The SA 3 speed has had an incredibly long production run that continues to this day and Sun has addressed the issue of the hub to slip into neutral between 2nd and 3rd and has eliminated the hubs propensity to skip under hard loads.

The SA AW hubs of the late 40's and 50's were exceptional and after that their quality dropped off but even then, an SA AW will easily run for tens of thousands of miles with no complaints and this is their greatest virtue.

The Nexus 8 has not impressed me due to it's sealing issues and word from some shops is that their service life has been 10,000 miles and thattheir performance deteriorates long before this mileage is reached. The Girl just had a get a new rear wheel for her bike as the Nexus 8 had reached the end of it's life at perhaps 10,000 miles.

I know one shop here that discourages using the Nexus 8 as a choice for custom built wheels due to their problems.

I have seen few issues with the Nexus 7 hubs and the Alfine is much improved.

I plan on setting up another SA AW with a dual drive as this offers a very nice gear range, moderate jumps, and is still simple and bombproof.

After that... a Nuvinci is high on my wish list.