Folding Bikes - Who is using a Sturmey-Archer 8-speed hub...

And what do you think of it? What is your gearing and wheel size?

I guess it's a little late for evaluation, but I just bought an XRD8 for my R20 (with the rear drum brake- I dislike the anemic performance of the original brakes on the R20, so I'm killing 2 birds with one stone). I'd like to know what the small-wheel community is doing with theirs, now that I have a cleanish slate,

-Squeazel

I hear there's a new lighter version out soon. From what I've read - some people swear by them; some have had issues so I'd recommend reading this thread:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=348873&highlight=sa8

I only use an IGH on my Downtube Mini. It works fine for the purpose of the bike. But I think that the SA-8 is pretty finicky with cable tension and shifting.

I hear there's a new lighter version out soon.
I have a suspicion it's going to be heavier than the current one. It looks bigger on a pic I saw plus they would have beefed up the gears inside to combat the failures they've had. It will have a slightly bigger gear range too - I think to compete effectively against the SRAM I-Motion9. The sensitivity issue is also claimed to have been fixed.

Yeah, now I remember reading Jur's horror story about the hub. I had heard somewhere that SunRace recently fixed some quality problems with the ring and sun gears, but I don't know if I have a recent version or one of the early ones. Probably one of the early ones, since I only spent 80 bux on it, and it was new, sealed in the box. Well, I'll keep everybody posted on its performance.

Heh heh, by coincidence today I am doing the exact same ride as last year during which my hub broke. I won last year so today I am defending my title. :) Only today I am taking the Swift, I want to break their all-time club record. On the negative side, I have acquired a few fat rolls since last year :mad:, but the Swift more than compensates for that. :thumb:

The Sturmey 8 is fine for small wheel applications, but the current version is very sensitive. My particular hub on my DT Mini is sensitive in gear 3.

Shifting is better than Sram 7 and almost as good as Nexus 8, but the shifter works in the opposite direction to Sram/Shimano, which makes it annoying if you hop between Sturmey and Shimano/Sram bikes. Also, the optical readout on the shifter is next-to-useless and the tactile feedback not as good as its competition. Efficiency in the lower gears blows the Nexus 8 out of the water and is comparable to the Sram 7. In the top gears, the efficiency is lower, but it doesn't matter too much as you're usually using them going downhill or with a tailwind.

According to the excellent guys at www.biketoolsetc.com, they might have the new wide range Sturmey 8 by November/December, in both 28 hole freewheel, and 36 hole drum/freewheel/disc models. It looks like they are the best resource for Sturmey parts and will be carrying all internal parts for hub maintenance in the future.

It'll be interesting to try it out once it ships...