Shimano Alfine opinions?

I'm considering getting the Shimano Alfine internal hub (probably the
11 speed) for my MTB. I have a custom road bike with a Rohloff
Speedhub, which I really like, but is a bit pricy, especially since I
mostly ride the road bike. Anyone have experience with or opinions/
suggestions about it? How does the gear range compare to Rohloff? (I
often ride roads to get to the trails, so I'd need a high enough gear
for that.

On May 10, 11:21*pm, Tosspot wrote:

I've got around 500 miles on an Alfine-11 and it's ****e. *If you want a
hub that slips every 10 miles or so it's perfect. *I am a *big* fan of
the 8, but the 11 just isn't reliable.

If it fails altogether and you're ready to throw it away,
please let me know (tom239 at gmail).
I'll pay for postage and for your time in sending it.
(I'm looking to disassemble one, count the gear teeth, ... . )

Tom Ace

Tom Ace wrote:
On May 10, 11:21 pm, Tosspot wrote:

I've got around 500 miles on an Alfine-11 and it's ****e. If you want a
hub that slips every 10 miles or so it's perfect. I am a *big* fan of
the 8, but the 11 just isn't reliable.

If it fails altogether and you're ready to throw it away,
please let me know (tom239 at gmail).
I'll pay for postage and for your time in sending it.
(I'm looking to disassemble one, count the gear teeth, ... . )

I found this:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/...a6126ce3_b.jpg

but not much else

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On May 11, 1:42*pm, Tosspot wrote:
On 05/11/2011 05:00 PM, Tom Ace wrote:

On May 10, 11:21 pm, Tosspot wrote:

I've got around 500 miles on an Alfine-11 and it's ****e. *If you want a
hub that slips every 10 miles or so it's perfect. *I am a *big* fan of
the 8, but the 11 just isn't reliable.

If it fails altogether and you're ready to throw it away,
please let me know (tom239 at gmail).
I'll pay for postage and for your time in sending it.
(I'm looking to disassemble one, count the gear teeth, ... . )

Funny enough, I'm in the mood to strip the bloody thing down and write
one of 'those' emails to Shimano. *However, as of this week (starting
Monday) it has only slipped once in 24.28 miles, and that Gentlemen, is
a record.

Christ, I can't believe I typed that. *I'm actually beginning to believe
*an out and back to work a couple of times without a slip is good
performance. *I won't be back, I'm going outside to shoot myself...

It could very well be breaking in.

Tosspot wrote:
On 05/11/2011 05:00 PM, Tom Ace wrote:
On May 10, 11:21 pm, Tosspot wrote:

I've got around 500 miles on an Alfine-11 and it's ****e. If you want a
hub that slips every 10 miles or so it's perfect. I am a *big* fan of
the 8, but the 11 just isn't reliable.
If it fails altogether and you're ready to throw it away,
please let me know (tom239 at gmail).
I'll pay for postage and for your time in sending it.
(I'm looking to disassemble one, count the gear teeth, ... . )

Funny enough, I'm in the mood to strip the bloody thing down and write
one of 'those' emails to Shimano. However, as of this week (starting
Monday) it has only slipped once in 24.28 miles, and that Gentlemen, is
a record.

Christ, I can't believe I typed that. I'm actually beginning to believe
an out and back to work a couple of times without a slip is good
performance. I won't be back, I'm going outside to shoot myself...

Is it possible that the lubricating oil is too thick, not allowing
proper engagement of the mechanism that holds a gear?

Would a thinner oil help?

I imagine that once the slipping starts it may wear parts that should
not wear and cause more problems down the track.

JS.

On 5/11/2011 12:21 AM, Tosspot wrote:
[...]
The gear range is a little different, the Rohloff being linear steps,
which imho, is the one true path. Shimano promised this, but ultimately
didn't deliver, but it is better in that respect to the 8, where the
difference between 7 and 8 is 3/5ths of ****all.[...]

Mr. Brown's calculator [1] lists the ratios for the Alfine/Nexus 8 as:

1 - 0.53
2 - 0.64
3 - 0.75
4 - 0.85
5 - 1.00
6 - 1.22
7 - 1.42
8 - 1.62

The 14% jump between 7 and 8 is about the same as a Rohloff.

[1] http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

Tosspot wrote:
:On 05/11/2011 11:47 PM, James wrote:
: Tosspot wrote:
: On 05/11/2011 05:00 PM, Tom Ace wrote:
: On May 10, 11:21 pm, Tosspot wrote:
:
: I've got around 500 miles on an Alfine-11 and it's ****e. If you
: want a
: hub that slips every 10 miles or so it's perfect. I am a *big* fan of
: the 8, but the 11 just isn't reliable.
: If it fails altogether and you're ready to throw it away,
: please let me know (tom239 at gmail).
: I'll pay for postage and for your time in sending it.
: (I'm looking to disassemble one, count the gear teeth, ... . )
:
: Funny enough, I'm in the mood to strip the bloody thing down and write
: one of 'those' emails to Shimano. However, as of this week (starting
: Monday) it has only slipped once in 24.28 miles, and that Gentlemen, is
: a record.
:
: Christ, I can't believe I typed that. I'm actually beginning to believe
: an out and back to work a couple of times without a slip is good
: performance. I won't be back, I'm going outside to shoot myself...
:
: Is it possible that the lubricating oil is too thick, not allowing
: proper engagement of the mechanism that holds a gear?
:
: Would a thinner oil help?

:The job coming up soon is to flush it out and put some more oil in.
:Since I can't find Shimano's oil, I'm going to try either the Rohloff
:cleaning kit or some auto flushing oil and use 10ml of auto transmission
il. The difference being what I can find and how much it costs.

:Probably a job for the weekend as I seem to recall Shimano saying 500
:miles was the point it could be done.

: I imagine that once the slipping starts it may wear parts that should
: not wear and cause more problems down the track.

:I'm concerned about that, this isn't the odd slip.

Have you tried to get it replaced? A gear hub that slips is
defective.

--
sig 44

On May 10, 11:35*pm, anon a mouse wrote:
I'm considering getting the Shimano Alfine internal hub (probably the
11 speed) for my MTB. I have a custom road bike with a Rohloff
Speedhub, which I really like, but is a bit pricy, especially since I
mostly ride the road bike. Anyone have experience with or opinions/
suggestions about it? How does the gear range compare to Rohloff? (I
often ride roads to get to the trails, so I'd need a high enough gear
for that.

I have Rohloff, standard Shimano 8 speed and the premium 8 speed as
fitted to the Cyber Nexus electronic automatic shift box.

The Rohloff in any kind of reasonable or probably unreasonable service
is indestructible; you get what you pay for, unless you think that
much money should buy refinement -- it doesn't because the Rohloff
from the beginning was intended for agricultural mudplugging.

The bone-standard Shimano 8-speed may or may not make it to 40K. My
Premium Nexus 8-speed made about 3200km. It's too cheap to fix,
though, so you just buy a new one. However, if you want to be
bothered, you can get some amazing small parts for it, and the
associated roller brakes, from Petra Cycles in England. At about the
same mileage my standard Nexus 8 is operating smoothly enough but
clearly it won't last as long as my Rohloff, by several multioples,
very likely by a magnitude or more.

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Bicycles at
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLING.html