Page 1 of 2
Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:05 pm
by denbuffel
I'm thinking of rebuilding my old trek 5500 frame with a shimano alfine 11speed hub, and with a belt.
The problem is that the hub is 135mm and a race frame is 130mm
Is there a way to solve this problem?
Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:05 pm
by Weenie
Visit
starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓ Broad Selection ✓ Worldwide Delivery ✓
www.starbike.com
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:21 pm
by crohnsy
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:52 pm
by aldocg
Get one of those Trek belt-drive frames?
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:04 pm
by prendrefeu
You can adjust the Alfine11 hub to fit into a 130mm frame, it's only a matter of removing a few spacers/nuts on the axle.
There are non-belt versions available, but having a belt limits you to a frame which allows for a belt installation. The frame in your description does not, unfortunately.
The gear range of the Alfine11 is pretty amazing and broad. Set up well, you could potentially build a semi-light, low-maintenance race rig. The weight of the setup is on par with a slightly-above-middle-range 2x10 drivetrain, including shifters.
Most Alfine11 systems come standard with the flat-bar type shifting setups. The company "Versa" produces a drop-bar shifter/brake lever combo that look something like Shimano 105 circa 2009, and I've heard varying reports on the quality.
J-Tek produces the lightest weight shifter for the Alfine systems, and it is a bar end set up, so potentially if you don't mind shifting from the end of your handlebar you will be golden...
Speaking of which: a dream set up for me would be using an Alfine11 + JTek in a TT set up. No derailleurs = more aero, no?
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:09 pm
by Epic-o
prendrefeu wrote:J-Tek produces the lightest weight shifter for the Alfine systems, and it is a bar end set up, so potentially if you don't mind shifting from the end of your handlebar you will be golden...
http://retroshift.com/
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:18 pm
by mjduct
prendrefeu wrote:Speaking of which: a dream set up for me would be using an Alfine11 + JTek in a TT set up. No derailleurs = more aero, no?
that would be pretty sweet, I love my Alfine 8 on my Niner frame...
I think I'm going to do something similar to what your talking about here with my old 8 while upgrading my mountain bike to the new 11-speed Di2 I've had some problems with it holding ana adjustment on really rough stuff and I think that the digital set and forget might do the trick...
plus I would really like the extra range!
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:44 pm
by quattrings
prendrefeu wrote:Speaking of which: a dream set up for me would be using an Alfine11 + JTek in a TT set up. No derailleurs = more aero, no?
I'm unfamiliar with alfine, but the usual planetary reduction hubs (nexus, sturmey archer, sachs) are less efficient, some by more than 10% as a "conventional" derailler setup.
If It weren't less efficient I think we'd see more pro's riding it, not only in TT's (unless the uci made them illegal
)
I think the OP hasn't really thought this one through
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:11 pm
by crohnsy
prendrefeu wrote:You can adjust the Alfine11 hub to fit into a 130mm frame, it's only a matter of removing a few spacers/nuts on the axle.
There are non-belt versions available, but having a belt limits you to a frame which allows for a belt installation. The frame in your description does not, unfortunately.
The gear range of the Alfine11 is pretty amazing and broad. Set up well, you could potentially build a semi-light, low-maintenance race rig. The weight of the setup is on par with a slightly-above-middle-range 2x10 drivetrain, including shifters.
Most Alfine11 systems come standard with the flat-bar type shifting setups. The company "Versa" produces a drop-bar shifter/brake lever combo that look something like Shimano 105 circa 2009, and I've heard varying reports on the quality.
J-Tek produces the lightest weight shifter for the Alfine systems, and it is a bar end set up, so potentially if you don't mind shifting from the end of your handlebar you will be golden...
Speaking of which: a dream set up for me would be using an Alfine11 + JTek in a TT set up. No derailleurs = more aero, no?
Could always go Alfine Di2, then shifters would not be an issue!
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:42 pm
by prendrefeu
quattrings wrote:If It weren't less efficient I think we'd see more pro's riding it, not only in TT's (unless the uci made them illegal
)
Simple: tire changes. Changing a rear tire/wheel in the case of puncture with an internal hub set up isn't the quickest - remember the cable runs
into the hub. Where a person wants to minimize absolute time for repair during a race, external drivetrains are the way to go for now.
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:06 pm
by denbuffel
Mmh
Didn't think of that issue either ...
I'm relativly a nooby considered belt driving ...
I considered using this old frame I had laying around to make a cheap durable winter bike.
What is the cheapest race geometry frame available for a belt?
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:03 am
by pocketbeagle
@denbuffel: I've got two bikes with 8 speed Alfine hubs and a mtb with an 11 speed Alfine hub. The actual spacing between locknuts is 132.5mm so you could probably stretch a 130mm spacing dropout a bit to fit without changing anything - at least that's what I did on my IF steel cross/commuter bike no problems. I had ever thought of running a belt drive but the hub is so silent even without much lube on the chain that I now think that belts really don't offer much advantage over chains.
