Introductions - Intro, 3 speeds

Hello,
My name is Cliff and I'm from Athens Ga. I'm a fairly avid cyclist though now it's more casual than 10 years ago when I did a bit of amateur racing. For the past 5 years I have built my own frames. So far I've done a road, mtb, demountable, an all-rounder for my wife, a recumbent, and a kickbike. Lately I've become very interested in internal gear hubs, particularly 3 speeds. I have a lugged all-rounder in progress and I've decided to use horizontal drops for internal gear hubs. Now I'm trying to decide between an Sram I-motion 3 or a Sturmey Archer srf 3. I've read good things about sram and the T3 but it's no longer available. I've also heard good things about the SA though nothing on the I-motion 3, which does not have the appropriate shifter available yet. If anyone has opinions about these hubs I'd love to hear them.
-Cliff

Hi Cliff, there are a lot of opinions about SA hubs, including vintage ones. I'm not an expert though, so I will refrain from commenting, and simply say

Welcome to BF!

East Hill

Welcome to Bike Forums!!

Wow, that's an impressive list you have there. You might like to pop in our Frame builders section. I'm sure they'd like to hear about what you've done.

for years we had a nice KHS 3 speed for my wife, but she didn't like the frame and it was a flimsy shifter. Checking the oil level before each ride was a bit of pain also. Last year I found a Bira (TS7) with a Nexus 7speed hub and coaster brake. The brake was the big selling point for her, the 7 speeds for me because now she could keep up on family rides.

thanks everyone for the welcomes and advice. I am learning a lot about 3 speeds. I'll have to check out the framebuilders forum. I'm on a framebuilding email list but it's nice to see that there's a forum here and elsewhere as well.
-Cliff

Private Message Prof. #sp, himself, WahooNC !!!
Aaron knows 3's !!!!!


Welcome :beer:

thanks everyone for the welcomes and advice. I am learning a lot about 3 speeds. I'll have to check out the framebuilders forum. I'm on a framebuilding email list but it's nice to see that there's a forum here and elsewhere as well.
-Cliff

Hi Cliff! Welcome to the forums.

I think Lem may have overstated my qualifications:o...MnHPVA Guy is the real expert. But I do ride, rebuild and maintain 3 speeds and one 4spd. Of the modern hubs the Shimano Nexus is probably the best for the money and the easiest to find. the old SA's are pretty close to indestructible but have a few issues that would need to be addressed if you plan to use them in a modern frame.

Aaron:)

Aaron,
Thanks for the reply. I must post a little disclaimer that I've never owned an internal hub gear bike but have always found them appealing and I'm a little burned out of the derailleur systems that seem to add a gear to the cluster every year. I had originally decided on a Sram T3 hub based on rider reviews and this publication: http://www.ihpva.org/pubs/HP52.pdf which shows it to be roughly equivalent in efficiency as derailleur systems and the best of the internal gears. Well the T3 is no longer available unless you want to order from europe and pay big $. The successor, the I-motion 3, seems nice, especially since they've moved the shifting mechanism inboard, but the specific shifter is not available until "once the season gets into full swing." I haven't heard great things about shimano internal hubs except the nexus 8. That IHPVA study shows the nexus 3 with the worst efficiency. And lastly it appears that this hub has the clickbox thingy which looks quite vunerable to damage (one of my complaints with derailleurs). So I've kind of settled on the Sturmey Archer SRF3 and will probably order one next week. It has an allow shell which is probably kinder to the spokes and it has the improved shifting mechanism which supposedly corrects the neutral between 2nd and 3rd problem of the older SA hubs. It appears that the OLD dimension on this hub could be increased from 118mm to maybe 125. This being a steel frame I could stretch the spacing to 130 in the future if necessary. Anyway thanks for the advice and I'll take another look at the shimano hubs before I order.
-Cliff

the sturmey is the bulletproof way to go!:)