Banzai

A few years ago I purchased a couple of Alfine hubs, one for my commuter, and one for the Pugsley that was still just a frame hanging in my basement.

Then, my experience with the Alfine on my commuter/utility bike was so miserable and malfunction plagued that I decided to build my Pugsley as a single speed. But that second Alfine hub has been sitting in a box, unused, in my storage ever since.

Now, I'm thinking about giving the Alfine another try, on the Pugsley. The notion came to me the other day, when I tried to take a section off-road, and got bogged because I was over-geared for conditions. Suddenly, I wished I could shift. Right now, my Pugsley has two rear wheels, with different cogs, and I just swap them back and forth based on my planned riding for the day. That day I had geared for a casual path/town ride, and got stuck really fast on my attempted "shortcut".

So, once winter is over, I guess I'll dismantle the wheel and give this a try. Next winter hopefully I won't be here cursing the Alfine again. I'm hoping that I just had a lemon on the first one I ran.