Originally Posted by
Cross Creek
If the 11 spd Alfine uses the same cogs as the 3/7/8 spd Nexus/Alfine hubs, you can mount it with the teeth facing either inward or outward (makes more sense when you see it in person). This allows quite a bit of chainline adjustment. +2 on using the inner 39 tooth chainring and turning the outer into a guard, but there are lots of options, some requiring a shorter BB spindle, and yes, there are certainly single speed chainrings available. BTW, chainrings come in different bolt circle diameters, so they're not all interchangeable by number of bolts--measure your center to center bolt distance (in millimeters) between two adjacent bolt holes if it's not marked on the spider or chainring.
CC
Hadn't even considered different center to bolt distances--thanks for the tip.
The only reason I was thinking about 44/22 over 39/20 was because most of the chainguards I've been looking at are for larger 44T chainrings. I suppose there's nothing stopping me from using a larger chainguard and smaller chainring, though, right? (although it seems that it may look a little odd...)