I’m going in circles trying to figure this out. I originally went singlespeed after my chain jumped and sent me over the bars to knock a tooth out on the way to work. Fast forward a few years and I’ve moved to Sheffield and it’s getting to be a bit of a chore cranking up all the hills…

Use case (Genesis day 1 2019): Weekly biking to the train station, supermarket (heavy loads), 1 or 2 road rides a year in the peak.

Hub gears seem like the way to continue the fit and forget philosophy I adopted to try and avoid laziness induced crashes, but I’m really struggling to figure out exactly what I need to buy to make the conversion – most alfine/nexus hubs about are Di2 which I know nothing about and the hub option seems expensive in general (probably £250 for nexus parts).

I could just get some dropout adaptors and bodge conventional gears together from spare parts but this seems to be asking for reliability issues – any experience of this?

So questions are: Are hub gears worth the money? What do I need to buy to make e.g. this guy work? Should I just give up and get a different bike? (I’d rather not…)

I did exactly this with a DayOne a couple of years ago for similar reasons and it was a great success, albeit I only went for a 3 speed not 7 speed conversion. I bought a full wheel kit off eBay like this and just fitted it myself. In fact it was this exact seller, which look like they specialise in this kind of thing so might be able to furnish you with a 7 speed version as they sell those wheels. Things to note…

I also converted to flat bar at the same time, so the twist grip shifter worked on that set-up. If you’re sticking with drops I don’t know what the shifter options are.

Coaster brake made the job easier, I didn’t have to factor in fitting the disk to the hub.

Welcome to the Sheffield hub gear club. I’m running Alfine on my commuter but have also run them on hardtail & full suspension mountain bikes. I’d go for the disc version of the above if your frame will take it but a full kit from someone is wise, I’ve always bought secondhand and been ok till the last one which is now spares.

Are there any bike shops around that would put something together? The one I asked wasn’t that interested in getting the parts in.

There is a used wheel on eBay but it’s pre-7001 alfine which sounded like it was less reliable (and very old).

It’s so niche that there’s not a lot of stock or choice about it seems, but the eBay shop above sounds a good call

I went from Di2 Alfine 8 to a singlespeed a couple of years ago, much prefer the ss.
I just found the hub gear heavy and draggy. The Di2, ie the shifting itself, was fine, but it wasn’t great as a hub.
I’m in the Borders, similar hills to the Peaks. I’ve geared for the biggest climb on my commute and just take everything else as I find it.
If you really don’t like ss maybe go dinglespeed to keep the reliability and simplicity?

I run Alfine 8 for work commute and Sturmey 3 speed for CX racing 🙂

Sturmey feels much lighter and more direct (like a singlespeed with 3 options). The only downside is the sealing isn’t great (fine for commuting) and you always get a tick – tick – tick because of how the internal pawls work.

That kit up there has almost everything, and they do a nice bar end shifter option if you want to stick with drop bars. Just watch out that you get the correct OLN dimension for your frame spacing. I’d probably stick with the disc option rather than coaster brake. If you get the 135mm OLN disc version, then it uses loads of axle spacers to achieve 135mm and could probably be easily spaced down to suit a narrower dropout gap (not sure what your Day1 has).

For somewhere hilly like Sheffield I’d set a Sturmey up so that gear 3 is your normal favourite singlespeed road ratio, then keep gears 2 and 1 for hilly and very hilly respectively. The gear jumps are quite big and if you set up normal SS ratio as the middle direct drive you’ll be wishing for a lower bottom gear and probably never touch gear 3 unless going downhill.

You may / may not get on with that axle end gear shifter cover-roller-cablestop thing (catching heels if chainstays are short). You can also use an old style tube nut and do away with all that, but you then need a cable stop on the chainstay or seat stay. I think Sturmey also do hubs with gear shifters inboard adjacent to the sprocket a bit like Alfine type (so nothing sticking out the end of the axle). Trawl around the Sturmey site for exploded diagrams of the various hubs.

Alfine is a bigger spread and smaller jumps. Works fine but just feels a bit draggy and mushy. Totally silent which is good until you are creeping up on pedestrians.

That Nexus needs lots of parts (shift cassette, nuts, anti-turn washers, shifter, sprocket etc). It is also maybe the blue band version so supposedly a bit more draggy (bushes rather than rollers in a few places compared to red band / Alfine).

My go to is Bike rehab, they aren’t a specific hub gear specialist but have always done me good.

I’m not sure what version of the 8 speed I’ve got or ever had and they’ve all been fine. Perhaps go for the s/h eBay one to see if you like it, if / when it dies just buy new.

I’ve looked at this a few times and every time it works out much cheaper to just buy another second hand bike with gears for if I ever really feel I need them rather than Alfinise my current bike.

You just need an alfine wheel (with fitting kit) and shifter?

If postage wasn’t prohibitive I’ve a set in the shed I could sell you.

Wasn’t Wiggle selling Alfine hubs for £70 recently?

I think they were Di2 hubs which may give you better shifter options on drop bar but end up quite expensive.

The two on eBay look potentially fine to me but if you really want new then drop Olsen bikes a line, they are Sheffield based & sell Alfine equipped bikes, they might be happy to take one out of build stock for you.

Resurrecting an my old thread just in case anyone ends up here trying to solve the same problem.

I got a used alfine 8 wheel off eBay. I bought a new trigger shifter hoping to feed it onto the flat part of my drop bars before realising road bars are a larger diameter than mtb. I couldn’t find any sti style brake lever shifters for alfine but eventually solved it with a twist grip shifter and a pvc pipe adaptor which I sanded down to fit as a bar end plug onto which I could mount the shifter. It’s ugly af but it works.

Regarding experience of alfine. I like that it still feels like a singlespeed to pedal, can shift without pedalling, can index by lining up two dots and so far required no maintenance. Also some of the shifts are crazy smooth, like I only know it’s shifted because it’s harder to pedal. It’s shitting heavy though, especially if I have panniers on too – not great for lugging onto a train!

Edit – also the backlash in the gears means it’s much harder to trackstand

Nice update. As a previous (years ago) alfine8 user on another genesis (io id) I would echo most comments on how it performed and the positive and negative aspects. Interesting to read @mick_r thoughts on SA 3 speeds. I’ve pondered them as an additional option for one of my singlespeeds.

Glad you’re enjoying it. They aren’t perfect but for me are better than anything else in a city fit and forget environment.

I have an SA 3 sp on my road bike.  I’d echo the above about getting the gearing right.  I’m geared so rolling along the flat at a nice cadence I’m in second.  You can set it up so that 3rd is your normal road gear if you want a low first.  Don’t try to compromise tho – its a pain when cruising is between second and third!

SA 3 speeds really don’t seem to drag much at all and just work once you sus out cable adjustment