Are $199 Shimano Alfine Internal Gear Bicycle Hubs GENIUS or Terrible?

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0:00 - Intro
1:03 - What are the advantages of internal gear hubs?
3:05 - The Shimano Alfine
4:48 - Alfine 8 vs 11
8:55 - Alfine $199 vs Rohloff $1,499
10:53 - The Advantages of Electronic Shifting
12:27 - How does the Alfine feel to ride?
13:31 - Can you use the Alfine for touring and bikepacking?
16:08 - Maintenance & damage prevention
17:55 - Lowering the recommended gear ratios
19:07 - Alfine hub problems
20:05 - Alfine & eBikes
20:46 - Summary

[Cyclingabout]

Don't worry, I have a lot more videos on bicycle gearboxes and belt drivetrains for you to watch! 🤌🏻

[pekkaastrom]

Great video! You pretty much nailed it.

The Alfine 8 is the one I've been using on my touring bike for 10 years now, in SE Asia.

I use it every day, and with heavy luggage. It has NEVER failed me.

There is however a problem with maintenance and repair, since very few shops here know how to service them, and parts like the gear changer and rear sprocket have to be ordered from abroad.

Here is a tip: I've found an expert repair guy in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, at "Saigon Bike Shop", Mr Van.

He re-built my wheel after a crash three years ago, and at the same time took the hub apart and re-greased it. Excellent!

I especially prefer the 8-speed over the 11-speed, because of it's reliability and flawless performance over many years.

[vincentbarkley]

This is possibly the most competent technical video I've ever seen. Amazing. 10/10

[johnw-s]

I love my Alfine - as an all-weather commuter it has not let me down. And as for its longevity, I got 10 years / 20, 000 km out of my first one, with no internal maintenance at all.

[LeonidasRex]

A much appreciated video. I'm a bike shop manager and I'll be recommending several of my customers watch it and quit doubting me when I tell them that the Alfine will work fine for them.

[JeffOehlsen]

I really want to thank you for the amount of time you take out of your life to make these videos. Things like this hub put me right to sleep if I read about them. You talking about them is so much easier. You are not a salesman at a store, you actually ride all over fuck and back, which is invaluable to me when you speak about these products. You never ever "pimp" anything, leaving us to make up our minds based on the info you have given us.

Thank you so much.

[lukebieniek]

I had no idea. It's great to learn that this technology has evolved & is probably more pop than ever. I was heavy into the Shimano three speed back in the day. I am referring to 1977 to '81 & beyond. I collected a whole bunch of hubs after I had one apart and figured out what made it tick. Local bike shop was able to get replacement parts as well. Those were the days. I also inspired a good friend of mine to become an enthusiast. "Oh your hub". 😃😁😂

[Jombe]

One thing to consider; Alfine use standard centerlock brake discs. Rohloff needs special brake discs, made for it.

[walsakaluk]

Wow! 8 & 11 gears.
I remember when my 3 speed hub was the bee's knees.
Then I went to 10 speed derailleur. That was a huge step up. But it wasn't very crash proof. Still you could limp home.... unless the derailleur went into the became adept at respoking.
Love it!

[Goodman-]

I say Alfine has done pretty well when it's comparable to a hub almost 7 times it's price

[anton]

I ran since about 11 years the Alfine 8 as a daily commuter, since 9 years (when I moved from Europe) through rough Montreal winters. All problems I ever had were due to cabeling (frozen slush...), and I am on my 2nd shifter, the first broke last autumn. Love it!
Now, my new bike (built all by myself, a Soma Wolverine) got an Alfine 11 Di2. Less problems in winter! I still had some gear slipping in winter, but much less trouble then with the cable, now with the warm weather it went back to normal without me doing anything. Maybe the temp change had changed some tolerances and I might need to look for a best working "winter calibration". And yes, Di2 allows me to use drop bar hydro levers! I hide the Di2 battery inside the fork steerer, with the Shimano/Pro special stems which allow this... Now at around 3k km.

Love the Alfine! Ah, and the cargo bike runs a Nexus 8, so technically I have 3 of those hubs. Before that, I used most of my live old 3 gear internal hubs, so I new I love IGHs in the city!

