Sturney Archer 3 Speed Hub (Fixed)

Just been sent an email about one of these
http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/userimages/procart17.htm

Is anyone going to make use of them do you think? I don't see it myself just seems a bit odd.

Good idea or abomination?

http://www.lfgss.com/thread1668.html

and plenty of other threads . . .

http://www.lfgss.com/search.php?searchid=877975

Should see some interesting builds soon

I have test ridden a Condor with one on it. Worked quite well for a bit and I like the ratio.

The problem for me was it suddenly popped out of gear and lost all transmission. I hope that it was a glitch but the fella that brought it down to me said it happend to him twice. The shifter doesn't seem to have a very positive action between clicks so it's easy to have the cable at the wrong tension.

Imagine spinning for the win and it popping out of gear. Then imagine it popping back into gear and ripping your knees off

That's my ill worded 2 pence

http://www.lfgss.com/thread1668.html

and plenty of other threads . . .

http://www.lfgss.com/search.php?searchid=877975

Should see some interesting builds soon

Ah I searched Sturney... not Sturmey...shithouse

got to admit I was pretty surprised I found nothing

I held one in my hand at the Core Bike Show last week. In an empty room. It weighs a lot.

#sounds of trees falling#

I like the idea of these but would like to try one out first and hear about how reliable they are.

I think On One built up a test unit on a pompino or something last year, it was "agricultural" to ride iirc...

Interesting review here

http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19937&start=30

                            **["Re: Sturmey-Archer S3X](http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19937&start=30#p245228)**

        [![](http://forum.ctc.org.uk/styles/prosilver/imageset/icon_post_target.gif)](http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=245228#p245228)by **[rogerzilla](http://forum.ctc.org.uk/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=5326)** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 10:24 pm 
                    And here's a road test of the S3X, finally.  A short one in the dark, but a test nevertheless.

This thing should probably come with a health warning, because it will give you The Fear. On the other hand, it really is fun, in a way unlike any other bike transmission I've tried.

First things first - make sure it's adjusted properly before riding, and run the cable bare as much as possible. You do NOT want to find the neutral between "1" and "2", and an old-fashioned trigger might have been better than the nice, but potentially in-betweeny bar-end shifter.

I put it in middle gear (63") to start off with. It feels almost the same as a normal fixie, albeit one with a fairly slack chain. The bike doesn't feel any heavier than with the Goldtec track hub, which surprised me. Then the weirdness happens. You shift gear and your cadence changes, with the pedals suddenly speeding up. Eek. Now I was in a 53" gear, which is really, really low for fixed. This is slightly grindy but it will probably run in over the first couple of hundred miles. It's nice to climb hills on fixed without having to stand on the pedals, and headwinds suddenly cease to be an issue.

Then I got it onto a long downhill and put it in the top gear, which is 84" in this case. This is direct drive and is completely silent. I overtook another couple of cyclists in the dark, got to the roundabout and changed down to the 52" gear again. Going down from "3" to "1" in one sweep is extremely weird because of the sudden huge increase in cadence; now I know what a car engine feels like when it's being driven by my mother. On the other hand, I could effectively leg-brake on steep hills by going down through the gears, just as in a car. The lowest gear allows the bike to be held on gradients where I'd normally need the brake to avoid running away.

I half-climbed the steepest hill in the village and nothing slipped or broke. Then I came home again, giving it a bit of a whizz in top gear again when I picked up a headwind. The ratios are actually well-chosen, although too wide for time-trialling (I'll stick it in direct drive and leave it there, just using the other gears to warm up and get to the start without plugging along at 50rpm like normal).

I like it more than I thought I would. It would be nice if it had zero lash, but I suspect it's the minimum achievable considering what's going on inside the hub. It has no "purity" like a proper fixed gear; this is something you ride for fun, because you want gears but don't want to run a rear brake or because you have too many hills for one ratio. It is, however, not an easy or novice option, because this will bite you even harder than a normal fix if you don't treat it with respect.

The setup: Fuji Track, 48 x 15, bar-end shifter on the left hand side of bullhorn bars (the brake lever is on the right hand), short piece of cable outer from the shifter, under the bar tape to a fulcrum clip (with proper vintage metal insert ) at the very front of the top tube, then bare cable all the way via a roller at the top of the seat tube. The supplied RH "porthole" axle nut is way too short for anything but alu dropounts, so I used a standard one. This also enabled me to fit a plastic indicator protector cap, which is a Very Good Idea in case the bike ever falls over on its side. The hub is 36-hole and built cross-3 onto a Mavic Open Pro using DT Revolution spokes - a horrid combination to build with, but the finished result is light and strong and it matches the front wheel."

I know what you mean about the neutral inbetween gears, I got into neutral on sheppy b roundabout at rushour and had a 'moment' trying to get a gear

New cables stretch. You're going to need to keep on top of the adjustment for a good while, but once it's stretched you can set it and forget it.

The only experience I have of using Sturmey Archer hub gears is back in the 70s on a friend's Raleigh Chopper. As I recall, it didn't always change gear smoothly unless you syopped padalling! Obviously there was a freewheel on the Chopper!

It's all about hub gears this year, can't wait to get my 52 Holdsworth back from Mr. Stone

Jtek came out with a very good indexed shifter for the nexus hub, so im sure someone could do the same for this?

sounds awesome, would be a lot of fun off road I reckon

Jtek came out with a very good indexed shifter for the nexus hub, so im sure someone could do the same for this?

The Jtek shifters do look nice, but they do an almost identical job to the Sturmey Archer one, which is pretty elegant itself and works fine once set up properly. The problems with the S3X hub changing cleanly are all to do with the proper adjustment of the indicator chain and nothing to do with the shifter.

A Jtek shifter would almost definitely be a few grammes lighter, but the S3X hub itself is hardly for weight weenies.