Great video. I personally like to clean the wheel on the outside first, just like surgeon would do to a human. This reduces the risk of abrasive particles getting into the internals.
Oh yes! I was itching to do some pre-cleaning around 4:13. Such a luxury to see such a take-down without worrying about setting the parts so I can remember how to get it back together!
@@markfisher7962 he is old school mechanic. No ambulance outside waiting, no bulletproof goggles, no chemical resistant apron, no fire extinguisher nearby. However, people, his demo is 1. class. Right?
Me too, I would have cleaned the hub before opening it....... but still this is a very pleasant and informative video, it'll make me put oil in my alfine 8 too, but instead of gearbox oil I think of the one that shimano puts in the alfine 11.
Changed grease for gear-oil in two 7 speed hubs and my first impression is that the pedals keep in rest when the wheel is running. Our Dahon bicycle that is for months in the car had dried out grease so the pedals immediately were driven by the wheel. Thanks for this tutorial. ---A year later I discovered, that oil was leaking through de dust-rings behind the small sprocket and with some dirt it turned nog longer smoothly. After cleaning I replaced most of the oil by grease. To avoid problems with the dust-rings I cleaned them thoroughly and made the small one 0.5 mm flatter. In another bike everything is still OK, but I think it is no good to use lots of gearbox oil.
If you are worried about plastic and rubber parts perishing in the oil use "detergent free oil". This is what we use in old motorcycle gearboxes due to the fragile rubber seals. FYI Almost all lawnmower oil is detergent free.
The detergent additives are not slick. These are chemicals that disperse contaminates in the oil keeping them in a floating state in solution so a filter can do its job effectively. Normally in non-detergent oil the debris precipitates out of solution collecting in the lowest area within the mechanism. Modern oils can contain an additive which affects the flexible seals found on rotating shafts. These additives bond to the seals. Renews them... to remain flexible and swell enough to do there job better after high mileage. These oils usually are denoted as high mileage oils. The old transmission tune up in a can popular many years ago was basically a solvent that swelled the seals so the clutch packs would not slip. After prolonged use the seals became to soft and would fail. Hope this helps..
Excellent tutorial, thank you. Sturmy archer, older cyclists will know, have been using oil in their hubs for well over 100 years . Their older models always had a little oil port located on the external hub shell to facilitate adding the oil. You can too----- an old woods valve can be converted into an oil port ; 5 mm metric thread on it plus corresponding hole and threading in your nexus/ alfine hub shell. However, it isn't necessary, you can just add the oil as per this tutorial, but it's much easier to have the oil port access. Choice of oil. Semi synthetic magnetic oil is v. good, and the 10w/ 40 lawn mower type rating is about right. The quantity is spot on ; even Rohloff say 12 mls. is enough to be adequate for their hubs . Too much is unnecessary and risks spillage. Also, be aware when you park your bike it's not angled too steeply as oil may leak then too. Oil in your hubs will make them last indefinitely and keep them and you happy! Ride on for thousands of miles...🚴🙏
Are you recommending 10W30 mower oil? Non- detergent? All we have here is 30 wt. Any multi wt oil is rated at the lowest number as the base oil. Therefore 10W30 would be 10 wt oil. Multi wt oils for automotive use have many additives a particular one is polymer. These polymer additives begin to thicken with heat to arrive at the highest rated number 10W to 30 wt. Have to ask the question if the hub generates oil temps high enough to make the molecular shift from 10 to 30 wt. If not then it remains 10 Wt oil. Also the detergent active is not a slick component it is's a chemical that keeps dirt and debris dispersed/ floating within solution so an oil filter can filter them out. Otherwise these contaminates would collect in the lowest area in the mechanism. Am thinking for a bike hub a detergent oil would be detrimental to bearing life. Hope this helps... excellent tutorial....
Thanks for the video! Great content! I just bought a bike with an Alfine 8 and it will be a great help for me. As per comment: I am actively putting old bikes back on the streets, those are usually equipped with old Sachs geared hubs (3, 5 and 7-speed) and the manuals always say the same you did here. Grease the planetary gears with oil (I use automotive engine or gearbox oil) and grease the bearings with machine bearing grease (I use some hi temperature resistant automotive one), the coaster brake should be greased with special grease which actually is a hi temperature resistant one :-). The only difference is that I am completely disassembling the Sachs hubs first and clean up every single part separately. Greetings from Berlin!
Can I say that this is one of the best tutorials I’ve watched in a while. Superbly filmed, you covered everyone question I would have had! I have the same hub so will be giving this process a follow. Thank-you
Back in the 60’s my friend had an English 3-speed with a Sturmey Archer hub. I remember him having a little tube of sewing machine oil, and every so often he was suppose to put 2-3 drops of oil in the hub.
Thank you for the high quality video. Concise instructions and incredible image quality. I bought a used bike with an IGH that was overtorqued, loosened the cone and it still didn't spin smoothly. I followed all the instructions, opened it up, cleaned it and gave it a good oil bath. The oil was practically shiny with all the metal shavings inside... I went from the wheel spinning 3 revolutions when spun at highest gear for 1 pedal rotation, to 10+ or uncountable. It doesn't spin as freely as a regular bike hub but a huge improvement though it does have clicking noises. I'm sure the bearings are shot but at least I salvaged whatever life is left in them... Very big thank you.
Thank you for this great video. I have Nexus hub on Kalkhoff Ebike but the wheel does not spin freely, so I will now follow your clear guidance and service the hub.
I have just purchased my first hub drive bicycle and I cannot thankyou enough for such a clear and detailed video of the workings of the hub. I now feel confident enough to remove, strip and oil my hub. Thank you.
Thank you. I am running a nexus c6001 and successfully changed to oil following this video. One different is that the c6001 does not have that giant nut under the plastic cover (drive side). One just need to loosen the nuts on the other side (brake side) and the whole gear box can be taken out from the other side.
When countering the bearing cone, note that this will reduce play since the cone will sit on the other flank of the axle thread afterwards. So you should adjust a little more play initially than intended, when tightening the cone.
Great video. To Those people with a CDX gates carbon drive. The sprocket needs a little help to come back on. There are three levers to lift the sprocket back upon the furthest ledge using a screwdriver before clamping back the springring. 👍
Really clear explanation. No details missing, especially the "zéro-clearance" setting on the "ball-bearing" nut (the one you tight by hand until the main shaft doesn't play and then hold it in position while you tight the final nut over it) which is very important. I keep this video for my next maintenance. Thank you.
Super helpful video. I watched the video a couple of times to buy the stuff and tools I need and then follow it during the process. I am fixing a Nexus 7 and water seems to have flown in and lots of dirty stuff inside. Also, for nexus 7 the special thin wrench is size 14 instead of 15. Glad I found a painter tool that has a similar size to save my day.
There is a difference between the nexus and the alfine. The gears of the planetary gear have needle bearings, thats why they have that groove, its not only because of the weight.
I think the Nexus 7 I have has needle rollers, the Nexus and Alfine 8 use ball/race. The major difference with the Alfine 8 and Nexus 8 is the Alfine is for disc brakes, the Nexus was roller or band brake only. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
To remove the cable there’s a small hole in the gear shifter. Just use a small allen key or old spoke to rotate the shifter and it comes out really easily.
Day late and a dollar short. Many thanks for the walkthrough. This is my first Alfine 8, SG-S501. It just had the white lithium grease but was super clean--no oil from the factory. I used AMSOIL Dominator Synthetic Racing Grease plus 10cc of AMSOIL Severe Gear 75W-90.
