Originally Posted by
fellsbiker
I was just reading this thread and laughed to my self when the one guys said, not in these words, that it's impossible that the O.P. got two dead 11's from shimano.
And Don in Austin, can you send me the contact info for that "good" shimano rep? The bike shop I bought my hub from has been doing all of the communication and I need to get involved in this process one way or another.
So almost exactly a year ago, I got my first Alfine 11 hub.
After 2-3 months of pretty good performance, it started slipping out of 2nd gear. Usually when climbing. When climbing, you are usually putting your full weight on the pedal, so when it slips, it slips BAD. After each slip, it would slip more and more. It got to the point where 2nd gear was completely unusable even if you were just coasting and moving you cranks to keep up, without transmitting any force to the wheel.
Shimano replaced the guts of the hub (well, they sent it to the bike shop). It worked well, but a few months later, it developed an oil leak. My local shop redid the seals. A week later, it developed an oil leak. They then took the wheel apart and sent the hub back to shimano. Shimano sent them Alfine 11 number 3 (yes, in my math, I count the new guts as a hub. Its basically everything but the shell).
So I never road number 3. The bike shop said it wasn't shifting right out of the box. So they sent it back without me ever riding it.
So they shipped my whole wheel to shimano, since they aren't getting paid to keep on rebuilding my wheel. Shimano sat on it for about 2 months before finally returning it to me. I finally got hub #4 back a week ago. After about 6 miles, hub #4 failed. Gears 1 through 3 grind and pop and randomly shift by themselves. At one point, I put it in 2nd gear, but it was in first. Then I downshifted to 1st, and it shifted into 2nd. The higher gears are fine, but the lows are junk. After 6 miles.
So today I brought the bike back to the shop. It spends more time there than it does at my house.
I don't know what options they have, but two more months of shimano doing nothing, means no bike until the latter part of July.
My outlook is bleek. I bought this hub for improved shifting performance, and for reliability. I certainly don't have the cash to just flush the $750 I paid for this hub down the toilet, and buy a whole new derailer based drive train. Nor do I want to go back to derailers, they are terrible.
I DEFINITELY do not have the cash to bite the bullet and get a Rohloff. I mean even if Shimano or the shop gave me a 100% refund, I still don't have the cash for a rohloff. My only other alternative? Run a full on single speed. Which is terrible, half my riding would either be impossible, or possible but very ****ty.
Also, I do not shift while pedaling. I have the timing down perfectly at this point. All my shifts are load free. And I'm also a pro at lining up those yellow dots, it's very easy. There are no kinks in my shifter cable. My gear ratio was 32/20, now it's 36/22 to get a bit more chainstay clearance. I've heard many people say that shimano "says you have to run at least a 1.9 gear ratio". But read one tech doc that "recommends" a 1.9 ratio, and doesn't mention anything about going higher or lower, just implying that 1.9 is a good starting point. And it may be for a road bike, but for off road use that shimano has claimed this hub can also do, 1.9 puts your gears WAY too high.
So I'm hoping for some kinda of metal miracle, otherwise this is going to be the worst biking season since I destroyed my collar bone in 1995.
And I just want to repeat to make sure he gets it: Don in Austin, can you PM me the contact info of the "good" person at shimano that you've talked to? Thanks.