Originally Posted by reverborama
Well, I did, of course. I put a new cartidge BB in there with a Sugino RD crank. I was thinking yairi might be trying to keep costs low on the project by retaining the original BB and crank.
Yairi, while the article in
http://www.ihpva.org/pubs/HP52.pdf states that replacing the grease in a Sturmey-Archer hub results in increased efficiency, I know a couple of guys who have tried it and the seals just don't keep it in. Their rear wheel was always a mess and their rear brakes didn't work. I think you'd be happier with 2% less efficiency and a clean bike.
I'll figure out the chainline somehow, no big deal. The original crank is still on there, it's a steel cottered crank, but it's getting replaced as soon as I have my Ofmega bottom bracket to suit my crankset of that brand.
I believe the older hubs had better seals, no? I thought if it had a port for oil then it was meant to be lubricated with a lighter oil, and later models with no oil port were greased and meant to just run that way indefinitely. I could be wrong on this?