Great video quality. Also you might have saved my day - depending of wether I can put together the inner part that you left intact but I needed to disassamble due to rust ;-)
Fabulous vid !!! I've had dozens and dozens of Sturmey Archer and Shimano 3 speed IG hubs apart over the years.......but I have always been intimidated by the Nexus/Alfine IG hubs with their much greater complexity. I currently have a 1997 Specialized bike with a Nexus 7 speed IG hub that will not shift properly. I will now be able to dismantle, clean and lubricate it properly with axle lube as you show instead of the ridiculously expensive Shimano greases that are recommended. Many many thanks to you for your very simple explanatipn.
my argument for oil began in Chicago. I left my commuter outside one night and had no forward in the morning. it freewheeled forward. froze the pawls closed. I use refrigerator oil since.
Great video, thank you! Had a couple stumbles with my 11-speed coming apart when I took it off the spindle, and putting it back together. If you hit this, I recommend downloading the SG-S7001 INTER service manual from Shimano, it'll show you how it comes apart and goes back together.
Great video, thanks! Really well made and very helpful. I have a Rohloff, bought 2nd hand, and I had to take it apart because the rim fell apart on me (2nd hand with the hub obviously), and part of it got wrapped around the hub/axle spacing and jammed the hub. Didn't work well after that, so I had a go at opening it up. Hmmmm.....TRICKY little bugger to put back together, but there are a couple of descriptions on the web, and I VERY carefully watched the Rohloff factory assembly videos as a help. So I managed. As far as advantages of oil vs grease, I think a big advantage is with oil you can replace the old oil regularily, including a "rinse", which will remove any wear particles. I've been looking at the lowest gearing you can put on the Alfine and Rohloff, more from curiousity, really. I cannot see any real reason why you can't go to lower gears than Shimabno recommends on the Alfine. Is obviously not an issue for you riding it in Netherlands...:-}, but for touring it's an issue. I don't think the issue is with actual overloading the internal hub gears, at least not from a short session of higher loads by exceeding their recommended gearing ratio. But rather over a longer period it tends to put more wear & tear on the gears, and you would tend to wear it out faster. So I think Shimano is really just trying to keep these hubs out of heavily loaded/long distance touring use by discouraging the more extreme gears. The reason would be that group is a very small fraction of their total intended market (commuters etc), and they don't want any failures talked up on the various forums etc by their use by tourers. Whereas Rohloff is more sturdily built, and can take a bit more punishment. Much more $$$ though.
Yeah Shimano 8 speed hubs can take alot more torque then they recommend as they are very well maintained. Thousands of them on cargo bikes and electronic bikes. Mine was used with an electric bike pulling a trailer up to 100kg up 1/6 hills, still fine. I like to use a X2 front derailleur gives 16 gears. As standard 8 speed hub is geared too high for hills about 6mph and about 20mph downhill, that solves the problem. Rolhoff is too expensive, I don't want to park a rolhoff at the supermarket 😂.
@@elMapache77 at the moment I'm using an old Shimano hollowtec mountain bike not sure which maybe deore 44 32 22 chainset. Only using the 44 and 32 as bottom bracket is too short 😄.. And a 19tooth nexus rear sprocket gives nice low gear. I think for mountains I would use to 22t as well, no need around here. So I can climb at 5 mph, downhill at about 28.
I did look into the max torque thingy for the Alfine 8. Reason was I did manage to get the hub to skip on very high torque situations after around 15.000km . The cause? Is not the gears skipping. There are little pawls that extend from the centre axle to select the correct gear. These tiny pawls lock into a ribbed ring that surrounds them. During very high torque, these pawls can skip a bit inside that ring. Again, this only happens in really high torque situations and only in gear 1 or 2. I'ts pretty far from regular commuting use, yet it shows the limits of this hub. Meanwhile I also have a Rohloff and like you say: more sturdy and can take more punishment. Haven't been able to make it skip ever. I really did try. Pricey though :)
Very good and interesting video/tutorial. I do notice at 12:30 there appears quite a bit of play in the Planet gear shafts/bearings of the high mileage hub on the right. not sure how much is considered normal or acceptable or would even be noticeable during normal use. Would perhaps be nice to put an oil filler cap in the outside of the hub, like those fitted to old Sturmey Archer 3 speed hubs. This might be quite difficult to do though especially if the hub case is hard.
Good advice. I've just bought a nearly new Alfine 8 SG-5001 disc lock type and laced it into a 700 rim. This is replacing my older, 11,000km+ Nexus 7, which is still in perfect working order. The 7 has had only had one oil service in that time, and only slightly oozes oil from the axles, a known issue. But the 8's gear ratios are far more user friendly than the 7, its very noticeable. I too run a chain tensioner. My gearing is 38t front 21t rear. Can you tell me your cog sizes? I will also note the issue of slippage under high torque and try to avoid it. My 7 never gave any issues with slippage. 👍💯✔🇬🇧😉
there was a school outside Chicago for bike techs called Vance Bloom. I was the regional tech and presented the argument for oil then to the instructor. it is agreed grease is better for the occasional rider. as a commuter and tech...it's a simple task for someone set up for the work. the Nexus 7 was before this and terrific with oil also. like butter. butta.
I've ridden in hilly area's and the gearing was adequate and the hub worked fine. However, I do not recommend this hub for heaving mountain climbing or very steep hills. Not because of the gear range, but because of the internals reaching their torque limit in the lowest gears. I have been able to make the hub skip in one of the first gears by standing on the pedals and pulling my steering for maximum force. Although that's not a very common usage, it does show the limits of the hub design. I also got a Rohloff bike now and apart from the wider gear range, this thing is built like a tank. I really tried hard, but i have not been able to make it skip a single time the past 5.000 km.
An absolutely top-class video! Even though English is obviously not your first language, the instructions and comments are spot-on and very easy to follow. Thank you so very much - I will be referring to your video when I clean and re-grease my Nexus 8-speed hub (bike is 14 years old and the hub has had NO maintenance at all in that period - although mileage is low).
Just make sure you clean your hubs BEFORE you dismantle them and DON'T use mole grips or monkey wrench like this guy does. He is not a good example of a thorough clean technician.
@@alexmorgan3435 Thanks for the feedback! I've got a Rohloff system also, and you're absolutely right. That's a better system and more suitable for steep hills. However, it's also 8 times more expensive, so the Alfine is still great value for what a lot of people use it for. Thanks for watching!
Thanks ! (Dankje !) Just service my new (I think older stock) Alfine 8 and used a can of brake cleaner to wash out the hardened grease. Dunked it in oil (75W90 gear oil) and let it drip out for a while and reassembled with some extra oil in the hub. Designed and 3D printed a tool for the dustcap, perfect ! Now need to take out the Nexus 7 and respoke the wheel with the Alfine.
Yes, considering the price, which is about 7 times cheaper compared to a Rohloff 14 speed, it surely is. The Rohloff is still king when it comes to built quality, sturdiness and gear range though. I own one too since a year or so and the difference is very noticeable. Where the Alfine 8 speed has a bit of give when you stand on the pedals, the Rohloff is rock solid. Never managed to get the Rohloff to skip in extreme condictions which is something I can't say of the Alfine. But like you say, commuting isn't extreme and that's where the Alfine shines. Cheers!
The Shimano Nexus 7 and 8 and the Alfine 8 are not running on grease only. They also use oil. You can even buy special Shimano oil for it. But its insanely priced. 44€ for 1 liter!
@@multireel7590 You are wrong. Nexus7, 8 and Alfine 8 is a combination of oil and grease. I had a 7 and opened it up also there is a special hub maintanance oil from Shimano that even say that its NOT for the Alfine 11.
@@Gieszkanne The Nexus 7/8 and Alfine 8 speed come by default from the factory with grease. Alfine 11 comes with oil. Check Sheldons Brown's website if you don't want to believe me: www.sheldonbrown.com/nexus-mech.html
@@multireel7590 I dont have to look at anybodys website for it. I had a bike with a nexus 7 that was new and I was the first owner and it had oil and grease in it. Also Shimano offer a special maintenance oil for their 7and 8 gear hub which is not for the Alfine 11.
