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Alfine internal gear hub — change the cog to move the gears lower

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Alfine internal gear hub — change the cog to move the gears lower

Old 12-30-14, 10:07 AM
  #26  
TransitBiker
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Originally Posted by SlimAgainSoon
Shimano made a number of changes when it redesigned the Alfine 8-speed into an 11-speed hub.

Oil lubrication, instead of grease, is the big one, but the one that mattered most to me (other than the extra gears) is I don't have to jab a spoke in a little hole to get the shift cable loose from the hub (which you have to do to remove the wheel).

With the 11-speed, Shimano added a little lever you grab, instead of creating a lever via the spoke (or small Allen tool).

Thumbs up, Shimano!

They could have, and should have, changed the locking clip so that it could be removed and installed with a circlip tool (as MichaelW and tjspiel suggested). Alas, that didn't happen.

But, the clip isn't hard to work, once you get the hang of it.

As for the comment re chainring change vs. cog change, as I noted earlier, I can't install a smaller chainring on my crankset.

Also, I don't see how changing the chainring is a quicker, simpler swap.

Once you've done it, changing the cog is a fast task.

It may look intimidating, but it is easily accomplished.
Took the cog off my old cruiser to clean it.. the first time took me 2 hours, took 6 minutes subsequently.

- Andy
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Old 12-30-14, 12:59 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by TransitBiker
Took the cog off my old cruiser to clean it.. the first time took me 2 hours, took 6 minutes subsequently.

- Andy
Youtube is your friend. I watched a 10 minute video on tearing down the hub, went to the garage and took it right apart. Without it I'd have been clueless. I use Youtube as a tutor for almost everything.
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Old 12-30-14, 04:13 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
Youtube is your friend. I watched a 10 minute video on tearing down the hub, went to the garage and took it right apart. Without it I'd have been clueless. I use Youtube as a tutor for almost everything.
This was before youtube was a "thing".

- Andy
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Old 01-03-15, 07:27 PM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by TransitBiker
Took the cog off my old cruiser to clean it.. the first time took me 2 hours, took 6 minutes subsequently.

- Andy
Youtube is great, but experience is the best teacher. First time an old friend and I swapped an engine+transmission out/in a car I think it took us all 10 days of spring break, working 10+ hour days in a beautiful garage.

By the 4th? 5th? We did it in a lazy afternoon in our apartment parking lot.
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Old 12-27-17, 01:26 PM
  #30  
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Here's the solution

two or three front cogs
1 rear internal Alfine 8 or 11

with the three front cogs, you have as much range as you want. I'm trying to go *down* as far as I can (to 14 or 15 on the Alfine), so that I can go *fast* on hills using the large front cogwheel. The small front cogwheel lets me go up walls, if I want.

24 speeds. No chain angle problems. Why isn't this done more often? It works *really well*.
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Old 12-27-17, 08:02 PM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by SlimAgainSoon
Shimano made a number of changes when it redesigned the Alfine 8-speed into an 11-speed hub...but the one that mattered most to me... is I don't have to jab a spoke in a little hole to get the shift cable loose from the hub (which you have to do to remove the wheel).
Actually, you don't have to use the spoke or the tab. You just pull the shift cable forward out of the "cassette joint" and then through the slot. This makes the cable slack enough that it's easily disengaged from the hub. This works equally well with Nexus-7, Nexus-8 and Alfine-11 hubs. It helps if the hub is first shifted to the position with least cable tension.

Originally Posted by ravettb
two or three front cogs
1 rear internal Alfine 8 or 11
To the original question, increasing the cog from 16 teeth ("standard", I think) to 18 teeth gives a nice shift toward lower gears. I have made this switch on my "winter" bike, a Dahon Mu XL that has a Nexus-8 hub. The lower gearing is helpful riding through deeper snow.
Steve
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Old 12-27-17, 08:04 PM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by SlimAgainSoon
Two little teeth, but a big difference.
Yup. That's a ten percent difference.
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Old 12-27-17, 10:38 PM
  #33  
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Word of caution. I just reduced the gearing on my wife’s bike that has a Alfine 11. Because she does loaded touring. When I contacted Shimmio about any restrictions. They told me not to exceed a 1/1.9 Ratio. Meaning don’t have a chain ring smaller then 1.9 times the size of the rear cog.
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Old 12-29-17, 09:22 AM
  #34  
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The right size retaining ring is available at Home Depot and Lowes in the USA.

