Shimano Nexus 3 upgrade? Nexus 8 or Alfine?

Shimano Nexus 3 upgrade? Nexus 8 or Alfine?

Author
Discussion

E24man

Original Poster:

6,709 posts

179 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
quotequote all
Any Shimano gear hub geeks out there please?

I'm considering a new bike that has a Shimano Nexus 3 fitted and wondered how easy/hard/impossible it is to upgrade it to a Nexus 8, Alfine 11, or any of the other Shimano multi-gear hubs with more than 3 gears?

Any advice gratefully received.

Edited by E24man on Thursday 1st October 08:31

SixtySpeedTwin

320 posts

152 months

Sunday 4th October 2015
quotequote all
Ive thought the same my electra rock-a-billy boogy has a huge gap between 2 & 3.....

untakenname

4,966 posts

192 months

Monday 5th October 2015
quotequote all
I have an 8 speed Alfine on my commuting bike and it's alright, I had a go on a 3 speed sachs and couldn't live with it.

The thing that annoys me about the Alfine is that its not maintenance free. I have to change the oil every couple of thousand kilometres otherwise it grinds. Shimano charge £80 per litre for the oil but I use ATF fluid and marine grease for the outside supporting bearings it seems to work fine.

The Shimano workshop manual method of changing the oil isn't very thorough imo as it's done in situ, I take the gear mechanism out and clean it then oil it and put it back in.

E24man

Original Poster:

6,709 posts

179 months

Monday 5th October 2015
quotequote all
I had read about the Alfine maintenance; is the 8 speed Nexus easier to live with?