anga

If you are open to disclosing the country, one of us may be able to help.

thisnameisok

At the moment in Thailand

thisnameisok

Thank you I have no idea how the country got selected - maybe I didn't pay attention while signing up.

Aaron's website has a lot of information, yes - but my mechanical ineptitude keeps me from working on anything more complex and expensive to replace than a derailleur I'd assumed IGHs would be trouble-free, at least not this one.

Duragrouch

You just perfectly stated my oft-expressed reason for not going IGH on my folder and instead going with a 2X crank and derailleur system. (Such as avoiding Bike Fridays and Dahon TR with SRAM 3x7/8 IGH.) I pulled apart a 3-speed Steyr hub when I was about 12 and it took me all winter to get it back together. Plus I don't have a workbench and vise for that sort of thing these days. IGHs are generally reliable, but they do require expensive maintenance that I can't do these days, whereas I not only can do work on derailleur systems but very competently, and in the field if necessary, the latter completely impossible with even a simple IGH, let alone something like a Rohloff.

Bike Gremlin

I've tried using the mineral-oil-based manual automobile shifter oil (i.e. gear oil, SAE 80W and similar) on some hubs, but never tried it with an Alfine hub.

My friend rides geared hubs a lot, and in his Rohloff that oil seems to work with no problems (he also runs that oil + grease for the Shimano Nexus hubs, but he has no Alfine hubs for us to test with them).

thisnameisok

Agreed. Very messy.
I might still consider getting a more reliable IGH (maybe a 3-speed SA or an 8-speed Alfine) that don't need an oil bath and have a simple maintenance routine...IF I get a good deal on it and only for commuting - so I'm not too stressed about ditching it when need be.

what setups do you have then on your folders? 2/3*8/9?

Duragrouch

50/34(2X) 11-30(7-speed), on 20"x1.75"/406-44 gives me 21-85 gear inches, I needed that low of 21 for hills, don't need higher than 85. If I change the freehub body to allow 8 or 9, I may go 34 on the low cog, or even lower if I went 10 with a newer derailleur, but not super huge like a 42 or greater, as that will have lower rear derailleur clearance with the ground and tire.

I think many lubes will work fine on a traditional IGH with ratchet pawls on all gears (other than direct drive). But an Alfine 11 does not use ratchet pawls into teeth, but rather, roller clutches in all gears except direct drive; smooth and hard steel cylinders (like roller bearings) that engage with other smooth and hard steel cylinders or shafts, in one direction pressing hard to form a friction lock (hopefully), while in the other direction freewheeling, depending on the gear selected. And thus, the choice of lube may become more critical than if the lube was purely... well... lube, on a ratchet system, because too slippery a lube, and the rollers will slip under higher torque like climbing out of the saddle. I had dreamed of a Brompton with an Alfine 11, a shop in Scotland makes new rear triangles in correct O.L.D. (stock Brompton O.L.D. is too narrow) for conversions, until I found out about the roller clutches, and that made me avoid it like the plague, for the same reasons I avoid CVTs in cars; I don't like relying on two hard, smooth steel surfaces lubed by oil, to generate sufficient friction to not slip, plus durability issues with wear on those surfaces. Pawls rely on durability of tiny springs and pivot pins, but for the most part have been reliable and durable.

sweeks

Hmmm... Apart from my Alfine 11, which has worked perfectly for around 10,000 miles and whose roller clutch surfaces looked unworn when I took it apart for inspection, I have a Prius with over 90,000 miles on it with no mechanical issues. Of course, I haven't taken the transmission apart, but the car still gets 45-50 MPG. Also, a good percentage of the taxi cabs in Chicago are Priuses, so I don't think reliability is as big a problem as you may think.

anga

It maybe possible to special order from Shimano.

Try Shimano's distributor in Thailand.
https://bike.shimano.com/en-SG/infor...S/HAHHONG.html

If above doesn't work, try Shimano - Singapore
https://bike.shimano.com/en-SG/infor...Singapore.html

One of your friends from US or Europe maybe able to carry the oil in checked-in baggage. Can't be more flammable than brandy or vodka.

Duragrouch

For me, 10,000 miles is low mileage. My road-race bike I estimate had over 70k before it went into storage in favor of a townie and then folder equipped as townie. The derailleur gearing was extremely durable, in fact it had the original gearing, to a fault, I was not knowledgeable enough to check chain stretch, but did notice cupping on the cogs near end of use, and I simply reversed them, which you could do with uniglide. And I waxed the chain all those years for cleanliness, but have discovered it also prolongs chain life. I don't know if an IGH with roller clutches could match that. That said... I was on my third wheelset, the previous two sets retired due to a fatigue crack at a spoke hole, all smooth road biking, so the third set is double-socketed which are immensely durable, but add a good deal of rim weight, not normally seen on race bikes, and I went from skinny tires to about 28-30, that helped ride too. But even those wheelsets were cheap, the second set I think $120 at the LBS, and the third even less than that on Nashbar winter sale, but this was in the mid to late 1990s. An IGH hub with wheel is pretty pricy to replace, and more expensive to properly maintain (if not pure oil bath with good seals, where you can simply drain and refill).

But getting back to roller clutches and CVTs, durability is all about how much friction load they are carring relative to contact pressure, and that might be good. Priuses are not known to be hot rods, same with Corollas, both offered with CVTs, though notably (last I looked years ago), the sportier version Corolla had a conventional automatic design. When I was excited about perhaps a Brompton with Alfine 11, I researched the hub and found a lot of examples of slipping under high pedaling loads like climbing out of the saddle, some saying it just wasn't designed for high torque, it was designed for casual riders using spinning gears while seated. I'm not a racer, but do often climb out of the saddle.

At the same time I was researching the Alfine 11, I saw mention of some newer IGHs with excellent reputation but significantly lower pricing than Rohloff. Someone on the bike trail also mentioned Pinion, and that does look impressive, but requires a bike built around it and all were $5000+ at the time. Hopefully that comes down.