My Alfine finally failed mid-ride on an icy, cold Dartmoor. Completely jammed, but able to freewheel. Trailmonkey resisted the obvious temptation and left me to walk back to Natsworthy where he picked me up.
Conducted the Autopsy today and found that one of the planetary gears had failed, losing 4 teeth. No obvious failure reason found, although this part is very small and contains minute roller bearings.
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Interestingly, despite two years of rough offroad use,dirt, grime and this failure, the internals were still pretty much mint, all bearings and races A1. I dismantled it twice a year or so ago and tried two different kinds of lube, finally settling on synthetic hypoid EP80/90. I doubt my choice has anything to do with the failure, so would definitely recommend that oil and would use it on a customers if one should arrive. It appears to give great protection and is less viscose than the white grease from std.
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/53513185@N07/sets/72157625988406722/ ]Alfine fault finding[/url]
In my limited experience they usualy lock up in the higher gears....if you fail to stop pedaling at that point I guess that could rip off teeth like that...or maybe the teeth failing caused your one to lock???
Interesting anyway....and.... may I say that I admire anyone who opens up a hub gear..... must send myself on a course sometime.
What they don't tell you when you buy an Alfine hub is that these units are supposed to be serviced every 1500 miles in some sort of special oil bath that I've never seen and few bike shops have.
"special oil bath" LOL that's shimano/the bike industry for you!
OP a bloke burst some other part on his Alfine recently, roller bearing bit IIRC...you 2 should hook up.
🙁
[i]What they don't tell you when you buy an Alfine hub is that these units are supposed to be serviced every 1500 miles in some sort of special oil bath that I've never seen and few bike shops have.[/i]
I saw the price shimano had made up for their magic oil, and instead just dropped the innards of mine in plastic beer glass full of automatic transmission fluid.
Anyone on here ordered internal parts? If so, who from?
Really not looking forward to trying to explain to my "local" Shimano service centre plus (?) what I require.
It looks like I will be done over and forced to buy the complete ring gear unit or carrier unit as -what a surprise!- the planetary gears are not listed... blood typical!
Anbody got a broken Alfine knocking about?? 😉
[url= http://www.hubstripping.com/shimano-alfine/shimano-alfine-explosion-hub-SG-S500.pdf ]Any good Jim?[/url]
Howdo Mark, long time no see!?
Yeah, got the part No.s and as you can see NO seperate gears.
Yes, just getting back in to riding again after dislocating some bones in the heel of my left hand in November - let me know where you guys are out next Sunday & I'll try & join you, weather & hangover permitting (Got tickets for the Chiefs match - read all day drinking Guinness with a bit of rugby to watch)
Might be worth asking [url= http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=154 ]HERE[/url] about your hub.