frugihoyi

I have a really strange problem. Some time ago I was riding my bike and the chain snapped so I parked it in the city and left it there for a month or two until I got a new chain and some time to work on it.

I walked the 6 kilometers home with my bike about a week ago and today I got around to putting a new chain on. After putting the back wheel in place again I thought I was pretty much ready to go until I realized that the indicator chain that had always been coming out of the internal gear hub was missing

I have never experienced this before. Did it just fall off somehow??? Is it hiding inside the gear hub??? Did someone steal it??? Most importantly, how do I fix this problem? Can I buy a new indicator chain and attach it to the gear hub somehow?

Gresp15C

I'm assuming you have a Sturmey Archer hub. I once had the indicator chain pull out of the hub because the threads were stripped in the axle key. See diagram below, it's piece 28 in the parts list for the AW hub:

https://www.sturmey-archer.com/files/...0AW%20SRF3.pdf

The threads were probably stripped because I didn't adjust the shift cable correctly. But it meant that I had to buy a new part and disassemble the hub. That's the bad news, but the good news is that the part is still available.

Andrew R Stewart 

You have the bike and can look at the axle end to see if there's a broken indicator rod still in there. You have the bike and can tri fitting a new indicator chain/rod to see if the axle key threading is still good.

But what I suspect happened is the indicator was either stolen or just lost. Andy

Harhir

They have snapped on me before but in this case one end should still be tied to the cable. If not someone might have taken it. They can be easily screwed out of the hub. If the bike was sitting somewhere in a public area for a month or longer some people might have helped themselves to parts. Yes you can buy another indicator chain but they are brand and hub specific. E.g. Sachs used different ones for their 3, 5 or 3x7 hubs. And then there are Sturmey Archer hubs which use their own ones. So take the bike to your local bike store. They should be able to help you out. There is even a good chance they have one in store since internal hubs are still very popular in Europe.

frugihoyi

As someone mentioned in another forum:
And that's exactly what I did. I didn't realize how the indicator chain was connected to the hub, but now I can imagine that it just fell out! I closed my eyes and bought a new one randomly and it fit perfectly. Bike is back in business.