[anotheryoutuber_]

i love alfine hubs i used one on for a mountain bike for three years without servicing and ran a pretty low gear and would constantly kick my pedals to do mountain bike things as well as intentionally trying to make it fail it definitely became sloppier in gear lash but i never had an internal failure. the largest issue i had during that time was breaking cable ends on the hub side due to chunky mud getting into the cable management section of the hub. eventually i sheared the cog on the outside but the internals were fine.

[AKiDNAMEDLAX]

That max torque rating really does matter... learned that lesson many times. I build ultra-light motorbikes as a hobby (think <100lb motorcycles) and for my first go at a more-than-two-speed setup I ran a classic Sturmey-Archer AW variation and it worked perfect, got a little 150cc engined bike up to 60mph. Yet, first time I tried to take off from a stop up a hill, gear chunks everywhere. Did that three times before I learned my lesson.

[OhJonahII]

Outstanding video, Alee. Sincere thanks for sharing your wisdom.
I've had an Alfine 8 for a couple of years and am very pleased with it so far. I do feel after watching this video that at one point I left the bike a little too long in need of a gear cable adjustment. Hopefully it didn't damage the hub too much. At the moment it's fine.

[YewtBoot]

Nice comparison video. Thanks. My first decent tour with the 11 speed Alfine/Di2 system was from Canada to Mexico along the US Pacific Coast. Not a single problem with it. I've learned it does leak more oil when not laid down. Always upright seems to lessen the oil leakage. Using the Rohloff Oil Change kit works well on it yearly and it's fine for long distances with very light loads.

[brakdrobnych]

Riding an alfine 8 for over a year now, 15k km so far, I'm loving it. I will one day propably go for a rohloff for extra gear range, but alfine is a beast for the price. Love the indepth, informative and objective video, cheers!

[fastbike]

I have an Alfine 11 which has done 27, 000km. I ride in sun or rain, but do change the oil every 12 months.

[djtaylorutube]

I have a folding Dahon bike that I used to ride through London. It has an 8 speed derailleur and a 3 speed Shimano hub. I loved it because it has the flexibility of an overall wide range but the best aspect was the instant ratio change from the hub. Moreso if there was a requirement to stop suddenly, a flick of the hub selector while stationary would give a starting gear, maybe not optimal depending on where the chain was on the rear cassette but always something that you could start with. Unlike a full derailleur where you need to be moving to drop gears.
That alone made it awesome in unpredictable traffic.

[SIMKINETICS]

You've produced the best assessment of bike gearing that I can recall, and I've done very extensive research on this subject for decades. Note that I've designed & built various bicycle transmissions since hybridizing a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed with a 15-speed derailleur for (likely) the first 45-speed in 1963! My other systems include: a 67-speed, an 81-speed, a 378-speed, a rolling-traction CVT, a ratcheting CVT, and a ratcheting IVT, all as functioning prototypes (except the IVT needed re-design for bike mounting). Decades of pedaling my 200+ pounds up & down steep slopes in the Santa Cruz Mountains made this a mission for me!
Recent trends toward serious enduro, downhill and EMTB riding have pushed the market into pricing that now justifies my revival of my IVT invention (see my YT channel), reconfigured for front-mount and 1kW+ power throughput. Concerns about efficiency, torque, power & durability that you highlight here have been my longstanding priorities; so I'm redesigning my 'SIVAT' to fit with intense attention to all component specs; by far, the most difficult project of my engineering career! My goal is to create a bike transmission worthy of both the MTB/EMTB enthusiasts *and* long-distance cross-country riders, flavored accordingly.
As for your excellent analysis, I'm compelled to correct you on your use of the term 'gear-ratio'. It's a common mistake that we use the term 'low-gears' for steep ascents; the 'gear-ratio' is an engineering term that is input *speed* divided by output *speed* in RPM; so gear-ratio actually means the *inverse* of the colloquial use, i.e., steep climbs need *high* gear ratios! BTW, my SIVAT has an infinitely high-gear-ratio limit that no uphill will defeat! It may seem counter-intuitive that such intense mechanical advantage won't break parts, but both some mechanical wizardry and an intrinsic fail-safe will accomplish that with smooth efficiency!
*This* time, I mean business! Wish me luck!

[white_shadow_]

Hubs are a no brainer for commuter bikes, if the budget allows. I'm never going back to chain for city bikes.