Originally Posted by
Monster Pete
It's better to set up the bike such that 3rd gear is your level-ground gear. 1st and 2nd are then usefully placed for acceleration in traffic, climbing hills and combating headwinds. If you spin out going downhill, just coast. Most of your riding will likely be done in 3rd gear- particularly if you ride a single speed at all- with 1st and 2rd as your backup gears.
This is interesting. Have you ever set up a 3 speed where most of your riding is in 3rd gear?
The problem with having your Sturmey 3 speed set up like this is the following.
1. 3rd Gear on an AW-3 or Sram Spectro or Shimano inter-3 has a lot of friction! These hubs were designed to be ridden in 2nd gear and riding in third was only ment for those wanting top speed going downhill. I can just imagine trying to ride all day in 3rd gear would be more work.
2. Large cogs to lower 3rd gear are difficult to source. You can buy 22T cog in abundance but trying to find larger ones are quite hard. It takes a real large cog to lower 3rd gear to something reasonable.
3. Installing a small chainring can give you the low 3rd gear but isn't this against what the manufactuer wants?
Using Sheldon's calculator, I created a situation that might actually work for me using a 23T cog and a Shimano 3 speed.
1st Gear -----------29 inches
2nd Gear -----------39 inches
3rd Gear -----------54 inches.
However, to get those ratios, I would have to use a 34T chainring! I don't know if this would destroy the hub! While the low gears are great, after a while, I would miss that high gear. Keep in mind, second gear is not really for head winds because it's too low at 39 inches. A good headwind gear is about half a step or full step lower. The jump from 54 to 39 is more than a full step and you'll find out real soon.
I do think it (39 inche gear) makes a good climbing gear for medium rollers while the 29 inch gear is great for hills! What I want to say is there really is no way to set up a 3 speed hub for optimum riding and headwinds.