A long time coming

I finally managed to prise the Alfine off Andy. Ok, I might be exaggerating slightly, Andy was always very happy to hand the Alfine over, but I was having a ball with the smooth simplicity of the single speed belt drive and certainly learning a lot about the belt drive.

I remember when I first mentioned the Alfine to Andy (many months back), he was skeptical; now he is a total convert. Personally, I've never ridden an Alfine for any significant period, certainly not on a day-to-day basis, so while I am sold on the concept, I'm yet to be totally won over.

Although I got the wheels on Tuesday, a seriously annoying bout of man-flu over the last few days has kept me from building and riding the proto, but finally I got around to it. In reality, it hasn't been that long, but it certainly has felt like it.

The build itself was fairly painless. The belt line was just about perfect and with the Alfine sprocket also being a 24T, the same as the single speed set-up, I didn't even need to adjust the EBB. The cable guide was also spot on, giving a very tidy routing.

The Versa VRS-8 shifters are also interesting. If you are used to Shimano STI levers, these do feel a little slender, but seem perfectly comfortable. The shape of the levers is fairly Shimano-esque so no surprises there. The action of the shifting is smooth and positive, though I'd probably have preferred a shorter shift lever arc. The only criticism I have of them at this point is that they are supplied with a rather flimsy cable adjuster (a Ritchey branded component); it does the job but I think I'll swap in some SRAM in-line adjusters on the weekend.

I've only ridden it around the block (a few times) so far to early to write about my experiences with it, but once I've got a few miles in, I will surely let you know how it goes.

ps. Thanks for all the interest. I was surprised with the response and questions that rolled immediately after I added the Contact link. We do have a lot of work still to do; particularly testing ver2.0 as well as resolving the numerous commercial issues. But we are getting there. Keep the questions coming, and thanks again for following our progress.