Interesting thread. I assumed the BWR hub was near identical to the old AW hubs but seems quite a lot of differences. Interesting article here about them and comparing to the AW version. Maybe I'm wrong to assume but reads to me like the BWR hub is not quite as good or strong as the old classic AW hub especially with the pitting mentioned and plastic bearing retainer. I wonder which is the best 3 speed hub nowadays, Sturmey Archer or Shimano Nexus for strength and reliability. A lot of bikes have Nexus 3 hubs much more than SA it seems nowadays yet you don't hear much about them which I suspect is a good thing they just work although saying that the same is true pretty much of SA most of the time.

https://chestercycling.wordpress.com...range-bwr-hub/