I’m very tempted to convert my Mather to Alfine 11 hub gear, (currently sram X7, 3×9).

It’s my long big rides bike. And I love it. But the drivetrain is in need of replacement and shifters are shot.

So do I spend the extra and get Alf’d up?

Real experiences from Alfine users requested, lovers or haters? Anyone changed and wished they hadn’t?

Done some searches and read some stuff, but i’m still at indecision-ville!

cheers.

Short time user here – loving it so far. Road only, mind – I guess your looking for offroad reports?

Yeah offroad reports would be best as that’s my intention, but thanks anyway!

Where to start? I have built up a slotted dropout scandal with the sole purpose of running an alfine 11 as a go anywhere, low maintenence, bikepacking bike. Waited and waited for the hub, no joy, finally ordered one from Germany where there didn’t seem to be any supply issues. The hub came and had it built onto a Stans rim by the good people at 18 bikes. I particularly wanted to run the cassette arm up the seatstay as the scandal routes the gear cables this way and it looks neat. Had a devil of a job getting the correct non turn washers or even finding out which ones I needed. Eventually I made a washer from an OnOne chain tug which works well combined with a silver non turn washer on the non drive side. I set up the shifter exactly as it states and aligned the marks on the hub to ensure accurate shifting. Now the bad bit, it jumps badly in 3rd and 4th gear, not immediately after shifting but sometimes 30 seconds later. It makes a sickening crack which I’m sure is not a good thing and once or twice has caused me nearly to go over the bars as it is about 1/4 of a pedal rev. It also takes an age to change from 10 to 11th gear, I’ve checked that the actuator is moving freely. I’m currently waiting for 18 bikes to get hold of the dissasembly tools from Madison to open it up and see if there is any damage, and at least do an oil change. I’m quite disappointed as I specifically built it to do a 4 day trip along the Pennine Bridleway next month and the Welsh Ride Thing in May. All along there seems to have been issues, initially it was Madison sending out hub bodies but no fitting kits, now I’m worried that its longevity and reliability is suspect.
I’m not selling this very well am I?

Could your problem be that the axle is twisting because it isn’t restrained from doing that on both sides?

Anti rotation washers have an important job to do.

BTW yours isn’t the only 11speed with problems I understand.

The mod I did to the chain tug on the drive side involved getting the tug with the small hole in it and carefully filing the profile of the axle at the correct angle in it, it may not be quite as accurate as the original non turn washer but it doesn’t turn. I also tighten the axle nuts pretty well. I’ll try to get the original NTW in white and see if it helps, thanks.

ok, i typed out quite a bit there and deleted it.

To answer the original question: Just hold fire.

pistonbroke – surely you should return the hub to Shimano under warranty? Does not sound right at all so could well be faulty.

sounds like a few problems out there. Martin- your post was intriguing. Are shinano having quality problems? Bit put off now.

edit.

I have been keeping an eye out online for people having problems with their Alfine 11’s and pistonbroke’s is the first I’ve heard of – has anyone else heard/seen any other reports of problems?

How would you tension the chain? Would you get sliding dropouts put on your lovely RM?

External eccentric bottom brackets might be the best solution but I’ve not heard of many people using them.

I also know a fella with Rohloff and he’s forever banging on about it 😉

p.s. I have some spare drivetrain bits (chain, mech, shifter though not chainrings or cassette) that you can get off Paul next time?

Fitted one to Katie’s commuter bike (an old vertical dropout Mtb) last weekend.

Shimano policy of breaking what you need into shifter/hub/small parts/sprocket seems crazy. Frankly it should be one kit supplied with all the possible non-turn washers.

On the bike it’s currently working very well although we’ve got an unidentified ‘click’ – could be cranks or pedals. Shifting seems fine.

However, not impressed by the quality of the ‘small parts’ – all seems very fragile. Split ring to hold the sprocket on? please. The shifting mechanism at the hub looks very susceptible to dirt – I’d imagine it’s the same as the 8 but it looks as it would suffer in mud or general road grime (maybe the spring is strong enough to cope?)

A bit concerned about the non-turn washers. In vertical dropouts on the frame we’re using these are only just captured on one side. I could see a problem with big strong riders.

The shifter is huge and difficult to position brakes around. Not sure why it needs to be so much larger than a conventional shifter – it’s a single cable pull/release with the spring tension at the hub same as a mech. Unsprung Alfine single jockey tensioner means you don’t need any sort of chain device/guide on the front but doesn’t feel very strong – adjusting for correct chainline relies on a tiny grub screw to hold it in place and if used as recommended you’d lose the tensioner it if it came loose.

It’s good, but it’s not a Rohloff and the decisions that they’ve made differently all seem to be at the expense of reliability/longevity which should be one of the big plusses for a hub (but then it *is* half the price).

Yeah the shifter is a bit of a mystery isn’t it.
It retails for £65 which is £10 more than an XT shifter, so you’d expect it to be of equal or better quality.
I can’t see what’s different about it other than that it pulls a slightly different length of cable and and has 11 index points rather than 10.

The only problem right now.. is waiting for one to return from the distributors.Its been away for approx 42 days.

Look at the MTBR forum

This is a pic taken from there:

The pawl is damaged.

About to sell my Rohloff if you’re interested?

Serviced by SJS Cycles last Autumn, new seals, oil change, new sprocket, DT SS DB Black spokes and a Crest rim. Done less than 100 miles since, and I’d guess about 2,000 miles total.
Disc compatible, Red and silver, box, manual, loads of spares and adaptors, sprocket tool.
Happy for it to be test ridden (in my Sirius at the moment).
Selling because I want to release some cash to buy a tandem.

martinxyz – are you waiting for a warranty claim or something? if so what happened to the hub?

Stanley – do you have a price?

Shimano have a recommendation that you do not go below a ratio of 1.9 with the 11 speed. (It’s on the Alfine 11 General Safety Information sheet SI-37R0A-002-00)

For a 29er this gives a low of 29″

I am not aware of a recommended minimum for the 8 speed, so if you want lower gearing the 8 speed is the way to go as far as I can see.

Long and the short of it is only you will know if you like it. I had an 8-speed one.

Three of us got them and I was the only one who got on with it. However, I started doing more, er, robust stuff on the bike it was fitted to so swapped it for a single speed hub.

I would have one again but it would probably be for an XC pottle bike rather than a regular ride.

supersessions9-2
They seem to go for about £650-£750 from what I can tell, so £700 I guess. Does have plenty of spares, and a very nice rim/build!

Martin, what’s the low down? I got one on order, and trust your opinion email me if you don’t wanna go public andy@backcountrybiking.co.uk
Cheers buddy.

Andy