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In terms off faff free, year round commuting abuse on tow path & road?
I've had an 8 for about 6 yrs on a commuter/shopper/kids bike seat type bike. in that time I've taken it apart once to degrease, grease and dunk in ATF. And that has been it. It's on the original shifter cable and chain too !
Pretty much qualifies as minimal hassle in my books.
Some people are lucky, some people are not. I've had my alfine 8 running with Versa shifters for 7 years? (with a 3-year gap) and been problem-free. Serviced every year or two. Occasional new chain or sprocket.
See various threads. General opinion is that the 11 is less reliable. That's certainly been our experience - Katie's commuter 11 has been replaced once and returned for repair at least a second time but still pisses out it's oil all over the wheel/disc/floor.
I've got an 8 but it's done little mileage so far.
My 11 dropped all its oil out after 3 trouble free regularly serviced years. Some seals were replaced but ever since I cannot get the gears indexed right. No immediately apparent damage to the innards either.
I'm running an eight speed hub that was chosen over eleven speed for its reliability for the sort of stuff you describe.
It's been bombproof so far and has had nothing done to it. You just need to ensure that the yellow dots on the hub are aligned to prevent any miss indexing.
I took one look at the exploded diagram of the Alfine 11 when it was introduced and decided I'd be avoiding that one. There's some decidedly lightweight bits in there.
But seeing as it's Shimano, no doubt it's sorted by now.