Phlorida

I purchased a Spot Acme that came with the Alfine 11 IGH about six months ago. The hub performs flawlessly except in gears 10 and 11. Going downhill (in Florida that is down a small bridge decline) both gears freewheel. On the flat, gear 10 engages but gear 11 still freewheels. Using the Gates tuning program I am right in the middle of the tension range. It seems like a tuning fix but I could use some guidance.

sweeks

That's not flawless performance. Are you sure you've adjusted the shift cable properly? The Alfine-11 gear alignment is checked in gear 6, but getting there from gear 1 may leave slack in the shift cable. Start in gear 11 and count back to gear 6 so the cable tension is increasing. I've found that this is the way to predictably get the marks to line up on my hub... can't say it's the solution to your problem, but it's worth a try. Otherwise, you might check with Aaron's Bicycle Repair (Internal Gear Hub Service). You'll enjoy the hub much more when it's shifting right!
Steve

Mr IGH

Mine started hanging on shifts, I did a lube service and all is good now. It's been reported that some hubs come from the factory a little dry. Knowing what I know now, I'd do a lube service on a brand A11 hub before building the wheel. If I were you, before I did anything I'd drain and refill with Shimano factory A11 oil.

fietsbob

yea, do its first oil change sooner,

see if its burrs in the parts getting in the way , with a magnet in the drained gear oil..

[I only own a R'off *, but they wear in with the miles,]

they overfill temporarily to flush out the contaminants with a thinner cleaning oil, then re 'fill' with 25ml.

* & other off topic IGH.






.....

sweeks

Assuming you mean a brand *new* Alfine 11... that might be a little over-cautious, but couldn't hurt... except for the extremely pricey factory oil. It is possible to find 50ml of the "official" oil for a reasonable price. The oil change protocol involves draining the existing oil, installing 25ml of new oil and running the hub through the gears to "flush" out the old oil. Then the "flush" oil is drained and replaced with a further 25ml. So you need a total of 50ml.
Also needed is the hose and attachment used to drain the oil. This is a one-time purchase, and doesn't cost much. You could probably improvise something, but the oil pretty much has to be sucked out of the hub. It would take forever to drain by gravity, plus it would be a mess.

I did my first oil change using the *official* oil, but considering the expense I looked for a substitute. Long story short, I found a synthetic gear oil (Royal Purple 75W-140... link below) that has similar viscosity and costs a fraction of the Shimano oil. My hub has performed flawlessly for 5,500 miles with oil changes at about 600 mile intervals.

The drained oil always has a small amount of very fine metallic particles which can be attracted by a magnet. I believe this is normal considering all the moving parts inside the hub. It crosses my mind that I could let the used oil stand with a magnet for a long time , then re-use it... it's not like it is exposed to high temperatures or combustion by-products.
Steve

Max Gear Synthetic Gear Oil for Max Protection | Royal Purple

Phlorida

Thank you all so much for the replies to this. As it turns out I needed to travel for business this week so I am in Chicago and Houston but my bike is back in Florida. My intent is to try the tension adjustment suggested (shifting from gear 11 to gear 6 is brilliant) and if that doesn’t correct the issue I will swap the gear oil. The price for the Shimano gear oil and drain kit is outrageous! The Royal Purple option is a good one.

Mr IGH

For alternative Shimano IGH lubes I've had great success with Mobil 1 ATF. Cheap and good for over 1000HP

sweeks

I considered ATF as a replacement hub oil, as I had been using it to dip the internals of my Nexus hubs. It works well. The main reason I settled on the gear oil is that its viscosity is similar to that of the Shimano oil. I reasoned that a thinner fluid might leak past the seals... my bike is a folder, and spends a fair amount of time on its side.
The reason I chose the synthetic over regular gear oil (such as hypoid) is that the synthetic is safe for "yellow metals" (copper, brass, bronze) which may be found in a bike hub (does anyone know if such metals are present?).
Steve

Racing Dan

I have an Inter 8 that did the same thing. Bathing the internals in gear oil resolved it, but I have to redo it about once a year.

squirtdad

Why cheap out on oil when it voids the warranty? and may or may not work as designed? I just don't get this.

