Originally Posted by bulgie

This might sound snobbish but there's a yawning gulf between most any actual racer and a "reasonably fit" transpo rider. There are exceptions of course, like when Bob Roll was discovered just out for a ride and dropped the 7-Eleven team. But most non-racers have an eye-opening experience (or more like a slap in the face) in their first race -- they can't believe how much harder it is than a regular "hard ride". Well, maybe not so much the case anymore with Cat.6 (or whatever they're up to!) and one-day beginner's licenses, gran fondos etc. But in my day beginners were thrown in with some very fast people.

Originally Posted by bulgie

Exactly, the axle stays put in the dropouts but the center section with the sun gear twists relative to the ends. The twist mostly occurs where the axle is relieved (slotted) for the clutch key. A 3-sp axle is harder to twist because it only has one clutch key slot, to the right of the sun. 4- and 5-sp hubs have slots on both sides of the sun. Like you said, twisting never happens in Normal (2nd gear on a 3-sp, 3rd gear on a 5-sp.)