Lenton58 

Absolutely gorgeous — very nicely done — right down to the front lamp. Many years ago while visisting friends in Oxford, England, I drank in the pubs full of students. The bar would have dozens of these things lined up. It was a finable offense to cycle in Oxford without a lamp. The police still patrolled on big black bicycles.

gonzo_ja

If Nexus would make a nice shifter, I could be convinced to upgrade a three-speed. Until then, it's S-A all the way.

Amesja

Since I can buy SA SW hubs for $2-3 I doubt I'll be buying an SRAM or Shimano new unit any time soon. Sorry but you can't beat time-proven designs at dirt-cheap levels. If I want something with more than 3 gears then we are talking new/new prices and then performance and price both come into play. I still like the newer Sturmey-Archer stuff. Only good came out of it when it was bought by the Taiwan company and brought back up to Asian high-tolerance specs rather than the worn-out junk machinery the Brits were building them with.

yellowbarber

I was going to take on teaching myself how to teardown & rebuild an AW but couldn't find one for much less than $30ish .

Amesja

For $30 you can typically find one with the rest of the bike attached.

Velognome 

Think Bike Co-op

Amesja

Or garage sale. It's not like before the 70's 10-speed craze the AW hub wasn't popular. About half the bikes sold in the USA were wearing an AW hub out back almost.

waverley610

Name the builder?

or How to relax those frame angles!

rhm

Hercules!

BigPolishJimmy

no way the kickstand kept that load up while they were stacking

Velognome 

Looks like "The Thing" riding a bike at first glance

conradpdx

They aren't really that hard, and when I opened mine up I was surprised by how simple the whole thing really is. Biggest problem I had was that I didn't have the foresight to keep the dis assembly in order until I actually opened it up. So it took a couple attempts to get the spacers in the right position when I put it back on the bike.

Hitting the co-ops is a good idea. I just picked up an AW (1960/August) for $10.00 in the bins at a local co-op with the indicator chain. And they had at least one other in there (68/without the chain) also for $10.00. I got it to part it out if I ever need too. Seemed like a good investment after looking at how much even the pawl springs are with shipping if ordered on line, and the time and saved running or calling all over town to find what I need locally.

Though I gotta admit looking at how much they can go for on e-bay has me wondering if I'd be better selling it there. Some guys even selling the shells for more than I bought the whole thing for.

conradpdx

I'm guessing it's Bob....

Bob the builder

wahoonc

What few parts I have bought for my AW hub I purchased from someone at a bike parts meet. They seldom need parts unless abused or misused. I have one hub that has only had the pawl springs replaced an it has way over 30,000 miles on it. It is an undated hub, but the bike is from the early 1970's.

I don't know of any other hub in the world that has the parts availability of the Sturmey Archer AW, one of the many reason I like them and keep them around.

Aaron

sykerocker 

My next project: A couple of weeks ago I got a visit from a guy who was cleaning out his late father's property prior to putting it up for sale. He wondered if I'd be interested in any of the bikes his dad had collected, went into this great spiel about how dad was an enthusiastic rider decades ago, etc., etc., etc. Didn't expect much, but figured it was nearby, so I'd give it a look. The day I left he gave me directions as to where to go, and my heart sank. I knew the place well - the local auto graveyard just outside of my town, home to any number of rotting Vegas. Well, I'd already committed myself to go, so what the heck. Maybe I could find something.

It was as expected. Four sheds full of rusted Murray's, Huffy's, Columbia's, and a few Schwinn's; the latter way too far gone to even bother bringing a few home to tear down into parts bikes. And then, at the back of the last shed I find this:





Ten bucks and it's mine. According to the hub it's a '73. Decals appear to be intact, and the paint (under all that filth) appears to be complete with a minimum of scratches. Bars, stem and levers are the worst, and all that appears to be well within the abilities of my oxalic acid bath. Now, if I can just find a nice Brooks B-72.

When finished I plan on selling it, although it's not going to get the usual 'fix and flip'. This one appears to be worth doing a complete restoration and if the end result is commensurate to the effort given I'll probably be asking a slight bit over the usual $125.00 I get for my Craigslist bikes. Won't be done for a little while, however. I've got a St. Etienne on the stand now, and a German Kolbe scheduled next.

gmt13

Looks like it will clean up very well.

-G

yellowbarber

duh I knew I was looking in the wrong place....
I know where one really cool bike co-op is and there's another just across town from me.
Plus, it's garage sale season again.

Amesja

When digging through a bucket 'o used Sturmey hubs i try and get one that looks like it hasn't been taken apart. Ones that obviously have a loose ball ring probably have been canibalized for parts from the inside and just hand-tightened and thrown back into the bucket. Just in case it's still a good idea to buy TWO hubs if they are only a couple of bucks and there is a whole bucket of them. It's nice to have spare parts as they get REALLY expensive buying them one at a time online.

About the only parts I'll buy new for a hub are the axle nuts (if you want shiny ones -and they do tend to be stripped or be missing) and the indicator chains (often messed up or missing) Sometimes a clutch spring might be necessary if an old one is weak -but they cost as much as a whole 'nother used hub...

I don't count the cog -I've got the whole spread of them on hand. Those are cheap -usually $5 or so and I don't like re-using cruddy cogs as that ruins good chains...

jrecoi

How do the guts of the new Sunrace hubs interchange with the old Sturmey Archer hubs? It is known that old AW, AM, FW, S5 (pre 1984) guts can be put into the new Sunrace AW hubshells and new AW guts can be put into the old shells.

But what about the mechanical guts of the old drum brake or dynohub models (AB, AG)? Can these be swapped for the guts of the newer NIG drum brake models like the XRD3?

gna

The weather has been unseasonably warm here, so I took my Sports down and rode it to work today. What a joy to ride.

Fenway

Just brought a lovely dark red/maroon ~1955 Raleigh Sports for $5 & some traded R nuts. I have no space left here now....I blame you! Pictures of course to follow eventually.

clasher

I have a rusty old AW hub I got for free... dunno which approach I want to take cleaning in it up... might boil it in hot water to melt the old grease on the inside first, and then either do oxalic acid or get real fancy and try setting up an electrolysis bath for rust removal. I'm going to be cleaning up a bunch of rusty tools that were my great grandfathers so I want to use electrolysis on them since it's apparently the cat's meow of rust removal methods. Will report back with results.

photogravity

I hate you! Deals like that are just so hard to find. <sigh> I really can't complain though, as I've been the recipient of much generosity by many right here on this forum.

brokenbetty

It's not cheap - but there is this:
https://jtekengineering.com/jtek_bar-end_shifter.htm

Intended for drop bars but I have one on cruiser-type bars and it's very easy to use

photogravity

Unfortunately, you'd be hard pressed to talk me into suggesting a Nexus or Alfine 8 speed hub to anyone, let alone a nice English 3-speed. All of the bikes in my collection which are currently being ridden are IGH (3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 speeds) and the 8-speed Nexus in my least favorite bike to ride because of the hub. The horribly uneven spacing between gears irritates me every time I ride the Linus bike that has it installed.