Originally Posted by
Derailed
I put an S2C-based wheel on my Mu Uno, and although having the second gear was often very nice, the shifting sucked. It got worse and worse over about 500 miles to the point that it was very hard to get into the low gear at all. Sturmey Archer, much to their credit, provided me with new internals. Unfortunately, after just another couple of hundred miles the poor shifting performance returned.
Once solidly in either gear it is great, but too often I find myself struggling to make it shift.
Ultimately, I've decided it just isn't worth it, especially given the extra 1.5 pounds the hub ads to the bike. I've now gone back to the original single-speed wheel. But, I gotta admit, once I get up to speed, I do miss that higher gear!
I'm pretty luck so far with the hub after a few hundred miles of commute I guess. I find that it shifts well when the left or right pedal crank is at around 60 degrees or so and do it with a light touch. It certainly is not as responsive as it was new, but it is usable. I set it up so I have a low climbing gear and medium stock gearing on the overdrive, so I only shift when I need it.
I really need that high gear because sometimes I'm on a tail wind and the high gear puts me in a 25km/h to 36km/h cruising speed if I pedal really fast. The low gear is used to punch through severe headwind or steeper than 8% grade hills. So yeah, I use the S2C a lot and it takes a LOT of abuse. I suppose I got a good unit. Maybe Bruce Metras did some magic to it before he sold it to me?? Who knows. But if I can get up to 35km/h on a high gear, that's worth the 1.5 extra pounds!
