Originally Posted by
flammenwurfer
Is there any harm in removing or adding spacers to the SA hub to match the dropout width? Supposing of course that the axle is long enough. I don't remember specifics at the moment, but I believe the OLD of my AW hub is 10mm wider than the spacing of the dropouts on my Technium. But, there are 20mm worth of spacers on the hub. I'm planning on just taking 10mm worth of spacers off.
Rather than taking the spacers off, move the spacers from inside the dropouts to outside the dropouts so the gear alignment window in the RH nut is still in about the right spot, and, if you have a LH acorn nut, it doesn't bottom out before getting tight.
The
hub could care less what chain you use, but the cog might. And actually, Sturmey and SRAM make cogs for the narrower 3/32 chain as well as Shimano.
Cold set if you want, but know that various new Sturmey 3-speed hub models are available with OLDs from 108mm to 170mm.
The Sturmey AW3 design debuted in 1937 -uh, not quite "a hundred years ago" - and hasn't been built in around ten years. The improved AW-NIG debuted in 1984 and that's what's available from the factory today.
Converting a derailleur bike to three-speed? You want the anti-rotation washers for the wider slot in the std. derailleur dropout. If you're using an older SA that came off an old three speed bike, it will most likely have the narrower pattern anti-rotation washers - reuse them and you'll wonder why your rear wheel keeps coming loose.
SA three-speed shifters include the DLS30 push-push, TSS33 twist grip, TSS31 twist grip, SLS3C classic trigger, SLS3N modern trigger, CLS3x cruiser bike stick shifts and the community is waiting on the release of the new SLS30 barcon.
HTH,
tcs