'Soon after his discovery of the beneficial effects of cycling, Frank Bowden acquired a financial interest in a small bicycle work shop in Raleigh Street, Nottingham-which he was later to form into the Raleigh Cycle Company. He foresaw the possibilities of the bicycle, but ever since his hill trips in France in 1887 he had in mind the desirability of a variable gear on the machine to help cope with gradients if cycling were to become a popular pastime and not simply the plaything of health and physical fitness addicts.' - Sturmey Archer, 50 Years of Leadership, 1952

The two-speed Crypto-Dynamic was a sensation when it debuted on the British cycling scene in 1882, and it was the commercial leader until the lighter, simpler Manchester Hub two-speed came on the market in the late 1890s. The question of 'how many gears?' occupied the cycle enthusiasts' debates for much of the period of 1900-1910. The 1907 'Multi-Speed Gearing' article in Cycling tried to present a neutral case, but ultimately was a little disparaging of one and two speed gearing. Certainly by the start of WWI the case had been decided in favor of three speeds, and those 3 ratios are still with us today.