OK, so an update on my Alfine11 and apologies I haven't been on here for a while to answer questions on my post or comment. It's been back to Madison and was rebuilt so I was expecting that
maybe, just maybe it would be fixed. The letter from Madison states that it's had a full rebuild, service and the external oil seals have been replaced so hopefully that should means less oil on my garage floor
. What I found on my first test ride is that it was pretty much as it was when I dropped it in (ie only 1st, 4th and 8th had minor clatter and it was still skipping on some changes). Cue wanting to take the thing back to the Milton Keynes HQ of Madison and throw it at them! However, not to be deterred, full of the joys of Wiggins winning and having paced into work with someone else out to enjoy the sun I got careless and dropped the rear tire down a grate sufficiently to pinch puncture it. Given I'd got to get to work, I repaired the puncture and slotted the wheel back in the bike as quickly as without noting where the armature was. As it happens it wasn't down by the side of the chain stay as it came back from the LBS but as much up above it as it would go and, behold, the clattering was a lot less pronounced. I've got to do a bit more testing to establish whether this minor detail really does make a difference but it sort of answers a few queries on here as to whether it's better to put the bike in a workshop stand and tune the hub to either side of the yellow dots lining up. There is definitely something on routing and cable tension that the Alfine11 is very sensitive to.
Responding to other posts re Rohloff et al having two cables, I'd much rather have that than clattery gears that skip and bang and I'm regretting somewhat not doing a custom build as I used to on my old racing bikes. There are now some very elegant solutions for drops and twist shifting that I'd be more than happy with, given I'm from the era of racing with friction shift levers on the downtube.
Hope all this continues to be helpful.