Alfine 8 is not built to be "oil-tight" (see at 16 minutes in video). If you run oil in your Alfine 8, you'll be wise to keep the wheel "vertical" as much as possible. If you lay it down sideways, say in your car for transporting it, the oil will eventually flow out. When I upgraded my Bullitt cargo bike to a mid-drive motor, I made the move to running automatic transmission fluid in my Alfine 8 hub. Instead of adding 10ml of oil into the hub body, I simply dipped/submerged the entire planetary gear assembly into a bath of ATF. After an hour or so - to really let the oil soak into it - I took it out, let it drain for a few moments until the oil wasn’t “pouring” off of it, and then installed it in the hub body. It was a good decision to “convert” to trans. oil - shifting was improved, and it slipped/skipped out of gear less frequently. Now some five years after I made that change, I’ve taken the assembly out again for “maintenance” (really just curious - it’s been working fine). I observed zero wear and tear (though admittedly, I doubt I’ve put more than 3 or 4 thousand miles on it), and the oil that remained and dripped out looked basically still clean. I re-dipped/soaked the transmission assembly in new ATF, and re-installed it. I doubt that I’ll ever need to bother with it again.
@@borisstarosta7823Top comment. The cleanliness you found shows that it has sealed up pretty effectively. The Nexus 7 I have is known for its week sealing after a service. 7000+ is miles has been good for me though. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
I thought of another reason my Alfine-8 came out so clean when I serviced it with new ATF about a year ago. After I added that mid-drive motor, I realized I could just keep it in 5th gear most of the time. In 5th gear, the hub is a "direct drive," meaning that no power at all goes through the planetary gears; instead the hub acts more like a simple single-speed hub. Thus, with the mid-drive motor, the planetary gears get used only 10% to 15% of the time, as almost all riding can be done in 5th gear (about 12MPH at a comfortable cadence with my stock chainring), including fairly good grades uphill. It's funny that at first I thought putting that motor on would reduce the life-span of the hub, because undoubtedly I put more power through it more of the time. But because I now run in 5th gear 85% of the time, wear and tear on the hub is actually reduced.
at 12:35 there does seem to be way more play in the axle the smaller gears are attached to, on the right one you can see them wobbling around, any clues if that's by design or wear?
@@multireel7590 Good to know. Those things were usually where my gear hubs would start to get issues. Over time, they'd get so much play that the teeth on the cogs would just not stay in the teeth on the ring and it would start skipping (or snap entirely). Those were nexus gear hubs iirc. But I guess they need some play by design to be able to work smoothly without too much resistance
@@esenel92 Actually, the weak spot in this Alfine design is the axle itself and the little metal pawls that are located on the axle. They transfer all your pedalling power. Under high torque situations (standing on your pedals in gear 1 or 2), the axle will bend a bit, causing the metal pawls not hooking perfectly into the ring around it. This results in your pedals skipping forward. I'm planning to make a follow up video on this issue, since I've had this happen lately... This hub is still excellent value for money, but does have its limitations.
you can tell that it was lubed with oil based on the amount of oil built up on the outside of the hub lol edit: 1:37 there has definitely been some leaking. has it affected your rear brake?
What do you see as "complete" disassembly? For the oil maintenance; mManual says; first time after 1000 km, then yearly or every 2000 km (whichever comes first), more under harsh conditions. Which is a pipe dream, mine is over 20.000 km and I only did it once. I ride every day regardless of weather.
Unless you think maybe water has entered the hub or the oil has leaked out for some reason, a complete disassembly isn't needed for a very long time. I would happily drive it for years to come.
10:41 Looking at the planetary gears, it seems like the Nexus hub has machined/steel planetary gears while the Alfine has sinter steel hardened steel planetary gears (you also mention the rounded edges on the alfine, that is also more common with sinter steel, since it is pressed into a mould). Purely based on judgement by eye, the typical golden color on the Alfine gears and the machine traces from the lathe on the ones in the Nexus hubs. The roller pins on the Alfine seem to be better quality steel as well. I would put my money on the Alfine in terms of durability for sure.
I would like to install a alfine 8 mecanism to replace my nexus 8 mechanism but keeping the same wheel Is it possible ? And will i have to change as well the cassette and the shifter? Thank you 😊
Nexus 8 internals are identical to Alfine 8. Like our Dirty Dutch friend said, they're interchangeable. The difference with Nexus and Alfine is, Nexus uses a roller or band brake, the Alfine a disc rotor. That's it brother. And use your Alfine 8 spd shifter too. It will work. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
Hi, thank you for a great video I'm wondering about the use of brake cleaner to remove the white grease as the 'Mannol' one I'm looking at buying online has a warning that it might damage some kinds of plastic... Any ideas?... Also wondering since you say that we don't want oil and grease mixing about the grease we need to put on the bearings to lubrication/prevention of water ingress and oil leakage - is it just the white grease that would be a problem? Thank you in advance.
@@multireel7590 you have to drill the hole in the right place though and be careful about the length of the oil plug. Automotive gear oil has pressure additives that are unnecessary, toxic. Its probably best practice to use a thin fully synthetic oil. You'll probably end up with better frictiononal performance. More environmentally friendly too. You can use rohloff oil. It's fully synthetic and bio degradable.
Рік тому
Is it just me, or others also can't see the extra 12.5K km wear&tear? The new and the old internal look identical to me.
I'm sure these hubs will run great on oil versus grease. Grease adds more friction. But I could't help noticing the extreme amount of dirt on the outside of the hub. I'm guessing this is the drawback of running them oiled.
Hello MultiReel, great video - I have a question: what did you take to clear the internal ring gear unit? Is that WD-40? What would you recommend? Thanks and good job
Excellent video! I have 2 bikes with Nexus 8 (c6000 & c6001) hubs and one with a Nexus 4 Coaster. Are the seals on these hubs sufficient to go "oily only". Thanks again for your clear instructions.
Why would Shimano instruct to only use grease while using oil gives better results? (gearbox oil is never mentioned as an alternative in the 8-speed manuals) Are there any risks (apart from leaks when it is not good sealed). Nice tutorial!
The tiny gear selector pawls on the axle as shown at the 13:00 minute mark have to withstand high torque. They can go a long way, but the design wasn't meant to withstand extreme situations. I've had the Alfine 8 incidentally skipping in first/second/third gear when standing on the pedals and pulling my steering for maximum power when the green light hits. This happened at around 15.000km. Regular use was fine though and I could stand on the pedals in the other gears without a problem. I've opened the Alfine hub again since that skipping happened and switched some of the tiny pawls around with the ones from the Nexus. Not that I could see anything wrong with them, but after that there was no more skipping. Not sure how long this fix will hold. My takeaway is that for regular use, the Alfine 8 is still great value for money and works fine. However it's designed to be just enough and it's possible to exceed its limits if you're going for maximum torque in the first few gears. Since this video I also own a Rohloff bike and that hub is clearly a step up from the Alfine and hasn't skipped or slipped at all no matter what I do with it. It's 8 times more expensive though.
Hello, I was wondering if you can help with a problem. I have the nexus 8 hub which is making some unusual noises only when coasting or pedaling backwards, but no noise when actually pedaling foward, in that regards it runs quite nice. I've already checked the cable tension alignment which is fine, the dots match. Can you help identify the problem please or have any idea what to do. Thank you
Hard to say... perhaps it's the ring with the ball bearings as shown in the 13:20 mark having not enough lubricant. Could also be the nut at the 18:15 mark (with another ball bearing on that side) being too tight. Open it up and take a look, its very a similar procedure as the Alfine.
