Buying my first mountain bike - Genesis IO Alfine good choice?

[bernieUK]

Hello all

I am thinking of buying a mountain bike. My budget is around £1000.00. I found a Genesis IO 8 Alfine going for £999.00 - dropped down from £1269.00. It seems a good buy. From what I can gather Genesis seem to get fair reviews.

http://www.genesisbi...-alfine-8/specs

However, I have always ridden a singlespeed with rim brakes so riding a bike with disc brakes and hub gears is going to be an experience I can imagine. If I do buy the Genesis I am expecting a little more maintenance of course. Does anyone know if removing the rear wheel is particularly difficult considering the Alfine hub gears? I am assuming with the disc brakes it will just be a case of alligning the calipers. With regard to the brakes is bleeding a job for my local bike shop or is it something you can do yourself?

Any advice or tips would be certainly appreciated.

 

[Cubist]

Wheel removal with discs is easier than with rimbrakes. The caliper remains centred, and as long as you push the axles into the dropouts properly your brakes will remain aligned and centred.

Your brakes will need bleeding about as often as your windows need new frames. When they do it's a DIY job.

Nice bike by the way!

 

[bernieUK]

Wheel removal with discs is easier than with rimbrakes. The caliper remains centred, and as long as you push the axles into the dropouts properly your brakes will remain aligned and centred.

Your brakes will need bleeding about as often as your windows need new frames. When they do it's a DIY job.

Nice bike by the way!

Thank you for the reply. My only real concern is the Alfine hub. I did find a video on Youtube showing how to remove the rear wheel. It was a little dark and could not quite see the finer points of it.

 

[Piemaster]

Looks like its got track type rear facing dropouts for the alfine, same as my on-one pompino.
Not difficult to get the rear wheel out compared to a derailleur, just different. For me: disconnect cable, slacken off chain tug (can't tell if the genesis has one), slacken hub nuts, slide wheel forward a bit to get chain off, slide wheel back to remove.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly Lining the chain tug, non-turn washers and hub can be a bit more of a fiddle than putting a derailleur, but not difficult.

I have cantis on the rear, dealing with the rear disc caliper may involve having to slacken it off too, or it may not depending on how its been designed (it doesn't look like it, but I may be wrong). The pompetamine has caliper on chain stay, not the seat stay here to get around it. Don't let that put you off though, it is a nice bike.

Just a thought, for the budget you could get an on-one singlespeed for less (maybe even a carbon frame for a bit more ) with the same type dropouts as the genesis, and they are selling an alfine 8 speed wheel for £170

 

[jack the lad]

The slightly faffy, i.e. non-intuitive, bit of getting the wheel out is removing the gear cable from the hub. It doesn't show up too well on videos, but it is really quite easy - there is a small hole in the hub near where the cable attaches, you stick a small allen key in it to use as a lever, rotate it around the hub so the the inner gear cable goes slack and pops off easily, reverse to reattach.

I think my Alfine gear Pompetamine is just brilliant as an all-rounder road/bridleway bike, but I don't think I would choose a hub gear Mountain bike for serious off road stuff. If you have ridden singlespeed before the gear range of an Alfine might be good enough for you, but it's nowhere near the range of a 3 x 9 derailleur set up. The hub gears weigh a little bit more overall than a derailleur too, but not too much - the problem is that all the weight is in the back wheel and it is noticeable. Try before you buy to see how the balance feels to you when you are riding over drops, up steps and bunny hopping.

 

[gaz]

I had some issues with a similar frame.
Taking the hub out is easy but getting it back in and aligning it properly with track ends was difficult.
I may have just done it wrong and not have the patience for it, but it was an issue when fixing a puncture as you had to get it spot on or the rear brake wouldn't work.

It's worth noting that the Alfie hub does have some big jumps between the gears, and it might not be everyone's cup of tea for off roading.