Originally Posted by
ItsJustMe
Derailleur worked pretty much OK for me in about 10 years of commuting. I now have an Alfine 8. I'm not sure it gives me less trouble than the derailleur did.
The derailleur worked fine as long as there wasn't any ice on it. A few days a year it would ice up and I'd pretty much be stuck in whatever gear it happened to be in. Shifting got a little wonky but in general it was at least in some gear.
The Alfine gets all gunked up on the shift cable and lever, and it can just decide it's not in any gear and just slip and grind. I have to shift around to try to find a spot where it will actually be in SOME gear, ANY gear. When I get home I can clean and adjust it, and it'll be fine for a while. Maybe the rest of the winter, or a week, or until the next ride.
I wonder if electronic shifting would be better in this regard? Maybe it would, but maybe the cold would kill it.
I'm also wondering if I could build some rubber boots to enclose the entire bottom end of the cable and shift lever area.
This is similar to my own experience. I've found the Alfine to be exquisitely sensitive to the most minor imperfections, whether induced by environment, temp changes, gunk, cable stretch, whatever.