oldlugs

I had a Norman around 45 years ago that had an SW hub. At that time I was in School and using the bike to deliver newspapers in a very rural area. I bought the bike cheap, it was stuck in first gear when I got it, someone had disconnected the shift cable and taped and wired the indicator in place. For my purposes then it was just fine. I rigged it with two huge baskets, one front, and one in the rear.
(The rear basket was actually parts of two steel shopping carts we cut and modified an mounted to an old steel rear rack). The bike was heavy, it was a tall frame, but was in fairly clean condition back then. I used the bike for about 6 months only in first gear, for what I was doing it worked out fine. For some reason I decided to hook up the shifter again and make it work as it was intended to. When I did, I found out it had a nasty habit of slipping in 3rd gear without warning. The first day out with the shifter went fine till I stood up on the pedals and ended up in the dirt. Thinking it was a shifter adjustment issue I played with the adjustment a bit, that only made it worse.
There were no bike shops around, certainly none that knew anything about the insides of an SW hub.
I re-rigged it to stay in first, and looked for another bike, when I found a replacement, all the baskets got swapped over to the new bike, an older Columbia with an AW hub. That bike never gave me any problems, but I still wanted to fix the Norman to have as a spare.
I removed the wheel, took apart the hub and what I found looked like something you would sweep up on a machine shop floor at the end of the day. I soaked it all clean, hosed out the hub shell and got all the metal shavings out, then I cleaned up each and every part.
All three right side dogs were in pieces, one had split on an odd angle and wedged in place, one was missing most of its leading edge, and the third was just a battered bit of steel floating in the hole where it sat. The teeth that they engage were worn, but worse yet, they were spread or tapered. The whole ratchet tooth part was flared out, making it impossible for the pawls to engage it squarely. It sat apart for a year with no clue where to find parts for it. This was the mid 70's or so, and parts even then were scarce. I got lucky one day and came across a Dutch ladies bike with 24" wheels that had the same hub, the bike looked like brand new and I got it for pocket change.
I gutted that hub, only to find out they're not all the same. The shift indicator was different, instead of the two piece rod mine had, this one had one like an AW hub. The planet cage was different too, there was a big lip next to the dogs, that sort of acted as a backstop or guide. The toothed cup was also heavier. I flipped all the dogs over figuring that the unused edge would catch better, and put the whole mess into my wheel. Then I screwed up. I oiled it with the same 30w motor oil I always put in my other hubs. I got it all back together, and it worked great, but the next morning, it was 30°F outside and the thing did nothing but slip and carry on in high gear and it didn't want to shift. Back apart it came, when I took it apart I didn't see any problems at all, but I sprayed everything out with brake cleaner and put it back together. It didn't take me long to figure out that it didn't like motor oil. After the third time apart and an hour messing with adjusting the shifter cable, I finally cleaned it all out again and oiled it only with some light penetrating oil, doing so though meant putting a bit of sealer on the bearing cup threads so it didn't leak out. The thing worked great, I ran that bike for the next 3 years delivering newspapers, then I used it for four years in school, and later on it became my transportation at our summer home in the 90's.
About 20 years go I dug it back out and gave it a try and the thing wouldn't engage at all. I tore it apart, cleaned it all up and re-lubed it. A month later I noticed a crack in the frame right where the cross tube attaches to the right chainstay. It was bleeding orange rust there and when I went to clean it up to braze up the crack, I spread the chain stays apart a bit and the other side cracked too. Both chain stays were badly rusted from the inside out. I pulled the wheels, forks, all the small parts and trashed the frame. I sold the wheelset and most of the other small parts on fleabay 15 years ago. All in all, the SW hub was a problem but once it was clean and healthy, it did work so long as you shifted carefully and kept it clean with thin oil in it. It certainly wouldn't have ever been my first choice but I refused to give up on it. The bike came with an SW hub, and it died with one. If I had taken better care of that bike or maybe not used it like a truck most of its life, it would likely still be around. It was my first of many English three speeds. I wouldn't go out of my way to find one with an SW hub but I wouldn't refuse one for it either. With patience they can be made to work if you have good parts.
Mine was dated 55-10, the one I parted out had a missed date stamp and only a small mark and an 11 was visible. I can't say what year that one was, I didn't save that shell because of the low spoke count. It likely went to the scrap yard right after I pulled the hub apart. I think the only thing I saved off the bike was the hub internals, the crankset, and handlebars.

A few things I do remember about the SW hub is that when shifting it, you had to be coasting, and it helped to rock the pedals fore and after a bit till you felt it shift solidly. If it didn't go clunk into gear, it was about to slip. Once it was 'in' gear, it was fine. You couldn't just mindlessly shift it like on an AW hub, you had to consciously and firmly shift gears being careful to listen and get the feel for whather or not it was safe to put pressure down on the cranks. It did become second nature after a while but back then I didn't know any other three speed so I took it as normal till I bought the Columbia with the AW hub in it.

My Norman was likely a 1955 or 56 model, it had the Chainwheel that spelled out NORMAN, it had a wide chainguard, the forks were like those being called Birmingham here. The headbadge was a shield of sorts with a warrior on it.
One of the things I did have to change on my bike was the chain ring and rear sprocket, it was badly worn by the late 80's or so, I found a used Armstrong at a church fleamarket up in Philly one weekend and I used that for its crankset and rear sprocket. That bike was a mess otherwise with a tacoed wheel and bent frame so I took what I needed and let it go. The AW hub on that bike was dated 62-10, it had the same forks as my Norman, although the steer tube was shorter, and the same cranks as the Dunelt in previous posts here. I saved that hub, its around here somewhere. I think the rim was junk, but the hub is probably in a bucket out in the shed somewhere.