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Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 1:30 am
by hartleymartin
Apparently already available on wiggle! Alfine 11 on Wiggle

$552 for the hub, $81 for the shifter... I can't see the sprocket on there anywhere yet, but that sort of pricing is in line with the projected prices from a few months back. Wiggle are selling the 8-speed hub for $265 and $46 for the shifter.

With this sort of pricing, it really does look like a viable alternative to the Rohloff for touring, although selection of gears might need some thought into chain-wheel/sprocket ratios to give a useful range of gears.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:33 am
by Nate
I've been using the 8sp Nexus for a few weeks on the new commuter & 8sp is surprisingly good.
I've gotta swap the cranks out (170-39t - 175-49t) as the first few gears are next to useless, but no real need for more gears

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:59 pm
by zero
Its "in stock" in september. its just listed atm.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:49 pm
by Nobody
135mm OLD spacing only. Obviously they don't think a 130mm road spacing is worth doing for this market.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:54 pm
by hartleymartin
Nobody wrote:135mm OLD spacing only. Obviously they don't think a 130mm road spacing is worth doing for this market.
Well, it seems that the Alfine range is targeted at the MTB market. And 5mm isn't much when it comes to steel frames. Just spring it apart. Carbon Fibre and aluminium on the other hand...

Steel is real.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:15 pm
by trailgumby
hartleymartin wrote:Steel is real heavy.
Fixed :D :wink:

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:18 pm
by Nobody
hartleymartin wrote:Steel is really durable.
Fixed again. :D :wink:

Just ask all those people using them for rain bikes.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:30 pm
by hartleymartin
"Steel rusts!" - Then why are they almost always used as "rain bikes"? :P

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:31 pm
by Nobody
trailgumby wrote:
hartleymartin wrote:Steel is real heavy.
Fixed :D :wink:
If you're worried about ~1.7% total weight difference (frame and fork).

Maybe have another look at Busted Carbon if you think steel is real heavy. It's updated regularly. No shortage of new material. :mrgreen:

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 12:55 am
by Abacus
This is great news.

The 11 Speed hub on Wiggle is a disc brake version.

IIRC there are going to be a number of different variants of this hub, disc/no disc/chain drive/belt drive. Perhaps the OLD will change between different variants of the hub.

I had an Avanti Blade 8 with the 8 speed hub. The OLD on that bike was only 126mm. Other variants were 135mm.

This is the first sighting of this hub in the wild. Perhaps there is more to come....

...at least, I hope so.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 6:41 pm
by hartleymartin
Just got word through interweb rumours that these are the gear ratios for the Alfine-11 hub, taken from a French blog site:


According to this post at Vélotaf (a French site), the gear range is 409% (more precisely, 408.54%), but the gear steps aren’t eight of 13% and two of 17%. The reported gear ratios at Vélotaf are


1st 0.527
2nd 0.681
3rd 0.770
4th 0.878
5th 0.995
6th 1.134
7th 1.292
8th 1.462
9th 1.667
10th 1.888
11th 2.153

which would make one step of 29.22% (1st to 2nd) and nine near-even steps varying between 13.07% (2nd to 3rd) and 14.04% (10th to 11th). Karl’s guess was correct — 5th gear would act as direct drive.

Among the other details in the article there are that the hub has an OLD of 135 mm, and that the oil in the hub should be changed every 3000 km (1860 mi) or two years, whichever comes first.
Gears 10 and 11 are rather high at 189% and 215% of direct drive. This would necessitate a rather small chainring on your MTB and a rather large sprocket in order to get useful gears for MTB riding, something in the order of 40/23 or 40/24. A combination of 46/20 or 44/20 would be useful on 20"-wheeled bicycles (good hub for a Raleigh Twenty tourer?) or 48/18 for a 16"-wheeled bicycle.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:27 am
by Mobe1969
What's the chance we'll be seeing bikes with these over here? I mean the Alfines aren't generally available in the models (eg, Giant still use Nexus, Appollo still use Nexus). I can't see any main manufacturers here that supply a model with the Alfine.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:42 am
by triode
My only concern with internal hub is when we get puncture.
Is it hard to fix puncture with Nexus/Alfine hub? (I would imagine it's harder than quick release wheel)
Can anybody share their experience in fixing puncture on internal hub? Nate maybe?

