February 7th, 2010
More on the Alfine 11
The other day, we briefly reported on the Shimano Alfine 11 internal gear hub. Now there’s a full review on this exciting hub at road.cc. Of particular note is the fact that the 11 is a new design from the ground up, and it will, in fact, live in an oil bath like the Rohloff. The days of stripping and greasing are over. With this new hub you’ll simply draw out the old oil with a special syringe, and pump in the new oil with the same tool. Shimano says the service interval with the Alfine 11 will be three times as long as with the Alfine 8. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these puppies; unfortunately it’s likely to be no sooner than 2011.
road.cc →
10 Responses to “More on the Alfine 11”
an 11 speed is very exciting and the greasing is quite novel and should prove to be a success I would imagine. I am excited to start riding on the NEXUS 8-speed as my first internal hub, but man an 11 speed would be wonderful!
Ok. Then the system is totally different than in the Nexus7 and 8 oiling were you have disassemble hub and put the “inner-stuff” into jar of oil.
Hmm. If I wait another year, I’ll bet the perfect commuter with a belt drive, dynohub and an Alfine 11 will be in production and waiting for me at a local bike shop.
That perfect commuter will be a Civia but it won’t come cheap!
Cheaper than car, my friend, cheaper than a car. And for commuting every day 3 years straight, rain, shine or snow, I’m allowed to splurge. :)
I’m probably buying an Alfine-8 based bike this year, but the 307% range has been one of my big concerns – so it’s nice to know that this is a possible future upgrade path. I’m assuming the 11 will compatible with the same belt drives used with the 8, currently.
I guess drop bar fans will have to wait for Versa to update their brifter for 11 speeds though…
Looks like Shimano is borrowing a page out of Rohloff’s book. Imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery. Good to see more choice in hubs, though.
I was amazed to learn that you have to disassemble an alfine 8 hub to lubricate it? That’s crazy. Even my old Sturmey-Archer three-speed of 30 years ago was oil lubricated.
This looks very nice. Do any of you IGH buffs know if the Alfine 8 on a belt drive bike is a specific model for a belt drive or just a stock standard one? What I am really wanting to know is if I can “swap in” the Alfine 11, into a belt drive Alfine 8 bike using the existing Gates sprocket after a full wheel rebuild.
@Wei
The Alfine 8 for belt is just a standard Alfine 8 with the special belt-specific cog installed. I’m assuming (only assuming) that a similar cog will eventually be available for the Alfine 11.
Alan
@Alan
Thanks for the info Alan. Hopefully the Alfine 11 is a similar case to the 8.
Wei
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