ooooooo, shiney

nigel page

scratch the TL-S704 (thats for the bearing seals) – more searching TL-AF10, the right hand dust cap tool only £15!

so with a bit of google searching it lead me right back to singletrack! alfine 11 internals – thanks epicyclo

i’m thinking my ‘right hand dust cap / wiper seal’ is not up tight or seated correctly.

And a bit more searching has lead me to the Oil Maintenance Kit TL-S703 which is now a bit cheaper at £44.99 (avalible direct from madison) Tools including the kit. Syringe, Tube, Bleed nipple, Container – however this does not include the right hand seal tool TL-S704 which is another £30, so perhaps this explains the price drop.
Madiosn also sell teh oil seperatly now, SG-S700 for £13 for 50ml or £90 for 1lt.
Shimano have also released the oil change maintainace doc TL-S703

The Alfine 8 is greased – however you use oil to clean it prior to regreasing.

did it my self for about £70 all in – did the stickers myself (only cost £5 for printing).

theres a load more photos here[/url] if your interested.

currently 32/18 which is just about fine for the trails around Bristol , there only a couple of steep hills i strugle on. I also have a 20t and 22t (Nexus sprockets) – for the welsh trips.


not the best photos.

TBH i cant see you having many issues with it – they are pretty solid, even with the oil leek mine still runs fine.

I have an alfine 8 as well as an 11 (the 8’s on the commuter), the 11 did crunch/skip for the 1st 100 miles or so but had no problems with that since – you do have to be spot on with the cable bolt distance though, and also readjust after the cable stretches – i’d be tempted by some Power Cordz to stop this however the cost of those is pretty silly.

Never had a problem with the 8 – hense buying the 11 for the mtb. I’ve never serviced the 8, currently at about 2-2500miles and its still going strong with noperformance change.

However overall the 11 is much much better for a number of reasons.

this also goes back to alternative oils? cant see the point in buying the shimano stuff (especially as i bought mine through ebay with no warrenty)

from here : http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/alfine-service

about 3/4 the way down.

It seems that there is very, very little info on the Alfine 11, mantainance, servicing etc…..

TBH i maty just email/call Madison and see what they say.

sounds like you need the next size up frame TBH – but just buy a £10 stem and try it out.

never had any issues with my CK and there for never had a reason to replace it – however that Cane Creek was down to £30 in the CRC private sale a couple of months ago, i was tempted to get one (or two) but then forgot…. not that this is much help to you. :)

it seems a seal has gone, i assume so any way – iirc there was oil residue when i bought it (not from a shop – ebay unfortunatly), but i didnt think much of it at the time.
the standard shimano service kit for teh 8 speed is £89.99 – so i assume the 11 speed is stupidly priced also.
thanks for the thread link wwaswas – i did do a search before posting but couldnt find anything….

EDIT – looks like the alfine 11 is due an oil change at the 1st 1000km (621 miles) so maybe ive done more miles than i think and it just needs an oil change and top up.

bump? any helpers?

depends on the length of the ride but usually…..

1x multi tool (allenkey style)
1x multi tool (plyres type)
2x tyre levers
1x spare tube
1x pump

longer rides adds:

chain links and a spare gear cable + zip ties.

what washers? on both my 11 and 8 there are no washers that i can think of – only the anti turns… (which are fitter to the outside, and yes you do need them – if you wnat to change gear)

parcelmonkey.com – they use citylink, it should cost about £6 for 24hr collection-delivery.

used them about 5 or 6 times (forks, wheels, frames) – never had a problem.

There’s also the lesser known but incredible value YT indestries Play bike (100-130mm travel) – £1600 full bike:

http://www.yt-industries.com/

it’d need a long seat post for ‘proper rides’ but the long version has a 590 tt length so it shouldnt be to bad.

Ok, i’m also on the CTW Scheme – signed up last year in april (prior to the changes), bought a £1400 bike for £1000 as the bike shop were willing to sell there sale bikes on the CTWS.
i came to the end of teh hire period this april aware that the scheme had changed – however, like the OP i though it wouldnt apply to me as i singed up to teh ‘old’ scheme. looking back through the paper work i realised that this is not true – all thats happened is they have clarified the final market value section to the employers.
As it turns out i’ve been using my MTB (2nd bike – not on CTWS) for commuting more and more – as it gives me a chance to get out on it more. to the CTWS bike will be bought from my employer and then sold so i can free up some much needed shed space.
It’ll work out at saving me about £510 over the 15 months of owning it (£1400 minus the £640is hire period and £250 final payment) and i’ll get back £6-700 when i sell it on so i’m not that fussed.

I dont think anyone has mentioned in the previous 3 pages, that the 25% final ‘buy off’ fee reduses the longer you own the bike after the hire period – going down to 0% after about 5 yrs. Each month you own the bike after the hire period that final fee goes down by 0.416%. so my final payment will actually be around 23.75% of original voucher value (£237.50p).

personally i’d go with the Peregrine – but then again i’m biased towards Singular (owning a hummingbird) – the frame build quality is very good / as good as any alternative frame i’ve seen. The only frame warrenty problems Sam has had is with the cast dropouts failing on a couple of early swifts iirc.
The EBB is not that heavy, all steel singulars are made from 4130 though so many be give Sam an email regarding frame weight if your that bothered – i run my hummingbird with an Alfine 11 and find the EBB much better (easier to set up) than that on my Cannondale Bad Boy (with a Alfine 8).