retaining ring.jpg

No idea if this will work with Shimano 8 & 11 speed IGHs.
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Old 12-29-17, 07:41 PM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by derail3
Word of caution. I just reduced the gearing on my wife’s bike that has a Alfine 11. Because she does loaded touring. When I contacted Shimmio about any restrictions. They told me not to exceed a 1/1.9 Ratio. Meaning don’t have a chain ring smaller then 1.9 times the size of the rear cog.
+1

That's the weakness of internal gear hubs. You can go low but they want you to stay around 30 inches. Most touring bikes can go much lower than this. However, I've heard other gear their 8 speed bikes below 30 inches and all went well.
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Old 12-29-17, 09:30 PM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by ravettb
two or three front cogs
1 rear internal Alfine 8 or 11

with the three front cogs, you have as much range as you want. I'm trying to go *down* as far as I can (to 14 or 15 on the Alfine), so that I can go *fast* on hills using the large front cogwheel. The small front cogwheel lets me go up walls, if I want.

24 speeds. No chain angle problems. Why isn't this done more often? It works *really well*.
Just my own view here: For me, benefits of IGH include a clean chainline and no derailleurs. In fact a trend is towards eliminating the chain altogether, in favor of belt drive.

If you add a front derailleur, then you need a rear one as well, or at least a chain tensioner. At that point, the benefit of an IGH becomes a wash, and you might as well go to an all-derailleur system, which is also cheaper.
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Old 12-30-17, 11:25 AM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by SlimAgainSoon
... I got the 20-tooth off the Alfine and installed a 22-tooth cog. In fact, I’m now experimenting with a larger, 23-tooth cog ...
On a Nexus 8spd IGH, I did much the same thing. Pretty solid improvement in gear reduction. In my case, it was necessary due to old leg injuries. (In the newer bike, with derailleurs, specific cluster and chainring choices solved the problem there.)

Highly recommended, for folks needing to tweak the gearing. Straightforward change.
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Old 12-30-17, 12:31 PM
  #38  
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Look Good, You need snap ring pliers rather than just a screwdriver.. if the others used a spring tempered wire ring

you need the right diameter, and if not as wide as the wire ring, may have a tiny bit of cog side play..





...
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Old 12-30-17, 03:44 PM
  #39  
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I would take the warnings on how low you can go with a grain of salt. i use an old sturmey archer aw hub that was rated for 2/1 as the lowest chainring to cog ratio. with my triple chainring it works fine at 24/18. i can pull hills no sweat and the old 3 speed hub just keeps going.
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Old 12-30-17, 04:43 PM
  #40  
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As far as over torquing by under gearing ..BSR/AW3 Brompton running a 2 speed geared crank,

top gear 54:15, reduction gear acts like a 21.6t .. crank arms thru gear box, turn faster than the chainring..


one thing.. unlike the Alfine, AW3 is simple, easy to replace the planet gears , at low cost.. they really dont disengage.

clutch reverses driven and drive input.. so 3/4 low becomes 4/3 high..


I get a big benefit from the wheels being small too. for climbing..





....

Last edited by fietsbob; 12-30-17 at 04:47 PM.
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Old 01-21-21, 09:14 AM
  #41  
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There is also a c clip removal tool that I used. It works perfectly.
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Old 02-27-21, 12:02 PM
  #42  
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My gearing for the Alfine 11 speed is a 20t rear and a 39t chainring. This is with 700c rims. I can get up all hills with that gearing. I have the same set up with an Alfine 8 speed, the difference is that I lose the top three gears that the 11 speed has. To remove the rear sprocket I use a flat bladed screwdriver to lever the open end of the clip at one of the recesses and then prise out the clip (using a good quality steel pick such as the one from Park Tools) into the back of the clip at the next available recess.

Last edited by lesoudeur; 02-27-21 at 12:03 PM. Reason: More information
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