would a alfine be suitable for a touring bike.
matched with a 30 or 32 front ring?

Yes

tell me more please

I’m thinking no to the 8spd, maybe yes to the 11.

The 8spd alfine is a bit like having a single chainring in term of range of gears. Loaded touring in lumpy places has you using proper low gears (partly because of the weight, partly because getting out of the saddle is not great on a loaded bike). That would mean you would have a top gear that would be a bit on the low side. The 11spd has a bit more range.

What do you see as the possible problem?

I recently purchased an alfine equipped bike to use as my commuter/winter bike/tourer. Downside is that it is probably not quite as reliable as a rohloff, but price and availability of shops able to deal with it in most of Europe make it a better option for my intended purposes. If I intended to cycle across south America anytime soon, then the few percentage points gain in reliability would sway me the other way.

I have a 32 fitted at the moment, will probably change to a 30 for when I actually go touring.

no problem, just never seen one.
mrs wants a single front ring with a hub gear, so the alfine 11 could be ideal for her, fitted with a smaller front ring cos she is a spinner of gears.

Ridgeback used to do a drop bar alfine tourer.

With alfine, you always have the option of going dropar, you can buy third party integrated brake/gear levers. I think with rohlof you are stuck with twist shift, and I do like having the familiar shimano style shifters with the alfine on flatbars.

there was a fella on here did italy on a pomptamine?

i did the wicklow 200 on a 44:18 and i’m not much lighter than you (bit healthier maybes), planning to to ireland top to bottom next year and will change the rear to 22 i think.

oh on a 8 spd too, indestructable so far when commuting

I did a spot of touring on my day one alfine (8).

It was fine for flatish stuff, but when it got lumpy, I would have quite liked a lower gear for winching up stuff.

I wasn’t all that heavily loaded either – so full panniers, or an alpine pass, and I’d have been struggling.

40:20 chainset BTW.

Dave

I did coast and castles on my pompetamine (alfine 11). Only 2 panniers and I stayed in b&bs so not heavily loaded.

I love my Alfine, on my Croix de Fer.

Prior to that I had a Spesh Globe with a nexus hub, 8 speed, Shimano but lower spec than the Alfine.

probably very similar apart from seals perhaps.

Plus you’ll get that neat single speed look too.

I love my Alfine 11 hybrid, Cube Hooper Pro, think it’s about 45/18 and is not to bad up hills solo but i would probably change the ratios for carrying weight.

Can’t see what the problem would be. The 11-speed had a good gear range (gears 9, 10 and 11 are all higher than the 8-speed) so just adjust the crank ring as appropriate.

Isn’t there a suggest range for gear ratio (so as not to overload the hub with torque)? That’s the only thing I’d be wary of setting up an Alfine for fully equipped touring.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/shimano-alfine-8spd-hub-input-ratio

The only problem is if it fails you get stuck. That’s my experience anyway . . .

I run my Pomp 8 with a 32:20 which gets me up everything quite easily but spins out at around 18mph for me – I’m more of a spinner than a stomper. I’m in Barnoldswick if you wanted to try mine, it’s a small frame….

If you are interested I have an 11 for sale, will email you.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the 8 speed reliability.

Vin Cox

Rode a Genesis Croix De Fer with an 8speed Alfine in the “bike ride around the world” challenge, 18,000 miles or something.