SHIMANO
ALFINE & NEXUS
ALFINE, 8 or 11, NEXUS 5 +
The ALFINE is sporty hub gear, crisp shifting, nice choice of gearing, 8 or 11 speeds, manual shift or di2 , the go to internal hub gear for urban bikes, easy to use and can shift gear when stopped, The hubs have had thier issues with mid motors in the early days, now pretty bomb proof and always nice to use…
The 11 speed has a wide 409% gear range which puts it nicely along side the 526% of the Rohloff range of gears when you concider the price difference, good value and good to use.
NEXUS is the more sensible sibling of the Alfine hub, Still with the crisp easy shifting but slightly more ‘domestic’. With a choce of 3 speeds (not seen much in the UK these days), the bullitt proof 5 speed which is oft paired with the shimano mid motor, the dependable 7 speed is also not seen much in the UK, the 8 speed, similar to the 8 speed Alfine but in a cheaper suit is faily common on urban bikes, they used to be just rim and roller braked, but now also disc braked…which does blur the previous demarkation line. The NEXUS tend to be manual shift except the 5 which is often Di2. Some Alfine components can be used with nexus but its a bit of a mine field.
