Alfine 8 - Gear change back to front?

[AlaninWales]

I have just picked up a new 'bike for my wife, we specc'd it with Alfine 8 hub gear. Trying it out yesterday I noticed that when in lowest gear the display points to '8' and in the highest gear to '1'; not only that but the change levers use the top, small lever to change down and the bottom large lever to change up....

Is it set up wrongly? If so how?

[mattsccm]

Are we right in assuming you mean down equals hill climbing and up as in going down hills?
The reason I ask as not everybody does. Indeed some people, me included, confuse the manner by saying " drop down the block" to mean changing up.
To me 1 should be the climbing gear and 8 the downhill one. As in cars and most other things that use gears.
Most Shimano gears use the little lever to drop into a higher gear as this is not usually using the spring so much as releasing it. A longer lever is used to push against a spring to change into a lower gear. Of course I am talking about derailleurs here.
Can't see how the changing could be set wrong but I don't really know the Alfine system. Maybe it is just buttock about...

[rualexander]

The newer version of the Alfine 8 uses the opposite cable pull to the original, maybe you have a new version hub with older shifter or vice versa, check with where you bought it from.

[jb]

I think you've simply got the wrong changer supplied for that particular hub gear.

[barrym]

When you say you spec'd it with hub gears, is that from the manufacturer? IMHO it's unforgivable that the dealer would set it up with incompatible components if indeed that is the problem, but if the manufacturer turned it out like that it beggars belief.

Can you tell us the make/model?

[Brucey]

from the OP's description it seems likely that the hub defaults to a low gear (when cable is slack) thus it is an old model. The shifter however must be designed to pull cable to go into a low gear, which would make it the shifter that is meant to go with the current model of A8 hub, which works in reverse vs the old one.

Fortunately the cable pull intervals on the shifter are similar enough that it should work OK, but they are not identical. The marking on the shifter for the gear setting point could be wrong and it is clearly not as Mr Shimano intended. If this is a new bike I would expect it to be fitted with a matching set of parts.

cheers

[AlaninWales]

@mattsccm - yes

Cheers all. It's a new build on a second-hand frame. The wheel and gears are supposed to be a new and matching set - sounds like they are not ! Unfortunately not test-ridden at the shop and not noticed 'till I got it home. With my wife being not a confident cyclist anyway, this will knock her joy at her present for sure. First to contact the retailer I think

[hercule]

Will this be an issue with the Jtek bar end shifter too, I wonder? With my ancient Nexus red band hub the shifter works the opposite way to the derralieur shifters on my other bikes and it takes a moment or two of thinking to remember which way to shift when I switch from one to the other. When I wear out the Nexus the new A8 hub would mean everything works the "right" way round but not good if the shifting is off.

[[XAP]Bob]

I have grip shifts on both the Rapto and the trike.

Both work the same way, but the geometry mean that on one the shifter is 'towards' my thumb, and on the other is 'away' from my thumb.

That's a good lesson for muscle memory...

[Brucey]

Will this be an issue with the Jtek bar end shifter too, I wonder? With my ancient Nexus red band hub the shifter works the opposite way to the derralieur shifters on my other bikes and it takes a moment or two of thinking to remember which way to shift when I switch from one to the other. When I wear out the Nexus the new A8 hub would mean everything works the "right" way round but not good if the shifting is off.

it depends how slavishly J-tek have copied the shimano shift intervals and also how finicky the hub is... I think it should work OK but it is more likely that a finicky hub will spoil the party than with the correct shifter for the hub. If you look at the cable pulls in various gears you may well find that there are subtle differences.

cheers

[rofan]

h Alfine 8 hub gear...small lever to change down and the bottom large lever to change up....

What type is your A8 : SG-S501 or SG-S7000
your lever(written on its housing) SL-S503 or SL-S7000

[AlaninWales]

h Alfine 8 hub gear...small lever to change down and the bottom large lever to change up....

What type is your A8 : SG-S501 or SG-S7000
your lever(written on its housing) SL-S503 or SL-S7000

The hub is SG-S501. I can't see a designation on the lever housing but it looks like this



and not like this

except it does have a '4' on the face - but note the inversion of the positions of '8' and '1'. So I believe it is an S7000

Anyway, it is going back and will be replaced with "the correct shifter".

[Brucey]

It is as I suspected then; old model hub, new model shifter.

cheers