@@rajumiah6100Don't forget, Shimano do say these hubs mak a noise when back pedalling or coasting in gears 5,6,7,8. The noise is not there in 4,3,2,1. I checked this only this week and its correct. Its in the Shomano pdf manual for Alfine/Nexus hubs. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
In most other videos and instructions for this, I see people dip the unit into ATF, rather than inject it into the housing. Does anyone have any thoughts on which is better?
Yes, my friend has done this on his Alfine 8 and I did the same on my old Nexus 7. It works fine. 7,000+ miles (11,265+kms), no issues with changing gears, but, the Nexus 7 oozes a little oil, a know weak spot. That's why a 50/50 oil/grease mix works better. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
The biggest issue with these hubs is how the drive side bearings are difficult to service. Replacing the bearings will often result in a lengthy rebuild.
I like the in-depth review after so many kilometers very nice... I found a bike in scrap with a 7-speed Shimano Nexus I'm going to use the Hub transmission on my berg go-kart it's a fun project and I flushed one mine out with diesel was so dirty
Which Nexus 8 is that exactly? I am trying to fix my old bike for cheap and probably have to replace the internals of the hub. Would be interesting to know if I can also get an Nexus 8 instead of Alfine 8 since it increases the pool of used hubs on eBay.
I appreciate you may have done a few gearboxes but you really have to clean up things a lot better, even the brake disk carrier nut you tightened you could hear the grit between the disk and the nut crunching, also you did not check and clean any oil seals and the spring clips are called one if then is called a "C" clip and the large one is a split circlip. everything i work on is spotless when i re-assemble it and new oil seals fitted if needed. Take it from a mechanic!
That's not grit on the disc brake carrier. It's a special ribbed ring in between which, when tightened, makes that sound. Any other leftover dirt there is, is really only on the outside of the hub.
@@multireel7590 I have checked the video again and there are serrations on the inner circumference of the brake disk but the gritty sounds start well before the special nut comes in to contact with the brake disc, anyway you have made a fair answer if the gritty sounds, now what about cleaning and checking of the oil seals after all it is the oil seals that stop oil coming out not copious amount of grease. the grease will dissolve in the oil also making the oil a higher viscosity (so the next time i need to check a crankshaft i only need to pack the area and oil seal with grease and this will suffice)
I have got a gazelle C7 bloom bike from 2018. Its got a 7 speed shimano nexus 7 gear system. Its seems after looking some YT videos that a 3 speed or 8 speed have a better ratio in the gearbox. I have looked so far for parts to switch the system over to at least an 8 speed one.. Knowing i could find a shimano nexus 8 speed turn shifter (the original is a 7 speed nexus turn shifter) So i think that would be easy to swap if possible. Iam also think that a 11 speed gearhub wouldnt be possible on my bike. Iam really in a doubt to change out the 7 speed gearbox for a Nexus 8 speed or a alfine 8 speed gearhub. What is the benefit from a nexus 8 hub to a alpine 8 hub. It seems both are looking almost the same, and are also packed with grease to instead of oil. Can you give me you opinion what the best is to do? I really like to have a smoother paddeling action without to get tired to soon.
Good post. I've just bought a Alfine 8 to replace my Nexus 7, but built it into a wheel myself. It's ratios are just that much better than the 7. This was the Historic issue with the 7, it has a too high bottom gear and too low top, but the Alfine 8 is the opposite, with a lower bottom and higher top. It so much nicer now on my custom built Raleigh. 38t chainwheel x 21t rear cog. Its great. I tried a 16t that was fitted to it, but it proved too high overall. Good luck. 👍💯🇬🇧✔😉
But the gaskets at the ends are grease proof but not oil proof of wil leak out thanks to the centrifugal forces sling it onto your rear disc brakes which makes them ineffective
Great video. I personally like to clean the wheel on the outside first, just like surgeon would do to a human. This reduces the risk of abrasive particles getting into the internals.
Leif, vet du om det är stor skillnad på dessa nav jämfört med de 8 växlade nav med fotbroms som är vanligare i sverige?
Funderar på att försöka serva ett själv.
Oh yes! I was itching to do some pre-cleaning around 4:13. Such a luxury to see such a take-down without worrying about setting the parts so I can remember how to get it back together!
@@markfisher7962 he is old school mechanic. No ambulance outside waiting, no bulletproof goggles, no chemical resistant apron, no fire extinguisher nearby.
However, people, his demo is 1. class. Right?
Me too, I would have cleaned the hub before opening it....... but still this is a very pleasant and informative video, it'll make me put oil in my alfine 8 too, but instead of gearbox oil I think of the one that shimano puts in the alfine 11.
Changed grease for gear-oil in two 7 speed hubs and my first impression is that the pedals keep in rest when the wheel is running. Our Dahon bicycle that is for months in the car had dried out grease so the pedals immediately were driven by the wheel. Thanks for this tutorial.
---A year later I discovered, that oil was leaking through de dust-rings behind the small sprocket and with some dirt it turned nog longer smoothly. After cleaning I replaced most of the oil by grease. To avoid problems with the dust-rings I cleaned them thoroughly and made the small one 0.5 mm flatter. In another bike everything is still OK, but I think it is no good to use lots of gearbox oil.
If you are worried about plastic and rubber parts perishing in the oil use "detergent free oil". This is what we use in old motorcycle gearboxes due to the fragile rubber seals.
FYI Almost all lawnmower oil is detergent free.
Thats not why bike oil is detergent free. The clutch is bathed in oil and detergents will make your clutch slip.
The detergent additives are not slick. These are chemicals that disperse contaminates in the oil keeping them in a floating state in solution so a filter can do its job effectively. Normally in non-detergent oil the debris precipitates out of solution collecting in the lowest area within the mechanism. Modern oils can contain an additive which affects the flexible seals found on rotating shafts. These additives bond to the seals. Renews them... to remain flexible and swell enough to do there job better after high mileage. These oils usually are denoted as high mileage oils. The old transmission tune up in a can popular many years ago was basically a solvent that swelled the seals so the clutch packs would not slip. After prolonged use the seals became to soft and would fail. Hope this helps..
Excellent tutorial, thank you.
Sturmy archer, older cyclists will know, have been using oil in their hubs for well over 100 years . Their older models always had a little oil port located on the external hub shell to facilitate adding the oil. You can too----- an old woods valve can be converted into an oil port ; 5 mm metric thread on it plus corresponding hole and threading in your nexus/ alfine hub shell. However, it isn't necessary, you can just add the oil as per this tutorial, but it's much easier to have the oil port access.
Choice of oil. Semi synthetic magnetic oil is v. good, and the 10w/ 40 lawn mower type rating is about right. The quantity is spot on ; even Rohloff say 12 mls. is enough to be adequate for their hubs . Too much is unnecessary and risks spillage. Also, be aware when you park your bike it's not angled too steeply as oil may leak then too. Oil in your hubs will make them last indefinitely and keep them and you happy! Ride on for thousands of miles...🚴🙏
Don't put oil in SA hubs with drumbrake aside it ; it will also grease your brake after a while!!
@@jed954 I had that with my sturmey archer. I put in a bit too much oil and it lubricated the brakes. Not what I really wanted.
Possibly wouldnt notice any difference anyway
Guess the hub needs to be disassembled to drill for wood valve...?
Are you recommending 10W30 mower oil? Non- detergent? All we have here is 30 wt. Any multi wt oil is rated at the lowest number as the base oil. Therefore 10W30 would be 10 wt oil. Multi wt oils for automotive use have many additives a particular one is polymer. These polymer additives begin to thicken with heat to arrive at the highest rated number 10W to 30 wt.
Have to ask the question if the hub generates oil temps high enough to make the molecular shift from 10 to 30 wt. If not then it remains 10 Wt oil.
