Any POSITIVE experiences of Alfine11 hubs?

[Gari]

So I have been offered a deal on a frame and rear wheel as part ex for my too small for me Ogre, it's an 11 speed Alfine and I am aware of the issues etc. what I want is any positive experience of said hub, as I have found that when folks are not happy they tend to shout about it, when all is fine they just get on with it.
Looking at the forums it seems that all the hubs are bad as that seems to be the only responses, is this really true? Or are we just seeing half the data as it were?

[Zippy]

Got a friend who is as far as I'm away happy with his alfine. He uses it for winter hack duties, and at the time I think he'd just done enough racing in expert cat. to move up to elite cat. to give you an idea of how much riding he does.

I once had to take a nexus apart, and they were some noticeably downgraded bits compared to the quality of the overall hub, which would suggest that the nexus was an alfine with crap bearings and a few other cheaper bits compared to the good quality parts. On that basis, I would guess an alfine is nicely made

Hope this might maybe help!?

[Cheeky Monkey]

I run an Alfine 8 on a roadrat and it's been fine.

I have an 11 built into a rear wheel and have finally got hold of the frame I want to run it in. I appreciate this doesn't really help but I suspect all the Alfine 11 "bashing" is internet cobblers, rather than a "real world" perspective of its actual / average performance.

[royAB]

I have both an Alfine 8 (bulletproof, stick it in & go. Not overly fussed about setting cable tension) and an 11 which, unless I set the indexing perfectly - get exactly 8.5mm between the cable end lock and the last stop, the 2 yellow lines on the cam EXACTLY lined up and then loctite the adjuster so it can't turn even a mite, is a PITA. BUT, once that's done I do like the extra gears and it works well.

[Gari]

Thanks guys, I have run an 8 speed for several years and that was what I planned to put on this bike, but as I was offered a good price it would be rude not to look into it right?! The 8 speed has been nothing but reliable, I wouldn't hesitate to get another for bikepacking duties.
@Cheeky Monkey, ok if I use you as a beta tester then? :D

[Gari]

Hi royAB, you must have posted as I was writing. Good news, I am happy to get the LBS to do the initial set up so that should be fine. how do you get the .5mm?!

[royAB]

Hi Gari... a steel rule & a whole bunch of bu****ation with a couple of spanners on the cable end clamp is my favoured method. Getting that 8.5cm measurement right on the 11 seems to be the critical setting (and done with the rubber 'crud cover' thingee at the end of the cable in 'relaxed' position - so neither extended nor compressed) - using the screw adjuster is just for the 'ultra-fine' fettling of the yellow marks 'at the end' after the faffing.

[Gari]

Right, if I do buy it I will have to look in my toolbox and see how much bu****ation I have in there
Thanks for the info.

[pistonbroke]

I've just ridden mine 1000km and 23500m of climbing offroad across the Pyrenees, the bike weighed 50+ lbs with camping gear and had a chainring giving a ratio way lower than Shimano recommend. I've found that in dirty conditions, the groove that the gear cable runs through can get mud in which alters the pull ratio and causes the gear to jump, so long as this is kept an eye on, it has performed pretty well.

[ScotRoutes]

I ran my Alfine as a 2x11 on the Fatbike this winter. That gave me a massive spread of gears, many below Shimanos recommended ratio. Mostly it's just fine. I got the very occasional unwanted downshift and I did have one ride when it was skipping between high and low ratios. However, it was a particularly muddy ride and it didn't happen again.

[royAB]

Second pistonbroke's 'mud in the groove' experience. If thick it will upset the adjustment... easy enough to clear tho. Will note that, like the 8, the Alfine 11 does seem to be pretty tough internally - properly adjusted, mine's come through the initial 'skipping gears' issue which had me worried about broken /stripped teeth, quite fine

[nobby]

Hi Gari... a steel rule & a whole bunch of bu****ation with a couple of spanners on the cable end clamp is my favoured method. Getting that 8.5cm measurement right on the 11 seems to be the critical setting (and done with the rubber 'crud cover' thingee at the end of the cable in 'relaxed' position - so neither extended nor compressed) - using the screw adjuster is just for the 'ultra-fine' fettling of the yellow marks 'at the end' after the faffing.

I gave up trying to accurately measure and now use a method of making a near guess at the spacing, and then fine tuning it by moving the clamping nut on the wire until the yellow marks are either aligned or so close that the adjuster at the lever can take up the difference. Takes no longer than my previous attempts to measure accurately.

[royAB]

That was my first approach (and I suspect how it's 'supposed to work' - tho Shimano are very specific about the '8.5mm' measure in the fitting instructions) but it always seemed to shift after/during a ride. Loctiting the adjuster screw only sorted it for a bit longer...

Getting the measure as close as possible - by eye or ruler - then (very) fine adjusting does seem to have sorted it for me

[nobby]

That was my first approach (and I suspect how it's 'supposed to work' - tho Shimano are very specific about the '8.5mm' measure in the fitting instructions) but it always seemed to shift after/during a ride. Loctiting the adjuster screw only sorted it for a bit longer...

Getting the measure as close as possible - by eye or ruler - then fine adjusting does seem to have sorted it for me

That specific measurement in the Shimano instructions made me wonder how many hands a Japanese bike mechanic has. I'm certainly not dextrous enough to hold ruler, spanner, and cable! :)

[ScotRoutes]

I must have been extremely lucky when fitting mine as I just cut it roughly to length, fitted the wee cable-stop around the right place and used the adjusted on the gearshift to get the dots to line up.