Today I visited a local mechanic (Northern NJ) who used to operate a home-based bicycle repair/refurbishment business. An interesting fellow to be sure. I was looking for old road bikes, which he had long ago all sold, but his yard was filled with 30 to 40 vintage 3 speed cruisers, some of which he claimed were pre-war. He said many had Sturmey-Archer hubs, and he explained some more rare ones he had, but not being very knowledgeable about these bikes, I can't remember all that he said.

In sum, his lot is filled with lots of 3-speed bikes in rough condition, which have likely been sitting outside for years. I'm not sure many of the frames are salvagable, or the hubs for that matter, but maybe some are. He also had a few 60s and 70s vintage Stingrays and choppers, which were stored indoors, and he mentioned some other bikes in his attic, but which I can't remember names or details about.

At any rate, if you are interested in picking through his stuff and trying to salvage a bike or parts, I'm sure he would be happy to accomodate. He kept telling me he'd let everything go for a very low price.

Again, this stuff was in very rough condition, but if you're interested you can contact him at smallenginerepair77@hotmail.com. His name is Michael.

An oil-filled, aluminum-shelled Sturmey Archer hub can probably survive the elements surprisingly well. The familiar wide-ratio 3-speed, the AW, is VERY common and cheap on eBay, but some of the other variants, particularly the 3-speed fixed gear and the various 4-speeds, are very much in demand.

Thanks for the headsup JYB! It's very cool of you to bring this up for the three speed freaks.

Sorry I can't be more detailed about what he has available. He did mention something about a 2-speed with some unique feature, and he mentioned a few 3-speeds that were unique (notable to him at least) for some reason or another. If you're looking for something not commonly available, it might be worth it to email him and ask.

I was just reading another website and figured out one of the "rare" hubs this guy has: a Sturmey T series, two-speed, fixed with hub brake. He had a few others, too, but I was on information overload.