T.