I've used the s2c as a replacement of a f&s 3-speed on my cohabitant's dutch bike, so far it's done about 130 km. Sadly, the experience with the hub has not been without issues.
1. Firstly, the hub looks ace, kickback-shifting is fun and much easier than anticipated. The range is so huge the use of a big cog, e.g. 22 or more, is not unreasonable, especially for a lady's bike! (700c/44 blade/22 cog). Also, it really is a heavy piece of kit!
2. FWIW, the hub is next to inaudible in comparison to the torpedo.
3. The s2c is too tightly packed albeit the excess seems to get squeezed out nicely
Ours already lost quite a proportion of its initial friction quite probably due to this, though there still is room for better performance…
As to the issues we observed, some of which were already voiced, e.g. by evinem. With the cohabitant's hub there seem to be issues with the adjustment and precision of the hub.
4. Braking forcefully provokes loud ticking and pedal-kickback which is bad for modulation and does not infuse confidence. The brakes perform well enough and are not yet broken in, so I hold my judgment here.
5.The kick-shift into 2nd gear frequently puts the hub in a limbo between 1st and 2nd gear; it then takes about half a revolution of forward-pedaling in 1st gear until suddenly the 2nd gear kicks in.
Originally Posted by
jerrysimon
Sometimes it refuses to change gear until I pedal back a few times to hear that defining "click"
Jerry
This seems to be a (worse?) variant of that same behaviour and constitutes the main complaint I have atm. Not sure how it can be resolved.
6. It is possible to lock the hub while backwheeling. This might be related to the aforementioned limbo-state and could be resolved with gentle forward-backward turning of wheel and pedals. I strongly suspect the hub can be damaged in this state with too much force applied. I'm not exactly sure whether this is a problem of the coaster brakes though.
7. Lastly, coasting at higher speeds frequently causes involuntary gear changes. This happens even when the rider takes care not to make back-pedaling motions. I assume this also is due to the relatively high internal friction of a new and excessively packed hub, so it might be premature to judge on that one.
TL,DR: Looks ace, is a tad heavy, operation is easy, but not sure whether its precision is as good as it should. Those are the problems with mail-ordered fringe products, I guess.