Are Alfine shifters low-normal or high-normal?

[ratherbeintobago]

?

[Brucey]

either, depending on vintage and type. Current 8s ones and all 11s ones are 'high normal'. Older 8s ones are low-normal.

Because the shifter has only one long cable pull that needs to be long (between 4 and 5) it is usually possible to use the 'wrong 8s shifter' on any given 8s hub.

cheers

[ratherbeintobago]

Thanks - do you know when the 8sp ones changed?

[Brucey]

the last 'low normal' 8s hubs were '501' models and amongst the first 'high normal' ones were 7000 series.

FWIW documentation is sometimes confusing, but you can tell what shifter you need by looking at the hub.

cheers

[ratherbeintobago]

Thanks!

[Brucey]

it occurs to me that it isn't obvious which shifter is which type.

AFAICT shifters

SL-S500 (definite), SL-S503 (probably) are 'low normal' type https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/um/UM-S500A-001-00-ENG.pdf allegedly applies to both... and

SL-S7000-8 is 'high normal' type. https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/um/UM-01Z0A-000-00-ENG.pdf



In the case of the SL-S7000-8 shifter the EV techdoc
https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-SL-S7000-3722A.pdf
shows it paired with cassette joints CJ-8S20 and CJ-8S40; these are CJs for low normal hubs, and don't work with the matching 7000 series hub. The 7000 series hub

https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-SG-S7000-8-3810A.pdf

is (unsurprisingly) paired with CJ-S7000 which is pulled CW by the cable via a high cable run. The older low normal Nexus/Alfine 8s hubs use the CJ-8S20, CJ-8S40 cassette joints and these are pulled ACW by the cable, via a low cable run.

Needless to say shimano could have easily made this all somewhat more obvious and less confusing....

cheers