Also the detergent active is not a slick component it is's a chemical that keeps dirt and debris dispersed/ floating within solution so an oil filter can filter them out. Otherwise these contaminates would collect in the lowest area in the mechanism. Am thinking for a bike hub a detergent oil would be detrimental to bearing life.
Hope this helps... excellent tutorial....
Watched the whole thing, super crisp and clear! I don't even have an internal gear hub 😄
👍 no doubt you'll have one soon !🙂
Terrific job making this tutorial. Saved a lot of people a lot of headaches. Thank you
Love the comparison w.r.t. the internal gears Nexus and Alfine.
Thanks for the video! Great content!
I just bought a bike with an Alfine 8 and it will be a great help for me.
As per comment: I am actively putting old bikes back on the streets, those are usually equipped with old Sachs geared hubs (3, 5 and 7-speed) and the manuals always say the same you did here. Grease the planetary gears with oil (I use automotive engine or gearbox oil) and grease the bearings with machine bearing grease (I use some hi temperature resistant automotive one), the coaster brake should be greased with special grease which actually is a hi temperature resistant one :-). The only difference is that I am completely disassembling the Sachs hubs first and clean up every single part separately.
Greetings from Berlin!
_Fantastic video, I have never thought of 'my Shimano Alfine 8' being such a mechanical wonder-piece...Thank you very much indeed for revealing this!_
Can I say that this is one of the best tutorials I’ve watched in a while. Superbly filmed, you covered everyone question I would have had! I have the same hub so will be giving this process a follow. Thank-you
Back in the 60’s my friend had an English 3-speed with a Sturmey Archer hub. I remember him having a little tube of sewing machine oil, and every so often he was suppose to put 2-3 drops of oil in the hub.
Yes, those were the days. A little capped hole on the hub body. Did 1000's on two old S.A',s. Super reliable. 👍💯🇬🇧✔😉
Thank you for the high quality video. Concise instructions and incredible image quality.
I bought a used bike with an IGH that was overtorqued, loosened the cone and it still didn't spin smoothly. I followed all the instructions, opened it up, cleaned it and gave it a good oil bath. The oil was practically shiny with all the metal shavings inside...
I went from the wheel spinning 3 revolutions when spun at highest gear for 1 pedal rotation, to 10+ or uncountable. It doesn't spin as freely as a regular bike hub but a huge improvement though it does have clicking noises. I'm sure the bearings are shot but at least I salvaged whatever life is left in them... Very big thank you.
Excellent video, I ve followed your tutorial step by step and now my unit is working great. I can't thank you enough
Thank you for this great video. I have Nexus hub on Kalkhoff Ebike but the wheel does not spin freely, so I will now follow your clear guidance and service the hub.
Excellent video! Thank you very much! This must have been quite the work to produce.
Good video. I have a 10 year old Nexus 8 speed with 20,000 miles, I only use oil and it still works like a champ.
That's impressive miles. What do you do? 👍💯🇬🇧✔
I have just purchased my first hub drive bicycle and I cannot thankyou enough for such a clear and detailed video of the workings of the hub. I now feel confident enough to remove, strip and oil my hub. Thank you.
Thank you. I am running a nexus c6001 and successfully changed to oil following this video. One different is that the c6001 does not have that giant nut under the plastic cover (drive side). One just need to loosen the nuts on the other side (brake side) and the whole gear box can be taken out from the other side.
Is there any oil leakage?
When countering the bearing cone, note that this will reduce play since the cone will sit on the other flank of the axle thread afterwards. So you should adjust a little more play initially than intended, when tightening the cone.
I have a Gazelle bike with a SRAM S7 gear hub. Since I injected some 85W90 gearbox oil, it rides smooth and soft like a dream.
Great video. To Those people with a CDX gates carbon drive. The sprocket needs a little help to come back on. There are three levers to lift the sprocket back upon the furthest ledge using a screwdriver before clamping back the springring. 👍
Really clear explanation. No details missing, especially the "zéro-clearance" setting on the "ball-bearing" nut (the one you tight by hand until the main shaft doesn't play and then hold it in position while you tight the final nut over it) which is very important. I keep this video for my next maintenance. Thank you.
Super helpful video. I watched the video a couple of times to buy the stuff and tools I need and then follow it during the process. I am fixing a Nexus 7 and water seems to have flown in and lots of dirty stuff inside. Also, for nexus 7 the special thin wrench is size 14 instead of 15. Glad I found a painter tool that has a similar size to save my day.
Why you didn't clean the whole hub outside and also rotor?
I like my hub dirty, just like my women!
There is a difference between the nexus and the alfine. The gears of the planetary gear have needle bearings, thats why they have that groove, its not only because of the weight.
in the video is shown that the planetary gears have the same type of bearings ?
I think the Nexus 7 I have has needle rollers, the Nexus and Alfine 8 use ball/race. The major difference with the Alfine 8 and Nexus 8 is the Alfine is for disc brakes, the Nexus was roller or band brake only. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
To remove the cable there’s a small hole in the gear shifter. Just use a small allen key or old spoke to rotate the shifter and it comes out really easily.
Great tip!
Day late and a dollar short. Many thanks for the walkthrough. This is my first Alfine 8, SG-S501. It just had the white lithium grease but was super clean--no oil from the factory. I used AMSOIL Dominator Synthetic Racing Grease plus 10cc of AMSOIL Severe Gear 75W-90.
Great video quality. Also you might have saved my day - depending of wether I can put together the inner part that you left intact but I needed to disassamble due to rust ;-)
Thank you brother as this video is a life saver. I own an avanti inc 2 that uses the alfine 8 speed. Just love it. Cheers👍😊.
Fabulous vid !!! I've had dozens and dozens of Sturmey Archer and Shimano 3 speed IG hubs apart over the years.......but I have always been intimidated by the Nexus/Alfine IG hubs with their much greater complexity. I currently have a 1997 Specialized bike with a Nexus 7 speed IG hub that will not shift properly. I will now be able to dismantle, clean and lubricate it properly with axle lube as you show instead of the ridiculously expensive Shimano greases that are recommended. Many many thanks to you for your very simple explanatipn.
my argument for oil began in Chicago. I left my commuter outside one night and had no forward in the morning. it freewheeled forward. froze the pawls closed. I use refrigerator oil since.
Zojuist zelf uitgevoerd met behulp van deze video, bedankt!
Большое спасибо. В Вашем видео много ответов на вопросы об обслуживании в домашних условиях.
Alfine 8コンポーネントで自転車を組み立てる計画をしています。
日本だと使っている人が少ないのでとても参考になりました。
ギアセレクターのカム部品耐久性を気にしていたのでとても参考になりました。
ありがとう。
what a great video for users of this nice hub gear - thanks !
Great video, thank you! Had a couple stumbles with my 11-speed coming apart when I took it off the spindle, and putting it back together. If you hit this, I recommend downloading the SG-S7001 INTER service manual from Shimano, it'll show you how it comes apart and goes back together.
Thanks for the manual reference
Nice video, however, I would have cleaned the outer parts first... and when re-mounting also replacing the sort of worn-out pinion.
Great video, man, i didn't expect i would find it this deep in details. Thanks!
After watching this video, I did maintenance on my Alfine 8, with oil of course, and I will never get back to grease !!🙂
Absolutely loved this video! Thank you for the detailed instructions!
Great video, thanks! Really well made and very helpful.
I have a Rohloff, bought 2nd hand, and I had to take it apart because the rim fell apart on me (2nd hand with the hub obviously), and part of it got wrapped around the hub/axle spacing and jammed the hub.
Didn't work well after that, so I had a go at opening it up.