TIA

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 9:53 am
by Biffidus
Mobe1969 wrote:What's the chance we'll be seeing bikes with these over here? I mean the Alfines aren't generally available in the models (eg, Giant still use Nexus, Appollo still use Nexus). I can't see any main manufacturers here that supply a model with the Alfine.
There are a few, such as the Merida S-Presso i8-D, but they aren't common. RRP from around $1,800.
triode wrote:My only concern with internal hub is when we get puncture.
Is it hard to fix puncture with Nexus/Alfine hub? (I would imagine it's harder than quick release wheel)
Can anybody share their experience in fixing puncture on internal hub? Nate maybe?
You need to unhook the gear selector, which is a little fiddly, and a spanner. I've done it on a Nexus and getting the gear cable back on was annoying (but I imagine that would get easier with practice).

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 11:13 am
by philip
Biffidus wrote:
triode wrote:My only concern with internal hub is when we get puncture.
Is it hard to fix puncture with Nexus/Alfine hub? (I would imagine it's harder than quick release wheel)
Can anybody share their experience in fixing puncture on internal hub? Nate maybe?
You need to unhook the gear selector, which is a little fiddly, and a spanner. I've done it on a Nexus and getting the gear cable back on was annoying (but I imagine that would get easier with practice).
My commuter has a Nexus hub and it's not that hard, you just need to remember to carry a spanner with you. You can do it without undoing the cable, all you need to do is loosen the nuts so you can slide the wheel out of the dropouts just enough to get the tube through, which isn't much. You can easily do that without mucking around with the cable, which can be quite a hassle.

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:11 pm
by fhbh
http://www.gelliecustombikeframes.com.a ... -Frame.htm

Got my commuter set up and going now
Pretty happy though still getting some slipping in the hub on changes as I'm still getting the shifter working smoothly
The versa shifters rely in hub for tension so cable routing must be very smooth. I'm have to reroute over the bottom bracket at the moment to get a more direct feed to the alfine hub which takes the cable above the chain stays
Grant

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 10:41 am
by gannet
fhbh wrote:http://www.gelliecustombikeframes.com.a ... -Frame.htm

Got my commuter set up and going now ....
Grant
Nice!! Keen to hear how you go with the slipping and carbon belt.
BTW, changing gears, do you back pedal like on the old SA 3 speeds, no pedalling, or pedal with reduced / no load?

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 1:56 pm
by fhbh
Slipping is only the hub not th belt
Belt is fine
Just need to reduce load a little to get it to change and sometimes that is not necessary either, will have a better appreciation once I get the shifters working better.
I've got abbotsford cycles rerouting the cable at the moment will let you know how it goes
Grant

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 2:16 pm
by landscapecadmonkey
fhbh wrote:Slipping is only the hub not th belt
Belt is fine
Just need to reduce load a little to get it to change and sometimes that is not necessary either, will have a better appreciation once I get the shifters working better.
I've got abbotsford cycles rerouting the cable at the moment will let you know how it goes
Grant
That is just a great bike Grant. I was all set to order an alfine 11 for a roadbike build, but after seeing your setup , im rethinking a road/29er cross breed

Just had a question though; do you swap between the flat and drop bar set up regularly, and is that fairly pain free.

again - just a beautiful build. will be interested to hear an update on how the cable adjustments go.

andrew

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:17 pm
by fhbh
I've got cable breaks on all but front brake so it's not that hard to swap if I change the head stem at the same time.

Having said that I haven't bothered since I put the drop bars on

Grant

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 10:30 pm
by trailgumby
I'd be changing cable brands if they break that often :shock:

:wink:

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:07 am
by Baalzamon
trailgumby wrote:I'd be changing cable brands if they break that often :shock:

:wink:
+1

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 1:30 pm
by fhbh
cables aren't breaking but I've got cable joiners / splitters

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9 ... bcZ8in5-Fw

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 12:33 pm
by fhbh
Shifters working well now. The cable routing now runs across the top of the bottom bracket which is more directly aligned with the entry to the hub. The Alfine 11 cable guide sits above the chain stay whereas the 8 came in under. Anyway better now. I'll post a picture next.

Grant

Re: Shimano Alfine-11... Huh?

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 7:36 am
by Mobe1969
The Focus Planet 11 is available in Australia now - it has an alfine 11. The teeth on it are 19 rear, 42 front.

The cube hooper pro should also be available, but that idiot distributors here for cube are new and have no idea what they are doing.

On_One in the uk also have some that are pretty customisable. Their frames however are steel. Which is so... 80's...

And regarding the above posted Merida S-Presso i8-D - that is an alfine 8. They don't seem to have an 11