tkamd73 

Found this in the March 30 issue of Cycling Weekly.
Tim

SJX426 

Thats funny! Planetary gears are so cool! Nearly all automatic transmissions use them. One of the reasons a 9-speed automatic transmission can be used in compact cars.

52telecaster

It's awesome being a non serious cyclist!

Velo Mule

Does it make you smarter than a Rocket Scientist to be able to disassemble an AW or similar three speed hub and put it back together? Naw, not really. When I worked in a bike shop and was 20 years old I could rebuild Sturmey Archer AW's without really knowing how they worked. Internally geared hubs are actually are pretty simple until we get into compounding gear ratios' like Rohloff.

Of course, serious cyclist love internally geared hubs. It is modern racers that may shun them, for racing anyway. For going to the pub or coffee shop, yea, probably just fine for them too.

I did enjoy the article though. It was a fun read, even bad publicity is good publicity.

John E

I don't like the tall steps between gears. I did like my Sturmey-Archer AW with a 14-16-18-20 cogset, which gave me the best of both worlds.

Velo Mule

I'm with you on that. When I first rode a three speed I thought it was the best thing ever, like cupcakes. But now that I, and everyone else, has gotten used to having thinner slices between gears and wider choices for gear selection, three speeds don't seem like enough. I like your 4 cog set for a Sturmey Archer. I did the simple two cogs in the rear with a three tooth difference between them to get 6 speeds overall. On the relatively flat places that I ride this works great.



With your 14, 16, 18, 20 cogset you have a nice progression with a range from 39 to 100 gear inches with a 39t chainwheel and 27" wheels. I like it!

Where are the English 3-speed lovers telling us all you need is 3? For close to a 80 years, this was all you needed. Did our bodies change so that we needed more? Or is it in our desires?

52telecaster

I have set up bikes with multiple chainrings and an aw hub. It works very well. The half step on a sturmey is a pretty reasonable gear jump.

tkamd73 

Built a bike with a 2 speed hub that I’m quite fond of.
Tim



71 Sports Tourer

rudypyatt

Three speeds rule. I have no problem with wide steps/varying cadence, but I rode single speed when I returned to cycling as an adult. Then I got an old Schwinn Speedster with an AW and understood…

Both of my current bikes are three speeds. Every time I think about getting something else, I ride one and realize that it’s perfect for the riding I do.

Frankly, I’d like to see Sturmey-Archer do what they did in the 1930s and promote their hubs in racing and time trials.

albrt 

Co-op question for the three-speed lovers. We are going to need to get rid of some old three-speed wheels because we have too many, mostly EA3 / 590s. The condition of most does not warrant trying to sell the whole wheel online given shipping.

The hubs are about half Sturmey Archer and half Shimano. Is there a market for the Shimano hubs that would justify liberating them from the wheels and advertising them here?

Velo Mule

@albrt I think the later Shimano 333 hubs were improved over the earlier models. I had a Murray/Sears with this hub and beat the hell out of it as a teenager, but it never had a problem. Unfortunately, the shifters are hard to get and therefore expensive and there are no parts available like Sturmey Archers. As much as I like the Shimano hubs, my vote is to not to save them. Man, I feel bad saying that, but I did.

Maybe you can save some push rods, fulcrum mechanism, jam nuts, cable barrels or complete cable assemblies and most importantly shifters. If you have Stick Shifters they have some value with the muscle bike cult. The best bet for getting them into the right hands might be to post on Ebay or RatRodBikes.

albrt 

Good point on the ancillary parts. Those will definitely be saved, along with particularly clean hubs (if any).

MikeJeezy

I never rode a 3-speed

tcs

Pour a celebratory shot of whisky and toast yourself, smarty pants, if you recognised the Sturmey Type K (1918-1938) in the article's illustration.

sbarner 

I think the fact that there were so many Shimano hubs out there in the wild, yet parts are no longer available, makes it wise for us to try to conserve what's left as a resource. On the other hand, the realist in me (which I seem to always beat back down) says "Don't save what you're just going to be leaving to others to throw away." The problem with Shimano 3-speed hubs in the US was that the bikes they were attached to generally are not worth more than 10 minutes of labor.

Our co-op has been chucking out old Raleigh 3-speeds, and I have been dutifully culling the recycling pile to preserve them. I always preferred the SA 3-speeds over Shimano and rode an S-5 regularly. Iin the 1970s, I could reassemble an AW with my eyes closed, but these days it takes five minutes just to get the pawl springs in place. My hope with these Raleighs is to restore a few of them (I've completed two this year and have three in the pipeline, including a '51 Lenton Sports) and find a few buyers in the upscale, tweedy set who realize that a Raleigh Sports is just about the perfect bike for tooling along the bike path. I'm hoping to get $200 per bike to donate back to the co-op. We'll see if there are that many English professors in town who want bikes.

tcs

Keep an eye out for oddballs like Styria, Brampton, Hercules, J.C. Higgins (Sears), SunTour, and yes, even Fichtel&Sachs copies of the Sturmey-Archer AW. Also Sturmey AG, SW, FW & FG and BSA Type X hubs, and any AW with a 1957 date code.

pastorbobnlnh 

I'll add my two cents:

Sturmey Archer AM 3-speed is perfect for close ratio, flat-land riding. I've put more miles on this bike with an AM hub this past winter than any other ride.


Some folks don't care for the 'gator skin leather works, but

tkamd73 

That Gatorskin is cool, color pattern goes well with that bike. Where did you find that?
Tim

pastorbobnlnh 

Tim, somehow you must have missed this thread I posted in early February. To keep the answer short, I didn't find the 'gator skin, I created the bits, plus the saddle--- which turned out to be a PITA.

One Thing Leads to Another: The 'Gatorcet Saddle


Since the base is from an Avocet Racing saddle that was losing its original cover, do we call it an "Avogator" or a "Gatorcet?"

Chuck M 

I've been wanting to tear into this guy for over a year, but I've been too busy to address much on the bike other than tearing it (the bike not the hub) down and stripping the paint. I think though that it will clean up nicely. And when I do get to it, I won't have time right away to lace it back to the rim with new spokes so it can sit on the side table next to my recliner in the den and I can just enjoy looking at it.

Cyclespanner

I own 6 bikes with 3 speed AW hubs.
Stripped, serviced and re-built them all.
Never had to replace a thing.
No idea how they work and don't care.
Kudos to mid Victorian engineering. Not a computer in sight!

tcs

These seem to be AW copies manufactured by Brampton.