@prendrefeu: I'm running the jtek shifter on one of the 8 speeds and it is very good. I'm not sure if they have an 11 speed shifter yet though. I had exactly the same thoughts as you with regard to aero and designed a bike around that (
http://flic.kr/p/5XSwjr). The hub is very smooth and silent but very heavy. I guess it should not mean as much on flat tts but you could be carrying a lot more when climbing. Gear ratios are also a little wide for racing I think (but then again I don't race). Now if somebody could make a carbon fiber body, ceramic gear internals that would really be something! A quick release would also be nice...
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:08 am
by maxxevv
Ok, if you guys need / want a mechanical integrated dropbar shifter for your Alfine-8 and Alfine-11, these guys have actually a working production set(s) for both.
http://www.dynamicbicycles.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Saw them at Taipei Bike Show, give them a shout as their website doesn't show the items. But they do have it.
Its based on the MicroShift integrated shifters with their own modified/developed internals that are compatible with the Alfine-8 and 11 hubs.
Edit:
Apparently, they do show the Alfine-8. But they have the Alfine-11 as well. However, they are selling it as a complete bike, perhaps can enquire if they would sell it as a kit instead:
Look under the road/cross bike section.
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:14 am
by RollingGoat
Epic-o wrote:prendrefeu wrote:J-Tek produces the lightest weight shifter for the Alfine systems, and it is a bar end set up, so potentially if you don't mind shifting from the end of your handlebar you will be golden...
http://retroshift.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I was gonna do this setup for my commuter, turns out the jtek shifter doesn't work with retroshift. Ended up going with retroshift and derailleurs.
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:51 pm
by jahknob
I've been running a road bike with Alfine 8 and the Dynamic-sourced "Versa" STI-style 8spd shifters for a little over a year. It works great as an everyday bicycle (along with disc brakes and a belt drive), but the extra friction from the hub internals (and the belt) and the large-ish intervals between the gears makes it not ideal for a road race bike, where even small differences in friction/gearing are keenly felt.
Then there is also the puncture problems (no quick means of fixing/replacing the rear wheel) and the fact that, with such a heavy rear hub (and narrow rims and tyres - race bike frame, right?) you are almost certain to break spokes/get pinch flats... Or at least that has been my experience (I usually get only one or two punctures a year on all my bikes and never break spokes, but have had two of each on just this one bike in the past year).
I should soon be upgrading to a new, purpose-built frame and an 11spd set-up, but after consultation with the framebuilder, we are going to go for a 26" wheel to increase the strength and allow for fatter tyres. It will still have drop bars and STI-style levers (and disc brakes and belt drive), and I'd like to think that if I was in a reasonable state of fitness I would be able to hold my own on a winter's run with the local chain gang...
j.
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:02 pm
by maxxevv
jahknob wrote:I've been running a road bike with Alfine 8 and the Dynamic-sourced "Versa" STI-style 8spd shifters for a little over a year. It works great as an everyday bicycle (along with disc brakes and a belt drive), but the extra friction from the hub internals (and the belt) and the large-ish intervals between the gears makes it not ideal for a road race bike, where even small differences in friction/gearing are keenly felt.
Then there is also the puncture problems (no quick means of fixing/replacing the rear wheel) and the fact that, with such a heavy rear hub (and narrow rims and tyres - race bike frame, right?) you are almost certain to break spokes/get pinch flats... Or at least that has been my experience (I usually get only one or two punctures a year on all my bikes and never break spokes, but have had two of each on just this one bike in the past year).
I should soon be upgrading to a new, purpose-built frame and an 11spd set-up, but after consultation with the framebuilder, we are going to go for a 26" wheel to increase the strength and allow for fatter tyres. It will still have drop bars and STI-style levers (and disc brakes and belt drive), and I'd like to think that if I was in a reasonable state of fitness I would be able to hold my own on a winter's run with the local chain gang...
j.
Would suggest you check your spoke tensions for starters if you get broken spokes that many times. Unless of course its a bad batch of spokes like was the case with Reynolds Stratus DV and Sapim Lasers some years back. I had those broke on me on two different wheelsets. One clincher, the other Tubular. Both of the same Reynolds batch. Turns out it was a bad batch. Changed the spokes and all has been wonderful for the ~4 years since.
Next would be to check your rim bed. Pinch flats seldom got to do with rim width nor wheel strength. ITs almost 100% of the time due to under-inflation or the rim tape on the rim bed is not in good condition/ improperly laid or your tyres have some small flint/wire stuck on it somewhere.
Alternatively, since its a commuter, you might want to consider 28c tyres ?
Re: Shimano alfine 11 in a race frame
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:02 pm
by Weenie
Visit
starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓ Broad Selection ✓ Worldwide Delivery ✓
www.starbike.com