Genesis Day 01 Alfine 8

notsoblue

Anyone got one of these? I think I may have just bought one to replace my hybrid for a tour in Italy.

veronese68

I think Padders has an 11 speed one. Although he has been laid low by a dog and is out of action for a bit. He's bleedin' quick on it though.

notsoblue

I'll have to make a note that it attracts dogs... I was initially after a Pompetamine, but they've stopped making them for a while. I was tempted by the 11 speed Day 01 but theres a £500 price difference and the 8 speed one fits in nicely with Cyclescheme. Can't be worse than a Scott Sportster eh?

veronese68

I must admit I really like the idea of them, and they look good. Didn't realise the price difference was that much between 8 and 11 speed. I think if I was going to go down the low maintenance road I'd want a belt drive though.

woodnut

Veronese68 wrote:

I I think if I was going to go down the low maintenance road I'd want a belt drive though.

I've got an Alfine equipped MTB, and when the time came to renew the chain I fitted a singlespeed one ( I think they ship with a narrow guage 9 sp chain). You could pull an anchor up with that thing, it's now done many hundreds of miles off road through all kinds of cack and given the occasional clean & relube seems as good as new.
I know belt drives are quiet and you don't need to oil them, but are they really worth having to have a frame with a gap in, do you think?

jonny_trousers

Wasn't there a few people here who had an absolute nightmare with the disc brakes on the 8 speed?

pangolin

Yeah Gaz I think

SimonAH

woodnut wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

I I think if I was going to go down the low maintenance road I'd want a belt drive though.

I've got an Alfine equipped MTB, and when the time came to renew the chain I fitted a singlespeed one ( I think they ship with a narrow guage 9 sp chain). You could pull an anchor up with that thing, it's now done many hundreds of miles off road through all kinds of cack and given the occasional clean & relube seems as good as new.
I know belt drives are quiet and you don't need to oil them, but are they really worth having to have a frame with a gap in, do you think?

My love of the belt comes with the total non-pick up of shite that it gives you. No greasiness, no grindiness, no hassle at all. Definitely worth a frame with a split. Honestly, I can clean my fixie with a single sheet of bogroll - there is just no mechanism for muck to stick to the frame / components. About once a year it gets a good waxing with high end car polish and that is it.

Never worry about chain grease on your trousers, never adjust for chain slack, sling the bike into the car and don't worry about it getting grease on the upholstery, it's just lovely.

For a city bike I reckon belt is the only way to go.

Let's face it, a normal chain has what, 342 moving parts? Basically coated in adhesive and moving through a grit bath.

woodnut

^^When you put it like that.......

notsoblue

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Wasn't there a few people here who had an absolute nightmare with the disc brakes on the 8 speed?

Oh? What kind of problems? Was it front fork juddering?

Libraio

Something with the brake rotors being Shimano and the callipers Tektro Lyra. Just didn't work very well. New one has Avid brakes so should be good. Congrats on the new bike!

Yvar

t4tomo

I would suggest if it were front forks it was a disc brake problem rather than a problem relating to that fact that it had an 8 speed hub gear.

Hub gears have been around for a quite a while after all.
I'd love an Alfine 11 speed for the tandem, but then the frame isn't worth the upgrade, so that would mean a whole new tandem.

walkingbootweather

SimonAH wrote:

Honestly, I can clean my fixie with a single sheet of bogroll

Is this the technique you use?

jonny_trousers

Libraio wrote:

Something with the brake rotors being Shimano and the callipers Tektro Lyra. Just didn't work very well. New one has Avid brakes so should be good. Congrats on the new bike!

Yvar

Yeah, that sounds right. I think you're right that it was with the older ones only.

tailwindhome

http://www.realcycles.com/m37b0s199p292 ... 2012%29%0A

notsoblue

TailWindHome wrote:

http://www.realcycles.com/m37b0s199p2929/_GENESIS_Day_One_01_Alfine_8_(2012)

Thats exactly the one I've just ordered

FoldingJoe

Only problem is once you've entered Cyclescheme as the payment option the price goes up by £106!!

FoldingJoe

BTW, anybody know what the effective gearing is on these?

Might be interested myself on CTW.

t4tomo

Gear Ratio Total Difference 307%
Gear Ratio 1 0.527
Gear Ratio 2 0.644
Gear Ratio 3 0.748
Gear Ratio 4 0.851
Gear Ratio 5 1
Gear Ratio 6 1.223
Gear Ratio 7 1.419
Gear Ratio 8 1.615

obviously actula gear inches depends on chainwheel/sprocket used.

I saw a chap on one this morning, he seemed very happy with it, said it was a very smooth change as nice progressive ratios.


the 11 speed is:
Gear Ratio Total Difference 409%
Gear Ratio 1 0.527
Gear Ratio 2 0.681
Gear Ratio 3 0.770
Gear Ratio 4 0.878
Gear Ratio 5 0.995
Gear Ratio 6 1.134
Gear Ratio 7 1.292
Gear Ratio 8 1.462
Gear Ratio 9 1.667
Gear Ratio 10 1.888
Gear Ratio 11 2.153

asquithea

FWIW, I just switched from an Alfine 8 to an 11, and I'm not entirely happy with the results. Change-down is often jarring, and I get skips on some gears.

The 8 was cruder, but I found it more predictable. I'd get the 8.

notsoblue

So my Day 01 arrived today. Just unboxed it and took it for a bit of a spin at lunchtime. First impression is that its much lighter than I thought it would be (though I've not added the rack & mudguards to it yet). The shifting feels incredibly smooth, and the range isn't too bad. The brakes feel a little spongy though, but then I haven't tuned them yet. As disc brakes I'd expected them to be pretty firm, tbh. The 35mm cyclecross tyres are appalling and I'll be replacing them with 25-28mm four seasons or marathons ASAP.

With regards to brakes, does anyone have any tips on how to tune Avid BB5's? Will have a potter tomorrow, but would definitely like to make them a bit more snappy than they are now. Is that a realistic expectation?

pangolin

From the what fettling have you done thread;

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Huzzah!

I managed to actually get a BB5 front disc brake working properly! In your face LBS.

'cos I tried and failed to get the brakes working right the first time, I admitted defeat and took the Felt to the LBS (Wiggle have paid for this btw) and they 'fixed' them. Did they bollocks...

The ride in was bad enough but the ride home was a nightmare, the amount of noise being generated and the drag on the brakes was just 'orrible.

So I got in last night and put the bike on the stand and had a proper go.

I found the "business card down the outside and screw the inner pad in all the way" method worked best. Just took a little bit of tweaking with the cable and bob's yer Mother's brother.

Somehow I've managed to get the pads so close that there's barely any movement on the lever and the bikes comes to a serious halt. There was a tiny amount of noise when I set off but that's gone now and I am a happy bunny.

I did try this before but I had the bike upside down in the kitchen and I reckon this caused the brake mounts to hang slightly poorly when tightening them up. Another good reason to get a bike stand

reformedfatty

As above with the brakes setup method. Not quite the superman potential of hydraulics, but certainly all you need.

notsoblue

Cool, nice one. Will give it a try! Thanks KB etc

notsoblue

Oh, one more thing!

Mudguards... Theres a *tiny* amount of clearance on the front fork for mudguards, has anyone fitted decent mudguards to a Day 01 or a Croix de Fer? With the stock 35mm tyres I don't think it'll take any guards at all. When I pop the 25/28mm tyres on there'll be more space, but I think a recommendation would be pretty useful here!

Edit: the Genesis Blog delivers - Should have googled that first

http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/blog/25/0 ... cross-bike