I received my sturmey archer CS-RF3 hub. Naturally I immediately infatuated INSTALLED (damn autocorrect) it in the drops, threaded in the indicator, and connector, and started turning the freehub. At all positions of the indicator, one revolution of the freehub produces one revolution of the hub body. Hmm?. Does there have to be resistance to hub rotation for the gear ratio to change?. This is a bare hub, no wheel built up yet. I've ordered some VO Diagonale 650B rims.

Hmmm... I would operate the gear indicator a couple times and try again. If it's like other S-A hubs, the default gear is "high" and the hub shell should turn 1.3 times for every turn of the freehub. As you surmised, it make be hung up in the "middle" gear until pedaling tension allows the sliding clutch to engage high gear.

There does usually need to be relative rotational movement between the shell and cog for the internals to shift. This is why it's best to coast while shifting. If when test fitted the shell didn't stop when the pedals were stopped then no rotational difference happened and the internals might not shift.

I don't have much experience with the current crop of SA offerings but this was the case for the iconic AW. Andy.

Thanks. It seems to be working correctly. I must have done something wrong before.

First IGH bike for me, so I'm groping through an unfamiliar fog.

+1 a Brief Pause in the Power input allows the Mechanism of the IGH to change gear combinations ..

Gen. Eisenhower was in the White House when I had my 1st S-A Hub..

there has to be the torque stop in the dropout to have the hub gears work properly ..

Dan B has videos of the tear down, build up of them ..