converting a fixie to a hub gear..help
 

Hi
Can anyone help me with a convertion. I have a fairly high spec surly steamroller equiped as a fixie and I want to make it into more of an all rounder. ie install a hub gear. Bearing in mind thatre are no braze-ons and there is only 120 mm OLN (between the stays). Any suggestions? I love the ride but I would like to do some light touring and the hub gear is my only idea.

PS my 51 year old knees could be doing with the rest.

Cheers
Harry

Get a wheel with internal gear. The should fit nicely w/o too much messing about with dropout width. There are screw-on clamps available that'll work as cable stops and cable guides.

Most 3 speed internal gear hubs will fit in 120mm. There should be oodles of old Sturmey 3 speeds about the UK.
Some 5s with slight spreading-if your bike isn't steel don't spread it.

the old Sturmey archer hubs are a bit less than that wide. Same with old Shimano 3 speeds
could fit washers to make up the gap
The shifters often have the cable with full length outer casing. So you just zip tie it to the frame.
But the cable clamp to go on the rear stays maybe tricky. They do come in some different sizes. but all about the diameter of a little finger.
Also the shifters will be for 22mm bars.

Get a wheel with a Sturmey Archer 'AW' hub. It's a 3-speed hub and works very well.

Also, you might want to try Ibuprofen for those knees. I'm 68 and it works for me. :-)

Another option is an older (or newer) 5 speed freewheel. They were designed to fit a 120mm OLN

I checked the Surly web page for their Steamroller. It's chromoly and they listed a 120mm rear OLD.

So what's your budget and what's this about "light touring"? Do you have front and/or rear brakes already?

The most straight forward option would be to get a new Sturmey-Archer SRF3 hub and build it into a wheel with a rim that matches your front (easy build - no dish). For the aftermarket this widely available, beautifully polished alloy hub comes complete with a twist shifter and cable and a hub-attaching bracket for terminating the cable, so you in fact would only need to zip tie the cable housing to the downtube/chainstay. Your OLD will be fine with the SRF3.

If you have drop bars you can use either a classic Sturmey trigger positioned in any convenient place or a LH triple brifter to accomplish the indexed shift.

The SFR3, like it's 70 year old parent AW3, offers a 177% gear spread. If that's not enough for your "light touring" duties, then there is the Sturmey SRF5 with a 225% gear spread or the SRAM Spectro P5 with a 251% gear spread. For flat bars, you have a choice of a twist, trigger or a "Rapidfire" style shifter for the Sturmey, but only a twist shifter seems to have real-world availability for the SRAM. For drop bars with either, you'll probably wind up with a twist shifter on a Hubbub adapter.

If "light touring" is more involved, and because the Steamroller is a steel frame, you can reset the rear OLD and use either a Shimano Alfine 8 or SRAM S7 or iMotion 9-speed hub. The Shimano offers a 306% gear spread, the SRAM S7 303% and the SRAM a 340%. Neither the Alfine or i9 is cheap compared to a three-speed hub, or expensive compared to a completed derailleur set-up.

One last thing: if you'd like to stay fixie, Sturmey Archer is coming out with a three speed fixed gear hub in early 2009. This S3X hub will have a 160% gear spread and will use a barcon shifter.

So, mull this over, google around, and feel free to come back with specific questions.

HTH,
tcs

I have a bike set up with a Sturmey Archer AW, 39/17, which has a nice gear range. Tops out at around 6.3 gear ratio (see Sheldon), with a a low gear low enough to climb most hills comfortably. The problem is finding a rim with 40 holes, if you want to build a new wheel. And if you're doing anything other than "light" touring, you'd probably want more.

Ive got Sturmey Archer hubs in 20 28 36 and 40 hole
the 40 hole was common on the roadster bikes.
the 28 hole hubs are on 20" wheeled shopper bikes
and the 20 hole hub I got on a kids 16" wheeled bike. Now rebuilt into a 16" alloy rim for my RSW

I said to use old hubs as newer ones might be wider. Especially the shimano ones

The current SRAM tech manual lists the 5 speed freewheel hub as being the correct width within 2mm as I recall. The 7 and 9 speeds would require spreading the dropouts to 130mm or 135mm.

Also the Sunrace Sturmey Archer web site shows many of their 3 and 5 speed hubs as available for various dropout widths from about 110mm on up.

Lacing a 36H rim to a 40H hub is no biggie, simply leave two opposite spoke holes empty at each hub flange.
As S-A is high flange it will probably require tweaking the spoke length a little for the spokes closest to the empty hole.

Hi All,
Thanks for taking the time to answer my query. You have given me food for thought. I'll let you know what I eventually come up with.

Cheers

Harry