I also have a Fantom Cross Uno. Do you have pics somewhere of this setup? Granted, they would be pretty boring without shifters, etc... but still.

It doesn't look like there's anyone selling prebuilt wheels with the Automatix hub. Those of you using one, did you rebuild your wheels yourself? I like the idea of the Automatix (I somehow coincidentally found out about it somewhere else a few days ago), but I don't know how to build wheels yet.

I couldn't find measurements of the hub, so I had professionals at my LBS build me a wheel with Velocity A23. I had to add one chain link to stock Uno chain.

I had Universal Cycles build my wheel, using a Sun CR18 rim. This rim is a pretty close match to the double wall rims that came on my bike, so I am using my original front wheel with the Automatix/CR18 wheel on the back.

For what it's worth... You can get a Sturmey s2c kickback coaster hub prebuilt in a wheel at Amazon. Niagara Cycle sells it as a Torker KB2 wheel, for about $125. I didn't want the kickback hub, but thought this was a pretty good deal.

The late Sheldon Brown shifted his Sturmey Archer 3-speed hubs with a DT friction shifter for years and reported no problems.

Now, and this is important, you gotta line up 2nd gear accurately. If you don't get 2nd lined up, your hub can have a short and very unhappy life.

The Shimano 3-speed bell crank has an indicator on it for 2nd gear alignment, and the Sturmey hubs have a shoulder that lines up with the end of the axle. With your friction shifter, you have to know ~somehow~ when the shifter is in the right position to align 2nd gear. Mr. Brown said on his set-up that it was when the shifter pointed at his navel.

Of course the other two gears are found on the shifter at cable slack and cable taut.

Besides friction shifters, another approach with a three-speed is to use a many-speeds indexed shifter (DT, bar end or brifter) and set one of the middle index positions to 2nd gear. This acurate shifter index position can be found when riding by counting clicks, visual observation, looking at the shifter's indicator (were applicable) or feel.

At a cycle swap meet I picked up an old Shimano LH (front) bar end shifter that had a single index click position in the middle of its travel. It's perfect for three-speed hub 2nd gear shift position.

Wow, what cog did you go with in the back? I kinda like 39/16 (the way it came out of the box), so I suppose I might go up to an 18 or 20 if I went with an Automatix. I would probably ask the LBS to use an rear wheel I have laying around, as I bought my Uno with a set of Alex SUB wheels (the stock Jalco wheels were everyone's complaint, so I was scared).

My S2 stopped shifting one afternoon leaving me with the challenge of getting home in high gear. I emailed SA and got an autoreply that it may be 2 weeks before they respond. I decided to pull the hub innards and found that the 2 locknuts that held everything together on the axle were loose allowing play. I cinched these down and put it back together and it now shifts much better than it did in the first place. Where before I got the shift right maybe 70% of the time, now it's more like 90%,

About the automatic hub: If it is set to shift at 11.5 mph, will it do so if you cross this threshold going up hill? I am not sure that I would like an unexpected shift into high.

-G

Yes, it will shift into high. I have my gearing set up to keep this from happening. I accommodated for this in my gearing. I go up hill comfortably at about 10mph, so the bike stays in first. If I lived in a very hilly area, I wouldn't want the Automatix hub.