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I purchased a Scott Sub 10 last year and use it almost every day for commuting doing around 12 miles a day.

I'd say I've done around 2000 miles since purchasing it last Summer.

I am going to take it in to get serviced soon as I feel the wheels need to be straightened and other things aught to get looked at.... as sometimes the gear (Shimano Alfine, 8 spd IGH) slips when I put it into 8th gear.

I was surprised the bike didn't come with much in the way of instructions about servicing the hub since it came with guides for most of the other components.

I went to one bike shop and they quoted £140 for the hub to get serviced, which seemed a bit excessive until I went and looked at how much the official Shimano servicing kit costs alone.

I want to service this myself as I think it'll be a good lesson to learn.

So my questions are:

  • Does anyone have any experience of advice for doing this?
  • What tools will I require?
  • What lubrication is recommended?
  • Are there any guides?
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    Based on the info in this question, they don't need to be serviced that often. They should be able to go 10's of thousands of kilometers before needing to be serviced. What problems are you experiencing that you think it needs to be serviced? Perhaps adjusting the cabling would be enough. bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/4933/…
    – Kibbee
    Feb 6, 2013 at 21:45
  • I assumed they needed servicing every 2000 miles/ 2 years - whatever comes first... or am I wrong? Perhaps I do just need to adjust the cable to fix the 8th gear issue. I will investigate that this weekend. Thanks.
    – Malachi
    Feb 6, 2013 at 21:49
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    I'll leave a full answer to the more mechanically inclined here, but Sheldon Brown's site has a page on Shimano Nexus/Alfine hubs that may help. Feb 8, 2013 at 5:10
  • I did do some adjustment to the gear cable and it has made some improvements to the 8th gear slippage. Hopefully I'll be able to find the sweet spot as I couldn't clearly see the markings that were described in some of the YouTube videos I watched.
    – Malachi
    Feb 12, 2013 at 13:07
  • Or learn German. I like the Scott Sub Speed 10. I'm thinking of picking one up this weekend.
    – user21280
    Aug 25, 2015 at 21:54

2 Answers 2

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I've owned a Scott Sub 10 Alfine 8 (orange 2011) since Jan 2012. I've done 1600 miles and it runs very nicely indeed. Unfortunately I rode through a 'puddle' during the floods, which turned out to be 18" deep - it completely submerged the hub for 5-10 seconds. I bought a litre of the magic shimano oil for £60 from a shop which has since gone bust. When I opened the hub there was absolutely no water ingress and the internals looked factory fresh. I followed Shimano's servicing instructions to the letter. It's not difficult, taking about 2 hrs - a professional mechanic could do the whole thing in 30 mins. The quote of £140 is very steep. Although the oil retails for £80, it is reusable - just leave it to settle and return to the tin. I weighed the oil can before and after, and I used 35gm - in other words there's enough for 30 services. The cost to a shop which regularly services Alfines would be £3 per hub. Adding 1 hour's labour would come to about £30. If you do your own servicing, don't degrease the hub in solvent - the drive side bearings are inaccessable without buying an expensive tool, and thin oil, like ATF, will not keep them sweet for long. Read the net for loads of people who've done this and now blame Shimano. Regarding 8th gear: this has the most cable tension,so if it's an adjustment problem, it needs more tension. Also look out for a rusty/ bent cable. Finally, if there's dirt behind the casette joint it might limit movement. Try removing the cassette joint, cleaning it and regreasing the cable while your at it. I'd be quite happy to talk you through the service, but I don't want to publish my email/phone. I'll keep an eye on this page incase you want to contact me again.

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  • Thanks for the advice Bill - I managed to sort out my gear slippage in the 8th gear by adjusting the gear cable after following some videos on YouTube ( I am pretty novice when it comes to bikes). I took my bike in for a general service due to my rear calipers screwing up after riding through a puddle/bad UK weather and everything is running smoothly now. In the future when I require servicing my Hub I will contact you on here if you don't mind?
    – Malachi
    Feb 18, 2013 at 20:30
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There's a variety of guides, reviews, etc. at http://hubstripping.wordpress.com/alfine-shimano/ (Much of it in German, so you might need to feed it though Google Translate.)

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