hub gears (shimano)

[Davi]

anyone using the 8 gear Alfine that would care to shed an opinion? My back set are playing around and after trying to push my nuts through the saddle for the third time last night when it slipped I decided I'd look at doing something about it!!!

Can they cope with reasonably rough treatment on a mountain bike? I'm not going mad on it, just use a couple of rather rough short cuts on the commute!

[Parrot of Doom]

If the chain is slipping then you should replace the chain and rear cassette, as they're worn down.

Hub gears are heavy and not as easily serviceable.

Edited by Parrot of Doom on Wednesday 20th May 17:35

[RobDickinson]

A hub gear (alfine) wont have a rear cassette will it?

[Parrot of Doom]

ah I thought the OP was enquiring about hub gears as a replacement.

I still recommend checking the chain and rear cog for wear though.

[RobDickinson]

No I think your right re-reading.

The OP has a standard derailleur setup with a rear cassette which is borked and is intrested in an Alfine.

Alfine (and hub gears in general) need much less maintanance and can take a lot of abuse but are a lot more expensive. Theres a new bike in NZ putting Srams equivelant in the bottom bracket I think of a DH bike and doing well in comps.

Also needs a wheel rebuild etc. Assume unlike a rohloff you'll still need the chainrings/front derailleur?

[Davi]

RobDickinson said:

No I think your right re-reading.

The OP has a standard derailleur setup with a rear cassette which is borked and is intrested in an Alfine.

Alfine (and hub gears in general) need much less maintanance and can take a lot of abuse but are a lot more expensive. Theres a new bike in NZ putting Srams equivelant in the bottom bracket I think of a DH bike and doing well in comps.

Also needs a wheel rebuild etc. Assume unlike a rohloff you'll still need the chainrings/front derailleur?

spot on, sorry reading back through my post it was somewhat ambiguous (crap, even!)

I can get the Alfine set with a fairly considerable discount if I make a decision in the next few days, so it is rather convenient that an unsheduled upgrade opportunity has arisen! On my commute bike I've found that I'm only really using 3 gears at the most, 17th, 18th and 19th, and seeing as the journey home is 3 miles of constant gradient (quite steep in places) I thought if I can do that with just those three I could get away with a single chainring up front geared to match 19th at top and the lowest gear in the hub should be plenty for any inclines a bit nastier than I go on at the moment. If it fails I'd just need a pair of rings up front with the front derailleur reinstated.

[longblackcoat]

I've a couple of Rohloff bikes, and can say that they're completely maintenance-free. Great bits of kit and totally bombproof, but heavy and very expensive. A mate of mine has an Alfine on his Kona, so based on his experience and mine I'd say the following.

• With either a Rohloff or Alfine you need either a chain tensioner, an EBB or a specific frame with sliding dropouts. You can try running a half-link and you might be lucky.

• The Alfine is cheaper and slightly lighter, but you have a more restricted gear range; Rohloff 14-speed, Alfine 8-speed (I think). His Alfine has (so far) coped with proper, normal, mountain biking, with no slipped or missing gears.

• Both systems require a new rear wheel (obviously!)

• The cabling on the Alfine is a bit tricky - my mate has had problems shifting and it's taken a lot of fiddling by the (very competent) LBS to get it right. The cabling on the Rohloff (once it's set up) is a lot better but it's a twistgrip system, so a lot of people hate them.

• The latest XT derailleur kit is really good (I've ridden it throughout the whole of last winter) and its reliability and mud-proofness takes away some of the advantages of the hub-geared systems. Bear in mind that the only money you save on the hub-geared bikes is on the cost of the rear cassette - you still need to change the drive cogs and chain!

Edited by longblackcoat on Thursday 21st May 09:30

[Davi]

Cheers for that.

I'd love a Rohloff one just for the gadgetyness of it and the internal selector alignment system, but have absolutely no way of justifying the expense, their cheapest one costs 3 times more than my car did The Alfine on the other hand with the discount I can get will cost about a third of replacing the suit which trousers I ripped on the chain ring this morning when the rear set slipped again

I'd have to engineer a chain tensioner, my decrepit old frame has vertical drop outs, and back wheel... hmmm the temptation to spend out on a new bike is growing, if I make it 2 months in a row of cycle commute I may just consider it...

Edited by Davi on Thursday 21st May 09:52