Hmmmm.....TRICKY little bugger to put back together, but there are a couple of descriptions on the web, and I VERY carefully watched the Rohloff factory assembly videos as a help.
So I managed.
As far as advantages of oil vs grease, I think a big advantage is with oil you can replace the old oil regularily, including a "rinse", which will remove any wear particles.
I've been looking at the lowest gearing you can put on the Alfine and Rohloff, more from curiousity, really.
I cannot see any real reason why you can't go to lower gears than Shimabno recommends on the Alfine.
Is obviously not an issue for you riding it in Netherlands...:-}, but for touring it's an issue.
I don't think the issue is with actual overloading the internal hub gears, at least not from a short session of higher loads by exceeding their recommended gearing ratio.
But rather over a longer period it tends to put more wear & tear on the gears, and you would tend to wear it out faster.
So I think Shimano is really just trying to keep these hubs out of heavily loaded/long distance touring use by discouraging the more extreme gears.
The reason would be that group is a very small fraction of their total intended market (commuters etc), and they don't want any failures talked up on the various forums etc by their use by tourers.
Whereas Rohloff is more sturdily built, and can take a bit more punishment.
Much more $$$ though.
Yeah Shimano 8 speed hubs can take alot more torque then they recommend as they are very well maintained. Thousands of them on cargo bikes and electronic bikes. Mine was used with an electric bike pulling a trailer up to 100kg up 1/6 hills, still fine. I like to use a X2 front derailleur gives 16 gears. As standard 8 speed hub is geared too high for hills about 6mph and about 20mph downhill, that solves the problem. Rolhoff is too expensive, I don't want to park a rolhoff at the supermarket 😂.
@@nickwf70 If you don't mind sharing, what chainrings did you use (number of teeth)?
@@elMapache77 at the moment I'm using an old Shimano hollowtec mountain bike not sure which maybe deore 44 32 22 chainset. Only using the 44 and 32 as bottom bracket is too short 😄.. And a 19tooth nexus rear sprocket gives nice low gear. I think for mountains I would use to 22t as well, no need around here. So I can climb at 5 mph, downhill at about 28.
@@nickwf70 thanks!
I did look into the max torque thingy for the Alfine 8. Reason was I did manage to get the hub to skip on very high torque situations after around 15.000km . The cause? Is not the gears skipping. There are little pawls that extend from the centre axle to select the correct gear. These tiny pawls lock into a ribbed ring that surrounds them. During very high torque, these pawls can skip a bit inside that ring. Again, this only happens in really high torque situations and only in gear 1 or 2. I'ts pretty far from regular commuting use, yet it shows the limits of this hub. Meanwhile I also have a Rohloff and like you say: more sturdy and can take more punishment. Haven't been able to make it skip ever. I really did try. Pricey though :)
Thank you for this video. I’ve had resistance from the hub for the last year. I’ll strip everything out and see how it goes.
Thank You! I will open my Alfine 8. It seem's to be very loud.
Today I learned from this video that I don’t really want to open my Alfine 8 up.
Wow, great video, I´ve watched it through 😁
Fantastic workmanship, really showing how to do it in "easy" steps 👍
Very good and interesting video/tutorial.
I do notice at 12:30 there appears quite a bit of play in the Planet gear shafts/bearings of the high mileage hub on the right. not sure how much is considered normal or acceptable or would even be noticeable during normal use.
Would perhaps be nice to put an oil filler cap in the outside of the hub, like those fitted to old Sturmey Archer 3 speed hubs. This might be quite difficult to do though especially if the hub case is hard.
Good spot! However the play is by design. I noticed that too and thoroughly checked this and compared to the new one.
@@multireel7590 ok, I guess they rely on the Sun and Ring gears to hold/support the Planet gears. Thanks for getting back to me.
Good advice. I've just bought a nearly new Alfine 8 SG-5001 disc lock type and laced it into a 700 rim. This is replacing my older, 11,000km+ Nexus 7, which is still in perfect working order. The 7 has had only had one oil service in that time, and only slightly oozes oil from the axles, a known issue. But the 8's gear ratios are far more user friendly than the 7, its very noticeable.
I too run a chain tensioner. My gearing is 38t front 21t rear. Can you tell me your cog sizes?
I will also note the issue of slippage under high torque and try to avoid it. My 7 never gave any issues with slippage. 👍💯✔🇬🇧😉
Great video. I just needed it for maintenance.
I aded fresh grease.
Maybe some time i will try oil.
Thanks
Try both. A little thickness of the grease thinned slightly by the added oil, that's all your doing. 👍💯🇬🇧✔😉
there was a school outside Chicago for bike techs called Vance Bloom. I was the regional tech and presented the argument for oil then to the instructor. it is agreed grease is better for the occasional rider. as a commuter and tech...it's a simple task for someone set up for the work. the Nexus 7 was before this and terrific with oil also. like butter. butta.
Do you live in a flat area or lots of hills??? Some say the hub gearing is not geared low enough for hills...
I've ridden in hilly area's and the gearing was adequate and the hub worked fine. However, I do not recommend this hub for heaving mountain climbing or very steep hills. Not because of the gear range, but because of the internals reaching their torque limit in the lowest gears.
I have been able to make the hub skip in one of the first gears by standing on the pedals and pulling my steering for maximum force. Although that's not a very common usage, it does show the limits of the hub design.
I also got a Rohloff bike now and apart from the wider gear range, this thing is built like a tank. I really tried hard, but i have not been able to make it skip a single time the past 5.000 km.
An absolutely top-class video! Even though English is obviously not your first language, the instructions and comments are spot-on and very easy to follow. Thank you so very much - I will be referring to your video when I clean and re-grease my Nexus 8-speed hub (bike is 14 years old and the hub has had NO maintenance at all in that period - although mileage is low).
Glad you find the video helpful!
Just make sure you clean your hubs BEFORE you dismantle them and DON'T use mole grips or monkey wrench like this guy does. He is not a good example of a thorough clean technician.
@@alexmorgan3435 Thanks for the feedback! I've got a Rohloff system also, and you're absolutely right. That's a better system and more suitable for steep hills. However, it's also 8 times more expensive, so the Alfine is still great value for what a lot of people use it for. Thanks for watching!
Thanks ! (Dankje !) Just service my new (I think older stock) Alfine 8 and used a can of brake cleaner to wash out the hardened grease. Dunked it in oil (75W90 gear oil) and let it drip out for a while and reassembled with some extra oil in the hub. Designed and 3D printed a tool for the dustcap, perfect ! Now need to take out the Nexus 7 and respoke the wheel with the Alfine.
Good to hear and I love 3D printers too!
Thank you for the detailed work, the video is clear and very easy to follow.
This is the best gearing system for commuting bicycle ever, period. 😎
Yes, considering the price, which is about 7 times cheaper compared to a Rohloff 14 speed, it surely is. The Rohloff is still king when it comes to built quality, sturdiness and gear range though. I own one too since a year or so and the difference is very noticeable. Where the Alfine 8 speed has a bit of give when you stand on the pedals, the Rohloff is rock solid. Never managed to get the Rohloff to skip in extreme condictions which is something I can't say of the Alfine. But like you say, commuting isn't extreme and that's where the Alfine shines. Cheers!
@@multireel7590Did you ever consider the Alfine 11? Yes, Rohloff is very pricey. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
Thank you very much. Just bought a new bicycle with this gearhub.
The Shimano Nexus 7 and 8 and the Alfine 8 are not running on grease only. They also use oil. You can even buy special Shimano oil for it. But its insanely priced. 44€ for 1 liter!
No they do not. It's the Alfine 11 speed that runs on oil.
@@multireel7590 You are wrong. Nexus7, 8 and Alfine 8 is a combination of oil and grease. I had a 7 and opened it up also there is a special hub maintanance oil from Shimano that even say that its NOT for the Alfine 11.
