From the mid-1990s to just a few years ago, this was the #1 internal gear hub in Europe. It's a cosmetic update of a Fichtel&Sachs design that dates from 1976. They're simple to work on, robust and efficient, with no neutral 'out of gear' positions in the shift pull. These hubs have the most ingenious arrangement of sun/planet/ring gears of any IGH.
Originally Posted by
agmetal
I'm wondering how difficult/expensive it would be to find all the other stuff necessary to make the hub useful.
In the USA...it's miserable. SRAM
gave up on even their previously pathetic attempts at providing support for their generally excellent IGHs in North America a few years ago. If all you'd get is what's in your picture, you'd need a shift rod, non-turn washers, axle nuts (10.5mm!) and a rotary shifter (regrettably, the only style available) complete with shift rod interface to make this into a functioning three speed hub. Maybe
Aaron's could fix you up, but on another board he didn't even understand the difference in the T3 and iMotion3 shifters (they are NOT interchangeable) so you'd just have to cross your fingers.
You can get anything and everything you might need for the T3 hub from several European shops, but shipping will eat you alive.
I'm also wondering how this would compare to the older Sturmey-Archer AW hubs I'm more familiar with. Is there any interchangeability in terms of parts?
The little sheet metal bracket that holds the coaster brake reaction arm to the chainstay is interchangeable. The cogs are universal. And...well, that's about it, actually. Can you guess that a Spitfire and an ME109 don't have any interchangeable parts? Pretty much same thing with these two hubs.
I have and ride a SRAM T3 that I like quite a lot, and I don't mean to come off overly negative about trying to return that nice little hub to useful service, but...
Shimano and Sturmey-Archer both offer inexpensive three-speed hubs with coaster brakes, the S-A model having the advantages of being prettier and lower cost and offering a broad range of shifter styles and parts support.