Originally Posted by tcs
Jobst's experiences back in 1960 are very interesting, but these days SunRace Sturmey-Archer only builds the NIG hub mechanism. NIG stands for "No Inbetween Gear", and there is no neutral between 2nd and 3rd. Sturmey UK designed this hub back in the early 1980s but never released it to the public. If you look at the exploded diagrams of the old AW and the new AW-NIG (and related hubs like the SRF3/S30) you'll clearly see that the clutch and drive are completely different. Grain of salt department revisted: DahonSteve's information has not been an acurate description of new production Sturmey-Archer three speed hubs for the last 8 years.
HTH,
TCS
Grain of salt?
My Dahon Piccolo had a Sturmey Archer AW-3 went into neutral too many times to remember. That bike was about 5 years old when I sold it.
Maybe Sun Race fixed the problem and I certainly hope they did.