@@Gieszkanne The Nexus 7/8 and Alfine 8 speed come by default from the factory with grease. Alfine 11 comes with oil.
Check Sheldons Brown's website if you don't want to believe me: www.sheldonbrown.com/nexus-mech.html
@@multireel7590 I dont have to look at anybodys website for it. I had a bike with a nexus 7 that was new and I was the first owner and it had oil and grease in it. Also Shimano offer a special maintenance oil for their 7and 8 gear hub which is not for the Alfine 11.
Awesome! I wouldn't have thought that the Alfine 8 is built to be oil-tight as the Alfine 11 is.
Alfine 8 is not built to be "oil-tight" (see at 16 minutes in video). If you run oil in your Alfine 8, you'll be wise to keep the wheel "vertical" as much as possible. If you lay it down sideways, say in your car for transporting it, the oil will eventually flow out.
When I upgraded my Bullitt cargo bike to a mid-drive motor, I made the move to running automatic transmission fluid in my Alfine 8 hub. Instead of adding 10ml of oil into the hub body, I simply dipped/submerged the entire planetary gear assembly into a bath of ATF. After an hour or so - to really let the oil soak into it - I took it out, let it drain for a few moments until the oil wasn’t “pouring” off of it, and then installed it in the hub body.
It was a good decision to “convert” to trans. oil - shifting was improved, and it slipped/skipped out of gear less frequently. Now some five years after I made that change, I’ve taken the assembly out again for “maintenance” (really just curious - it’s been working fine). I observed zero wear and tear (though admittedly, I doubt I’ve put more than 3 or 4 thousand miles on it), and the oil that remained and dripped out looked basically still clean. I re-dipped/soaked the transmission assembly in new ATF, and re-installed it. I doubt that I’ll ever need to bother with it again.
@@borisstarosta7823 Interesting. Shows again what a (low cost) engineering marvel Shimano IG hubs are.
@@borisstarosta7823Top comment. The cleanliness you found shows that it has sealed up pretty effectively. The Nexus 7 I have is known for its week sealing after a service. 7000+ is miles has been good for me though. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
I thought of another reason my Alfine-8 came out so clean when I serviced it with new ATF about a year ago. After I added that mid-drive motor, I realized I could just keep it in 5th gear most of the time. In 5th gear, the hub is a "direct drive," meaning that no power at all goes through the planetary gears; instead the hub acts more like a simple single-speed hub. Thus, with the mid-drive motor, the planetary gears get used only 10% to 15% of the time, as almost all riding can be done in 5th gear (about 12MPH at a comfortable cadence with my stock chainring), including fairly good grades uphill. It's funny that at first I thought putting that motor on would reduce the life-span of the hub, because undoubtedly I put more power through it more of the time. But because I now run in 5th gear 85% of the time, wear and tear on the hub is actually reduced.
at 12:35 there does seem to be way more play in the axle the smaller gears are attached to, on the right one you can see them wobbling around, any clues if that's by design or wear?
I noticed that too, but they both have the same amount of play. It's definitely by design.
@@multireel7590 Good to know. Those things were usually where my gear hubs would start to get issues. Over time, they'd get so much play that the teeth on the cogs would just not stay in the teeth on the ring and it would start skipping (or snap entirely). Those were nexus gear hubs iirc. But I guess they need some play by design to be able to work smoothly without too much resistance
@@esenel92 Actually, the weak spot in this Alfine design is the axle itself and the little metal pawls that are located on the axle. They transfer all your pedalling power. Under high torque situations (standing on your pedals in gear 1 or 2), the axle will bend a bit, causing the metal pawls not hooking perfectly into the ring around it. This results in your pedals skipping forward. I'm planning to make a follow up video on this issue, since I've had this happen lately...
This hub is still excellent value for money, but does have its limitations.
@@multireel7590 ouch, that seems like a bit of a design flaw!
Nice video. Hard to find one in such detail and in English. I have a Nexus 8 that needs this soon.
you can tell that it was lubed with oil based on the amount of oil built up on the outside of the hub lol edit: 1:37 there has definitely been some leaking. has it affected your rear brake?
It's not leaking. It's from chain lube I sprayed that went a bit on the hub.
how often does complete disassembly needs to be done? is changing oil at regular intervals enough?
What do you see as "complete" disassembly?
For the oil maintenance; mManual says; first time after 1000 km, then yearly or every 2000 km (whichever comes first), more under harsh conditions.
Which is a pipe dream, mine is over 20.000 km and I only did it once. I ride every day regardless of weather.
@@jcvjcvjcvjcv no doubt, taking the internal hub apart is the best; I'll be happy with drains & refills ^^
Unless you think maybe water has entered the hub or the oil has leaked out for some reason, a complete disassembly isn't needed for a very long time. I would happily drive it for years to come.
10:41 Looking at the planetary gears, it seems like the Nexus hub has machined/steel planetary gears while the Alfine has sinter steel hardened steel planetary gears (you also mention the rounded edges on the alfine, that is also more common with sinter steel, since it is pressed into a mould). Purely based on judgement by eye, the typical golden color on the Alfine gears and the machine traces from the lathe on the ones in the Nexus hubs. The roller pins on the Alfine seem to be better quality steel as well. I would put my money on the Alfine in terms of durability for sure.
Did you mean to write Nexus in your last sentence (instead of Alfine)? I don't get it, which hub do you think is better?
@@kosztaz87 yes, correct. Thanks for your keen eye. I'll edit it
Thank you. Great video. Clear and good quality. Thank you.
I would like to install a alfine 8 mecanism to replace my nexus 8 mechanism but keeping the same wheel
Is it possible ? And will i have to change as well the cassette and the shifter?
Thank you 😊
Nexus 8 internals are identical to Alfine 8. Like our Dirty Dutch friend said, they're interchangeable. The difference with Nexus and Alfine is, Nexus uses a roller or band brake, the Alfine a disc rotor. That's it brother. And use your Alfine 8 spd shifter too. It will work. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
Hi, thank you for a great video I'm wondering about the use of brake cleaner to remove the white grease as the 'Mannol' one I'm looking at buying online has a warning that it might damage some kinds of plastic... Any ideas?... Also wondering since you say that we don't want oil and grease mixing about the grease we need to put on the bearings to lubrication/prevention of water ingress and oil leakage - is it just the white grease that would be a problem? Thank you in advance.
You can add an oil draining tap. So you can easily change oil and wash it. Shimano isnt even using full synthetic oil in their alfine 11
Maybe I will!
@@multireel7590 you have to drill the hole in the right place though and be careful about the length of the oil plug. Automotive gear oil has pressure additives that are unnecessary, toxic. Its probably best practice to use a thin fully synthetic oil. You'll probably end up with better frictiononal performance. More environmentally friendly too. You can use rohloff oil. It's fully synthetic and bio degradable.
Is it just me, or others also can't see the extra 12.5K km wear&tear? The new and the old internal look identical to me.
I'm sure these hubs will run great on oil versus grease. Grease adds more friction. But I could't help noticing the extreme amount of dirt on the outside of the hub. I'm guessing this is the drawback of running them oiled.
Good eye, yes it's dirty. Doesn't have anything to do with the oil inside the hub though. It's the chain lube spray I used a bit to generously.
Hello MultiReel, great video - I have a question: what did you take to clear the internal ring gear unit? Is that WD-40? What would you recommend? Thanks and good job
It's brake cleaner. If you use an extension straw it's easier to spray and clean the insides too.
Excellent video!
I have 2 bikes with Nexus 8 (c6000 & c6001) hubs and one with a Nexus 4 Coaster. Are the seals on these hubs sufficient to go "oily only".
Thanks again for your clear instructions.
