Thanks, Nightshade, I do realize that I can retrofit a bike, and I'm kinda thinking I might end up buying a bike with an 8 speed hub and upgrading it to an 11 in the fall, or giving somebody an exceptional deal on a lightly used bike and ordering next year's model with an 11 in the fall since Brodie is sold out of the Once for this model year, and the Spot Acme is a teeny bit bit pricier than I want to go.
There's no such thing as "excess money" but, dude - it's only money, and it's my money. You can't take it with you. I worked for it, I can afford it, and I want a bike like this. I'll buy one, ride it a little bit, and sell it at a reasonable price to someone who can't afford a new one, and I'll buy something else when I am over the new thing gadget factor. Somebody has to keep those bike builders in Taiwan busy.
I appreciate the helpful thought, but what's it cost, like maybe $600 for someone to lace me up an 11 speed hub in a nice rim with a brake rotor and so on? I haven't priced it, but that's what I am guessing. You can't buy the components to build any of the bikes above for the price of the bike.
I've got a bike I really like, but it's a Dahon TR Speed (go ahead and laugh, it's sweet bike,) and I can't see lacing an Alfine 11 into a 20 inch wheel for that bike. If I had a full sized bike I liked, it couldn't be just any bike unless I wanted to tolerate an ugly shriveled up derailleur looking chain tensioner rig. I'd either need an eccentric bottom bracket or horizontal drop-outs. It's not like slapping on a different derailleur.
In the larger scheme of things, bikes sell for anywhere from "free" on Craiglist or Freecycle to like $12,000 (and up) for (real) professional bikes. I'm looking for something $1000 to hopefully under $2000.
Again, the discussion is "What bikes are available with an Alfine 8 or 11 speed hub," not "Why should nobody buy one?" or "Why a real biker would not ride an internal hub bike." I've seen the other discussions about why someone should just stick with a derailleur or a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, and why real bicyclists don't talk about bikes or look for the latest and greatest new thing, they just ride the bikes they've got. I guess that's why this forum has only 1648 members and fewer than 13 million posts in it.
Different people, different needs, different interests. I would not be caught dead in spandex, and hardly ever a helmet. I bike in jeans and a tee shirt for leisure and smoke the occasional cigarette while I ride. I will never ride more than maybe 40 miles in a day, and that will be nearly entirely on rails to trails - no serious hills, but all light gravel. I will never pack anything but maybe a sandwich, a bottle of water, and a credit card. Let's not get into who is a real biker and who isn't. I might only ride ten or twelve times a year, but when I do, I want to enjoy the latest and greatest thing. That's worth $1000 to $2000 to me.
Okay, so I think I've covered most of the off topic crap that got thrown out in the other posts that exist on this topic already, to save everyone the trouble. So, now, does anybody want to actually discuss current bikes that come with an Alfine 8 or 11?