Alfine Internal Hub Question
06-24-08, 10:59 AM
#1
Mike McCrank
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Alfine Internal Hub Question
I'm planning on building a Surly Pugsley up with two wheel sets. One set-up with the Large Marge/Endomorph 3.7's and one with 29er rims and Big Apples (for daily commuting purposes). I was thinking of building both with Alfine Internal Geared Hubs. My question is, when I swap wheelsets, will I have any issues with hooking up the gear cables from one hub to the next? Other than the typical minor adjustments required when you would unhook the hub (eg. tire changes).
I'll be new to the internal hub world, so any input would be great.
mikE
I'll be new to the internal hub world, so any input would be great.
mikE
06-24-08, 11:24 AM
#2
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I briefly had a SRAM i-Motion 9 and I can tell you that with their quick-release cable system you would have no problem swapping wheelsets. But I'm not familiar with the Alfine.
06-24-08, 11:49 AM
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It wasn't for me.
I thought it would simplify things and would be great for a commuter (I wanted to have the 9 in back and a single chain ring up front) but it turned out to be quite the opposite. First of all it's flat in Houston and I don't change gears much at all. I was originally thinking of going to single speed but wanted to keep some gears just incase. Second, the weather is fairly decent, no snow. So with that in mind, when I installed it and realized that it came with noticeable drag I started to hate it immediately. I lost a good 2mph in my normal cruising speed. Then i had to figure out where to put that dang gigantic twist-shifter which looked totally out of place on my bike and I don't like twist shifters to begin with. I also lost the rear quick release skewer due to the solid axle so I now had to carry a couple of wrenches with me incase i flatted. And to top it off the hub makes more and more noise as you go up in gears and this is actually stated as normal by SRAM in the manual. The only thing I liked about the hub was that quick release cable. In the end I realized that a typical cassette set-up was much simpler and easier to deal with and more efficient.
So all in all, not a good experience for me so I sold it so another forum member who could better appreciate it's good points.
I thought it would simplify things and would be great for a commuter (I wanted to have the 9 in back and a single chain ring up front) but it turned out to be quite the opposite. First of all it's flat in Houston and I don't change gears much at all. I was originally thinking of going to single speed but wanted to keep some gears just incase. Second, the weather is fairly decent, no snow. So with that in mind, when I installed it and realized that it came with noticeable drag I started to hate it immediately. I lost a good 2mph in my normal cruising speed. Then i had to figure out where to put that dang gigantic twist-shifter which looked totally out of place on my bike and I don't like twist shifters to begin with. I also lost the rear quick release skewer due to the solid axle so I now had to carry a couple of wrenches with me incase i flatted. And to top it off the hub makes more and more noise as you go up in gears and this is actually stated as normal by SRAM in the manual. The only thing I liked about the hub was that quick release cable. In the end I realized that a typical cassette set-up was much simpler and easier to deal with and more efficient.
So all in all, not a good experience for me so I sold it so another forum member who could better appreciate it's good points.
