Mainly becuase for me the alfine 11 would have still been an 8 spd motor as the last three gears would be mostly redundant.
Gear ratio step for 1 -2 in the A11 is a massive 29% though the rest of the gears are all reasonably matched step/% wise. I barely use the 7 or 8 on my A8 so the A11 made little sense.
Having done my homework I decided the A8 would suit my needs better.
Also the A8 is a stronger and better drive then the A11 which has been noted for being a little fragile at high torue . Cost as well the A8 is cheaper to buy .
A11 needs regular oil baths, seapage is another factor vs grease in the A8.
The A8 after the first use service period can simply be dunked in Red atm fluid left to drip dry and refitted having had the atm to soften up the original grease a little, later on in life one can use a semi fluid grease like land rover swivel grease as the greasing input for lubing the drive.
Even sheldon brown has reservations about the A11 prefering the A7/A8 for hub gears.
Lots of good advice also on uk cycling forum although a left wing forum with too many snow flakes on there , there are some good tech info regarding alfine stripping and maintenance. One gleans the info from various sources and makes of them what they wish to cherry pick the best advice.
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