District + Gears = Commuting Dream
There is no doubt that the original District is one of the best looking bikes, but some lamented that it didn’t have the flexibility of the SoHo. With a little work Mirko from Germany was able to achieve the best of both worlds. Here’s his comments.
Finally I got the District running smooth with the Alfine Hub. Now the District is nearly perfect for my needs. I was riding the bikeway from Dresden to Hamburg ( 750 km ) with carrier and about 15kg extra weight on the bike. I also changed the orange rims with Mavic CXP33 and some DT Revolution. After these modifications I was prepared for the bikeway along the river “Elbe” and the District showed that it can be also a comfortable trekking bike. Unfortunately the new rims changed the bike soul. So I decided to put some reflective orange sticker from german roadsigns on the rims and was amazed how the look changed to something special. Now my district is much more effective for my riding territory in Dresden and with a weight of 10,8kg it is still light for a bike with internal gear hub. After all I think it is a good alternative to the trek soho with the great style of the district. Thanks for the “Lost Grips” post. My new grips are already on the bike. Thanks to the Trek Team for great support. Sorry for my school english
Greetings from Dresden, Germany
Tags: Commuting, Internal Hub, Wheels
This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 9:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
September 16th, 2009 at 4:48 am
My wife always tells me, “wear the clothes, don’t let the clothes wear you.” Your bike modifications reminded me of that. At first I cringed at the loss of your orange rims, but it is your bike, and it is good that you make it work for your commute.
I can’t imagine commuting everyday on my District. My ride to work is a hilly 46 miles a day. I ride a flat bar, full carbon Orbea, and I use every gear.
My District is perfect for the days I go for a ride with my wife, to the coffee shop, the farmer’s market, or just around the block. Every time I ride it, people comment on those orange rims.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 am
Hi, did you had some details on the method used to achieve this ? Could you find pre-built wheels with the alfine hub or did you “simply” had to re-lace the wheel with a spare hub (in this case why not keeping the original rims ?)
Thanks & nice work for your modification !, i’m currently tempted with the very same…
September 24th, 2009 at 1:22 am
I simply wanted some more robust rims for my trip to Hamburg. With the extra weight a was not sure if the original rims/crossing can handle the bags and me in rough situations. So I laced the new rims with the alfine hub but there should be no problem to let to old rims on the bike.
Mirko
October 8th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Great set up, wish I could buy a District with gears as standard. Looks so much better without the gay orange rims.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:40 am
Hi,
could you give me some details how you managed to build the Alfine onto your Distict?
I am thinking of buying a Trek District, but the only disadvantage I see (which provents me from buying it right now) is, that it is a single speed… If that could be done without too much hassle, I would buy one…
Thanks a lot,
Bernhard
January 31st, 2010 at 11:46 am
Hi Mirko
I have ordered a District and would be interested to know how you added the 8 speed Alfine hub. Looking at one of your photos it looks like you used some cable ties to hold the cable for the shifter?
Did you re-use the rear sprocket or buy another? I want to keep the original wheel and single speed so I can interchange with another wheel which has the hub gears.
My communte is 12 miles each way which I can easily do on the sinlge speed (set my current bike to the same gear ratio) but have a 100 mile ride in May I will need gears for!
Thanks in advance.
William
April 29th, 2010 at 6:27 am
can the owner of this blog post a how-to article on adapting the alfine 8 speed hub to the district? if not, can someone who posted email me with the items required and installation overview?
many thanks!
greg
May 10th, 2010 at 8:07 am
Yeah please leave a how to for this. As far as I understand you need to new rear cassette when you put the alfine on. Sadly I don’t know the details.
May 19th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Hi, did you had some details on the method used to achieve this ? Could you find pre-built wheels with the alfine hub or did you “simply” had to re-lace the wheel with a spare hub (in this case why not keeping the original rims ?)
Thanks & nice work for your modification !, i’m currently tempted with the very same…
September 25th, 2010 at 1:21 am
I second Greg on this one…