# Shimano Alfine - how tuff is it?



## rickkane (Mar 23, 2008)

Wanna move away from SS to a 1 x 9 or similar system, but have a monocog frame i love.

i'm 210lbs. w/ gear and ride hard XC w/ 3 foot-ish drops.

do alfines seem tuff enough? i guess the weight/impact is mostly on the axle, not on the gears, so i reckon it might be okay.

shimano seem to be somewhat cagey about recommending them for mtb. use.

anybuddy gots an opinion of dere own?


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

Answers:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=249842
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=470885
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=456830

There are other minor threads on the Alfine in this forum, Singlespeed, and 29er. Search "alfine" and you will get many hits, the MTBR searches work well with 5 letter searches, but not so well with 3 or 4 letters.


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## rickkane (Mar 23, 2008)

cheers for those. read two of those threads already.

been reading lotsa reports about shifting and mud abilities, but not so much about robustness w/ drops etc. except for that chilean guy (evomonkey or something) w. the mad DH frame.

just read the second one you mentioned from framebuilding.....some interesting stuff there.

seems like i may just have to approach this as a pioneer and see how it works for me.....

thanks again.

stan.


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## vikb (Sep 7, 2008)

I know of one fellow using an Alfine in a BIg Dummy he abuses fairly extensively:

http://bla.obda.net/wordpress/

I'm using an Alfine in my Pugsley with an input ratio that doesn't meet Shimano specs [21T x 32T chainring] and haven't had any issues so far - although it's still early.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vikapproved/sets/72157610461277546/
http://thelazyrando.wordpress.com/category/winter-biking/

I'm also going to abuse a Nexus 8 IGH this season on a touring bike fully loaded in the mtns so I have some confidence in them.

safe riding,

Vik
www.thelazyrando.com


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## flatboarder (Jan 18, 2009)

And even more offroad Alfine usage in my MTB and another winter MTB not displayed on that page. Hard climbs, dirt, riding bumps and ripples and also massive salt at roads here in winter for the latter cycle, nevertheless all of my 3 Alfine hubs operating flawlessly.


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## DedGuyRidin (May 19, 2007)

Thanks to everyone for your posts here. I am going to get myself an Alfine ASAP for my hardtail. If that works out, I'll be converting my Jamis Dakar to an Alfine as well! :thumbsup: 

Bent/broke enough derailleur hangers, so I'm looking forward to this.


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## bstrick (Nov 12, 2005)

Couple of hundred miles on mine and not a complaint yet. All off road and gritty tech stuff in there as well. I'm hoping it last 5+ thousand miles. That would warrant being tough enough for me.


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## pursuiter (May 28, 2008)

I took mine on a eight day out-of-country mountain bike ride. I had no back-up plan, if the Alfine failed, vacation is ruined. Everyone else had full suspension rigs, I had a hardtail. The rides were steep uphills and very technical downhills with lots of drops. I'm 250lbs before any riding gear, I run a 32x22 primary gear (very low, hard on Alfine). I dropped hard on the Alfine many times each day. Quite frankly, I was over my head, esp the first few days. The Alfine took the brunt of the abuse, Mavic 319 rim took the rest :thumbsup: 

We rode two days in pouring rain, I forded several streams that completely submerged the Alfine, it was covered with mud every day, then hosed it off nightly at the hotel.

When I got home I opened up the hub, no water intrusion, no metal fillings, nothing but virgin grease.


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