$13.60 for 50 ml https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shimano-S...&wl13=&veh=sem

fietsbob

component warrantees are done, over, typically 13th month after purchase.

sweeks

This is good advice, provided the oil is available in small quantities; 50 ml is enough for one oil change. Once past the warranty period if you (like me) plan to keep the hub for the long haul, a less expensive replacement is not unreasonable. As I've indicated, there are synthetic gear oils that work just as well as the OEM and at a fraction of the cost.

According to this (Warranty), the warranty is two years for the Alfine hub (at least that's how I read it). I confess to not waiting for the warranty to expire before changing to a different oil, though. 5,000 miles later, still going strong!
Steve

Phlorida

A follow up to my post and another thank you for the outstanding advice. The cable was slightly out of adjustment and the lube was black. Now that I’ve ridden it with fresh lube I agree with the comments made by Mr IGH, I don’t believe that the hub was full when I got the bike. The change in shifting behavior is significant and the issue with gears 10 and 11 are gone.

sweeks

The cable adjustment was almost certainly the reason for the mis-shifting, but who cares? I would change the oil after a shorter-than-usual interval for a couple more times. The drained oil should be close to the fresh color with some "sparkle" to it from tiny metallic particles. When I was using the Shimano oil the used oil still had a green tinge to it. Once I switched to the Royal Purple, the drained oil was a tan color.
Steve

fietsbob

IDK about Alfine needing to be full , don't own one ..

Rohloff runs with 25 ml max, so it's damp but not bathed in lube oil..

As I had some leak out onto disc , reducing fill to 15ml seems to be done.
My 0,25 L bottle will last even longer..





...

sweeks

The Alfine takes 25 ml. Officially, an oil change consists of:
1) extracting the existing oil after running the hub through the gears a couple times,
2) inserting 25 ml of fresh oil as a "rinse",
3) extracting the rinse oil after running the hub through the gears a couple time,
4) inserting 25 ml of fresh oil and buttoning up the hub.

I've found that it takes a while to recover all (or most of) the oil from the hub. This is done with a syringe attached to the hub through a short hose and a metal hose barb that threads into the hub. The whole process takes about a half hour, with lots of time to do other tasks while waiting for the oil to collect at the bottom of the hub, so it's not as much of a waste of time as you might think. I've been able to recover 25 ml of oil if I'm patient enough.

250 ml seems rather a lot for a hub-sized object filled with planetary gears... just saying!
Steve

EDIT: Rohloff also requires 25 ml. https://www.rohloff.de/fileadmin/use...015_03_web.pdf

fietsbob

Im just not reading the manual all the time..

So you guys can play gotcha. i suppose you are happier for it.

sweeks

It's that durned Metric System... what's an extra zero anyway?
Steve

davidad

https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-SG0004-02-ENG.pdf

Artmo 

Is the Rohloff threaded connection to the hub the same as for the Alfine 11?

Dan Burkhart 

Threaded connection?? What exactly do you mean by that?
If you mean the cog mounting interface, the answer is no.

sweeks

Dan, I think the "connection" Artmo is referring to is the part that threads into the oil change port. I seem to remember reading somewhere that they are the same size metric thread but can't confirm this.
Steve

EDIT: FWIW, the end of the Alfine oil change connector that threads into the hub has a metric M6-1.0 thread on it. I just measured mine.

Dan Burkhart 

Possibly. We will have to wait for him to clarify.

Artmo 

Sorry, I wasn’t very clear: I meant the threaded connection for the oil drain on the hub. Thanks.

fietsbob

recent edition R'off, made a change, to a snap ring splined carrier, it threads on,

but after that cogs replacement is as simple as the 3 speed, just not as cheap a cog..


both uses plastic syringes and a screw in hose..

shimano alfine 11 owners manual https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-S7051-02-ENG.pdf