Originally Posted by
PhilJohnson
It's a Strumey Archer AW. According to Sheldon Brown's website it's 133 GI on the highest ratio. I suppose I could take my speedo off the cruiser and put it on the Hercules to find out for sure.
Incorrect. The top gear of a 3-speed hub is 133% of 2nd gear, which is direct drive. To find the "gear inches", find the number of teeth on the chainring, divide by the number of teeth on the rear sprocket, then multiply the result by the diameter of the wheel. It should be something like (46/17) x 26 = 70 gear inches. 1.33 times that is 93 gear inches.
That's still pretty good for a three-speed on flat ground. If you're mashing that at 80 rpm, you're doing 22 mph. Not bad.