Why would Shimano instruct to only use grease while using oil gives better results? (gearbox oil is never mentioned as an alternative in the 8-speed manuals) Are there any risks (apart from leaks when it is not good sealed). Nice tutorial!
Taking apart what is virtually a gear box without cleaning first ?
I've opened the gearbox so many times it's no problem for me. I do recommend cleaning if you're new to this.
Dude why not clean the outside first before start disassembling the hub?
I know, ill do in case of another video.
It's also to necessary for us to SEE the parts.
@@GordoGambler If you can't see the parts that's probably more of a case of maximus exaggeratus ;)
Great video good explanation so you recommend the Alfine 8? Its reliable and does not slip unlike the Nuvinci?
The tiny gear selector pawls on the axle as shown at the 13:00 minute mark have to withstand high torque. They can go a long way, but the design wasn't meant to withstand extreme situations.
I've had the Alfine 8 incidentally skipping in first/second/third gear when standing on the pedals and pulling my steering for maximum power when the green light hits. This happened at around 15.000km. Regular use was fine though and I could stand on the pedals in the other gears without a problem.
I've opened the Alfine hub again since that skipping happened and switched some of the tiny pawls around with the ones from the Nexus. Not that I could see anything wrong with them, but after that there was no more skipping. Not sure how long this fix will hold.
My takeaway is that for regular use, the Alfine 8 is still great value for money and works fine. However it's designed to be just enough and it's possible to exceed its limits if you're going for maximum torque in the first few gears.
Since this video I also own a Rohloff bike and that hub is clearly a step up from the Alfine and hasn't skipped or slipped at all no matter what I do with it. It's 8 times more expensive though.
Can you just use brake cleaner to clean the hub? Does it hurt the seals?
Hello, I was wondering if you can help with a problem. I have the nexus 8 hub which is making some unusual noises only when coasting or pedaling backwards, but no noise when actually pedaling foward, in that regards it runs quite nice. I've already checked the cable tension alignment which is fine, the dots match.
Can you help identify the problem please or have any idea what to do. Thank you
Hard to say... perhaps it's the ring with the ball bearings as shown in the 13:20 mark having not enough lubricant. Could also be the nut at the 18:15 mark (with another ball bearing on that side) being too tight. Open it up and take a look, its very a similar procedure as the Alfine.
@@multireel7590 Appreciate your help!
@@rajumiah6100Don't forget, Shimano do say these hubs mak a noise when back pedalling or coasting in gears 5,6,7,8. The noise is not there in 4,3,2,1. I checked this only this week and its correct. Its in the Shomano pdf manual for Alfine/Nexus hubs. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
In most other videos and instructions for this, I see people dip the unit into ATF, rather than inject it into the housing. Does anyone have any thoughts on which is better?
Yes, my friend has done this on his Alfine 8 and I did the same on my old Nexus 7. It works fine. 7,000+ miles (11,265+kms), no issues with changing gears, but, the Nexus 7 oozes a little oil, a know weak spot. That's why a 50/50 oil/grease mix works better. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
The biggest issue with these hubs is how the drive side bearings are difficult to service. Replacing the bearings will often result in a lengthy rebuild.
I like the in-depth review after so many kilometers very nice... I found a bike in scrap with a 7-speed Shimano Nexus I'm going to use the Hub transmission on my berg go-kart it's a fun project
and I flushed one mine out with diesel was so dirty
Which Nexus 8 is that exactly? I am trying to fix my old bike for cheap and probably have to replace the internals of the hub. Would be interesting to know if I can also get an Nexus 8 instead of Alfine 8 since it increases the pool of used hubs on eBay.
It was a Nexus bought around 2017. It came on a new bike. Don't have anymore info unfortunately.
@@multireel7590 anyway thanks a lot for the info!
I appreciate you may have done a few gearboxes but you really have to clean up things a lot better, even the brake disk carrier nut you tightened you could hear the grit between the disk and the nut crunching, also you did not check and clean any oil seals and the spring clips are called one if then is called a "C" clip and the large one is a split circlip. everything i work on is spotless when i re-assemble it and new oil seals fitted if needed. Take it from a mechanic!
That's not grit on the disc brake carrier. It's a special ribbed ring in between which, when tightened, makes that sound. Any other leftover dirt there is, is really only on the outside of the hub.
@@multireel7590 I have checked the video again and there are serrations on the inner circumference of the brake disk but the gritty sounds start well before the special nut comes in to contact with the brake disc, anyway you have made a fair answer if the gritty sounds, now what about cleaning and checking of the oil seals after all it is the oil seals that stop oil coming out not copious amount of grease. the grease will dissolve in the oil also making the oil a higher viscosity (so the next time i need to check a crankshaft i only need to pack the area and oil seal with grease and this will suffice)
BTW that C shaped "ring" you mentioned is called a C-clip.
11:43 a lot of play in that pin holding the gear. 12:39 there it is again.
That's by design!
Nicely done sir. Thank you.
Were you just scrubbing that gear oil off with your bare hands and brake cleaner? Bold.
What did you use for the degreasing?
Do you need the freewheel removeal tools for the Nexus Variant too?
what s the difference between SG-S7001-8 and SG-S7000-8 ?
Thanks a lot from Germany❤
I have got a gazelle C7 bloom bike from 2018. Its got a 7 speed shimano nexus 7 gear system.
Its seems after looking some YT videos that a 3 speed or 8 speed have a better ratio in the gearbox.
I have looked so far for parts to switch the system over to at least an 8 speed one..
Knowing i could find a shimano nexus 8 speed turn shifter (the original is a 7 speed nexus turn shifter) So i think that would be easy to swap if possible.
Iam also think that a 11 speed gearhub wouldnt be possible on my bike.
Iam really in a doubt to change out the 7 speed gearbox for a Nexus 8 speed or a alfine 8 speed gearhub.
What is the benefit from a nexus 8 hub to a alpine 8 hub. It seems both are looking almost the same, and are also packed with grease to instead of oil.
Can you give me you opinion what the best is to do?
I really like to have a smoother paddeling action without to get tired to soon.
Good post. I've just bought a Alfine 8 to replace my Nexus 7, but built it into a wheel myself.
It's ratios are just that much better than the 7. This was the Historic issue with the 7, it has a too high bottom gear and too low top, but the Alfine 8 is the opposite, with a lower bottom and higher top. It so much nicer now on my custom built Raleigh.
38t chainwheel x 21t rear cog. Its great. I tried a 16t that was fitted to it, but it proved too high overall. Good luck. 👍💯🇬🇧✔😉
Nexus and Alfine are mostly the same, except some minor differences in design of some internal parts?
What is that little external third cog for?
That's to put a bit of tension on the chain. It's called the chain tensioner.
But the gaskets at the ends are grease proof but not oil proof of wil leak out thanks to the centrifugal forces sling it onto your rear disc brakes which makes them ineffective
No, that doesn't happen. There has been no oil leaking the past 13.000km.
Is it also possible to fill up a Nexus 8 hub with oil? Just like you did with this Alfine 8 hub?
Yes you can.
The ring you talk about at 14:30 is called an e clip. You easily remove it by twisting a flat blade screwdriver in it
then it flies away, good luck finding it
@@oussama4629 it doesnt. Even if it does, block with your hand. E clips are intended to be removed with screwdriver, not a huge battle with pliars.
what did you use to clean the gears? Regular breakcleaner?
I use diesel to degrease, then spray it liberally with carb or brake cleaner, let it dry out then re-oil/grease. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
Carb or brake cleaner is fine. 👍💯🇬🇧✔
How do you oil it up again??
What about leaking oil problem ?
My alfine 8 is working with oil since 2008. Severe mtb use. Working perfectly
isn't better use grease as shimano original assemble?
Why no full chain cover?