Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

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jb
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by jb »

Can't comment on the hub condition but I wouldn't expect a belt to spin like a chain as the belt has to be tensioned which creates friction.
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J Bro
Cavemud
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by Cavemud »

Gates centretrack belts don't need anything like the tension that the earlier versions needed.

The belts on all three of mine have a fair amount of 'flop' meaning there's zero tension when not pedalling.

High tension and friction comes up a loy in discussions about belts, but that tension simply isn't needed with newer models.

There's a youtube video by 'cyclingabout' where he shows how little tension he has on his belt and has done many thousands if miles. He does use a snubber but I haven't even found that necessary.

If your belt is giving any kind of significant friction just slacken it right off.
Orbearacer
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by Orbearacer »

more data, what mileage and when oil was changed last time.
drodrig
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by drodrig »

I will check if I can loose the tension, but it seems that the back wheel is at the limit (the closest possible to the front sprocket)

ok, I never changed the oil and it is like 2000 kms (yes, I know)

I actually was about to change it and saw this behaviour so I decided to wait and ask if it was normal

Does anybody have the Alfine 11 with the Gates belt?
Cavemud
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by Cavemud »

I did have an Alfine 11 with Gates. I gave it to another family member when I upgraded to a Rohloff (also with Gates).

Both bikes still see plenty of mileage and we do a lot of rides together.

In general I'd say that even with a slack belt the Alfine is pretty draggy when back pdealling. It's usually possible to get the wheel spinning backward on the stand if you turn the pedals backward slowly.

On the road we don't see much practical difference between the Alfine and the Rohloff in terms of speed. The main difference is the occasional and completely random gear slips that occur with the Alfine, compared with the very very rare slips of the rohloff.

I always assumed the friction in the Alfine was more a function of the seals rather than anything else, but I've never bothered to try and understand the internals in the way that some on here have, so this assertion could be wrong.

Both Alfines I was involved with (the one I gave away and my wifes) leaked if leant towards the drive side. If you haven't 'changed' the oil in that long I'd guess theres probably little left in there which wint help.
visusest
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by visusest »

vanGoose wrote: 12 Jan 2021, 8:45pm Try my 2 years old book... plenty of pictures and (sorry 'bout that...) even more words.
Any chance you could repost? I have a new to me SG-S705 and I’d be grateful to look over a full teardown without having to do it myself to a perfectly functional hub. Thanks!
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simonineaston
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by simonineaston »

My simple step-by-step guide to stripping down an Alfine as far as the internal one-piece cluster is available here. https://www.dropbox.com/s/a262p8xaxk5zh ... r.pdf?dl=0
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
ikenbikeit
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by ikenbikeit »

I have one of the early alfine 11 hub gears. Quite early on, I found the gear slipping in gear two and eventually gear one was in gear 2 position. I consoled myself that I had a 10 speed hub that could tackle almost any hill.

I tried changing the cable many times and minute adjustment on the cable length. Nothing doing

I attempted to change the cable and the cable was stuck. I opened the changer to take the cable out and broke the changer.

I got a second hand one and fixed the gear system on the bike. It now works perfectly after seven years.

Coincidence of were some changers faulty?
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simonineaston
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by simonineaston »

Don't forget Alfine has its own parallel universe... ;-) Are we thinking 'changer' = the cassette joint (see piccie)? If so, I've long suspected that the variables might crop up in this component, although I don't think Brucie agreed - and Lord knows, he knows better than I.
alfine-hub-cassette-joint-unit.jpg
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
jb
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by jb »

The movement between gear selection is so small that any grit getting into the pulley groove will change the cable pull and be enough to upset the selector.
The eight speed is exactly the same mechanism yet never slips.
Whenever I got slipping I would clean the pulley out and without doing any other adjustments it would be okay for a while.
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J Bro
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simonineaston
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by simonineaston »

I'm sure it's a coincidence but since I went with some serious mudguard action on my Al-fee-nay equipped Moulton, the gear selection has stayed bang on. Thank Goodness.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
jhoff80
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by jhoff80 »

My Alfine 11 bike worked perfectly all of last year. This offseason, I wanted to clean up some muck from the gear and belt, there was almost like a paste in there. So I removed the wheel, removed the godawful ring clip, cleaned up the gear and all of the plastic parts, and put it all back. At the same time, I used the Shimano kit to clean out the oil in the hub. Except when I added new oil this time around, there was a leak.

I know enough about the Alfine to know that there's some potential leakage, but in this case I'm not talking about a slow leak. I rode to work the next day and by the time the work day was over, there was a puddle on my office lobby floor (which they were thrilled about :oops: ). Went home and added 10 more mL (guestimating how much I cleaned up at the office) and then the next morning there was a puddle of oil on my floor at home too. Not coming from the port in the hub which was tightened with a torque wrench to the number in the Shimano instructions, but from near the gear / plastic parts on the drive side of the hub.

All of the parts were put back on in the right order, but I mean I'm suspicious of the fact there was no leak at all last year (including after an oil change) and all of a sudden after I cleaned the parts this year the hub is no longer capable of holding oil at all... Any thoughts on things I could have done wrong that would cause this?
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simonineaston
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by simonineaston »

I'd love to help but the symptoms you describe are outside my experience. However, we can reflect on the time frame for pointers. If the hub didn't leak before and did leak after, it makes sense to focus on what happened in between. Two possibilities spring to mind - during re-assembly was everything put back clean & in the right place / order? And thinking about the lubricant, was the usual lubricant used & in the correct quantities?
Other than these, I'm struggling to identify any other variables...
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
RJC
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by RJC »

Could some gunge which you cleaned off have been holding back the leak?
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Sum
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Re: Shimano Alfine 11 - Longer term reliability

Post by Sum »

There are various oils seals in the A11. JB has posted on which ones to check on pg33 of this thread:
viewtopic.php?p=844561#p844561

There's a handy picture here with arrows pointing to the seals, thanks to rofan:
viewtopic.php?p=844793#p844793

NB Shimano has changed their techdocs website and the links to it no longer work. Here's the EV that JB had linked to:
https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/ev/SG-S7 ... -3092A.pdf

Edit: Here's the new techdocs website with a search filtered for EVs for all the A11 hub variants.
https://si.shimano.com/en/manual/search ... del=sg-s70
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