TBH i think you’d proberly be happy with either bike.

‘I was thinking more about the effect on other people…I really don’t think that RLJing on a bike is as serious as doing so in a car.’

but if your RLJ’ing causes an acciddent – for which you’d be at fault – the car / lorry / bus driver would also be at fault (in the eyes of the law) and have a possecution. If the collision caused your death, think about that impact on the driver and there family.

In the cyclying communty i’ve known over the last 20-25 yrs i know of only one case where some one got a Fixed penalty – for riding on the pavement with no lights (2x £30 fines) at night. However if he’d been on the road (with no lights) it would have been a single fixed penalty, but go figure – but thats a whole other thread topic.

not if theres a car coming the other way (through the green) hitting you the cyclist – sure you wont do any damage to him, but def will to you.

traffic lights are there for the safty of all users, ok they slow us up – but i’d rather be alive at the end of my 30 min commute.

@ ransos – i was mearly pointing out my views in ‘an ideal world’ clearly it would currently be far to impractical to enforce.

is it really that serious? – as serious a car jumping the red light imo.

however you carry on – just expect a 3-5 years life expectancy

I live in Bristol which has quite a high ‘commute by bike’ rate per head. The issue of cyclists running red lights, undercutting etc comes up maybe every other day in the local paper, and is raised every day on the papers web site – irate car drivers pissed off with the increased number of cyclists running red lights or riding on the pavement etc. However the general term ‘cyclist’ applys to all bikes in the eyes of the non cycling public.

I personally commute 3-4 days a week by bike, only 7 miles each way (with 3 of those on separated cycle routes) – i see maybe 1 or 2 potential accidents of people running red lights, or pulling ‘stupid moves’. So i can sympathise with the car drivers.
May be 50% of the cyclists out on Bristol’s roads (by my reckoning) are completely ignorant of road laws – which are there to protect them, as well as drivers.
As the UK’s amount of cyclist increase the amount running red lights etc will surely increase – accidents will rise. Any cyclist who runs a red light (imo) should be prosecuted (£30 fixed penalty). Any one who says its safer to do so is asking for trouble – i’ll feel more sorry for the driver (who will be prosecuted) who hits him/her than the cyclist.

As for accidents – so far this year I’ve seen 4 (3 were women) – 3 of them were undertaking lorrys or busses and one was runninga red light through a pestrian crossing.

There are some great sections in ‘The Bicycle Book’ by Bella Bathurst on cycle commuting including interveiws with taxi drivers, stats on deaths in London etc.

you can also use 5mm wiring cable grommets – they saty in place much better and they are much cheaper too.

freshtripe do paul’s stuff – could try emailing them.

Evans and BikeUk are the only two open on a Sunday in Bristol that i know of (theres proberly more)- usefull for teh odd chain link, or inner tube prior to my sunday ride….

i have a phil woods in my singular and an other EBB (unkown make) in my Cannondal BadBoy – neber had a problem with either creaking though. a very thin layer of grease should sort it though.

for those that havent seen – you can see mine here linky[/url]

clubber check my album out – there may be one of you in there….Linky

none of the squirrel, but heres one of a mouse

and a hornet….

both also savagely killed at Bikefest yesterday.

er – three ‘words’ – if you look through the album you’ll see some actual riding, i couldnt just give you the photos straight up now could i!!

link to entire album – 155 photos

nothing stops a determined thief. Generally the more protection you put in the more damage they’ll do to get them.
Make sure your bikes are insured and use the insurance compaines recomended sold secure products for each bike – iirc its ususally gold for £1500 and over and silver for £500-1500, bronze for under £500 (could be wrong though).

Any cage you build wont be rated by the insurance comany as they only go by sold secure rating so would be pretty worthless other than an initial visual deterrent – as STATO said, you could still angle grind or possibley more easiliy bolt cropper your way in.

I have a small concrete shed for my bikes – with a timber door, each bike has the approprite sold secure lock and ground / wall anchor – after all i’d rather they stole the 1k commuter over the 3k MTB (both insured).

I have however recently inverested on an alarm (£15), just as an audio deterrent which i feel is more aproprate as i live in a housing estate where all of the houses gardens over look one another.

I went to FOD the other day from Bristol, 1hr drive for 3 loops of the xc trail . Hadn’t been there before and thought it was great. well worth the visit.

would do dome more exploring on teh next trip.

TBH i never really felt any drag on the 8, i suppose as its on a road/hybrid (cannondale badboy) with slicks it feels quicker than my MTB any way, but the Alfine 11 is definatly a hell of a lot smoother.

been out on it (just on the roads) for an hour or so, and its great – just what i wanted .

In comparision to running 1×9 with a 11-32t cassette, and by feel, it seems to have the it has the low rage of some where around mid 22t and the high rage of the mid rage 44t ring.

There is noticable pause between 5th and 6th, just like the pause from 3rd to 4th on the 8 speed Alfine – This is due to the switching from ‘underdrive’ to direct drive.

Gear changes are incredibly smooth in comparison to the 8 speed – no crunching or noise, and are almost unnoticable (other than at the pedals).

How does the 11 compare to the 8 speed performance wise?

Havent a clue at the mo – only built it up last night – however…

My commuter has an Alfine 8 on it so i’ll be able to compare them pretty well. will lat teh forumn know later on if i get a chance (it’ll only be a road test though as i need to shorten the hoses and put the rear rotor on).