Friday News And Views
16 hours ago
Shimano Alfine internal gear hub
It weighs quite a bit more than my old XT/XTR setup. But so long as it continues to be as good as the first ride I wouldn’t change it for anything. The bike feels a bit weird at the moment because I’ve now got a strong, solid feeling rear rim and a front rim best described as flimsy that I can see flexing through tight corners. I'm planning on getting a new front wheel soon and some lighter bits to compensate for the weight increase. As others have said, shifting is so slick you hardly notice it, all the gears feel super smooth, the hub is completely silent...which is great. To my surprise the hub spins freely after hardly any use, unlike some gear hubs that need a lot of breaking in. The Alfine shifts when pedalling although it does need the rider to ease off the power a bit. The shifter works in reverse of a normal derailleur type shifter in that you release the smaller lever get into easier gears which I should get used to eventually. The highest gear is just about perfect for the XC riding here but I haven’t had a chance to ride it on steeper terrain to try out the lower gears yet. I’m running a 32T chainring and 18T rear cog, although I also have a 20T rear cog to try out. The two probably aren't all that different out on the trail. I also put a set of Hutchinson Toro 1.85 & 2.15 tires on to improve mud performance over the Michelin dry weather tires. It takes a lot to clog them up, the rear tire really cuts into mud and finds grip that many other tires wouldn’t...they seem pretty fast too.
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2 comments:
Nice setup you have there. I'm interested in hearing how you get on with the hub on more chalenging rides. The days of the deraileur finally numbered?
Well I no longer have that bike, I’ve got two 29ers now, one with gears and the other a rigid singlespeed for winter rides. My Trance was set up with the IGH like that until summer this year and reliability seems to be strong point with the Alfine. If the gearing range was even slightly smaller then that would have definitely caused problems on steep climbs or where I wanted to go a little faster. But on longer and more challenging rides I found the gearing range was just fine, of course it helps that the Trance is a very good climber already. Once the roller clutch is properly engaged it feels rock solid and has never slipper no mater how hard I try. If it weren’t for the weight and my liking of 29in wheels I would still have it now.
If Shimano came out with a 9/10spd mountain bike IGH and got the weight down a bit then I think they would start getting very popular. I’d be first in the line to order one but companies like Sram and Shimano seem to be pushing light XC stuff at the moment. Hopefully sometime in the future…
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