Originally Posted by 79pmooney

Several reasons. I have never been under the impression they could take the abuse a pure fix gear can. I've known about those hubs since 1977 when Sheldon Brown used to come to the shop I worked at to hang with our mechanic. They were both Sturmey-Archer fans and both had those fix gear hubs. They felt those hubs were good for getting around, but not for serious roadies (specifically riders like me as they knew I rode a fix gear). Second - limited gear choices. My Cycle Oregon setup for Crater Lake had me on gears of 95", 67" and 49". That S-W would put me on 89", 67" and 56". A 14% higher low would have made that 9800' day a lot longer. My Mooney could handle a considerably bigger range easily. And, while designing my Mooney setup was real work, riding it is as pure as fix gears get.

Ben