tcs

I rode five different centuries using a Sturmey S5-1, including one in the Texas Hill Country. NBD. You know, from ~1903 until 1950-ish, a three-speed was tush*, and those cats did some impressive rides even by today's standards.

In 1938/39 and using Sturmey-Archer 3- and 4-speed hubs, Tommy Godwin rode 75,065 miles on the open road in a year's time, an unbeaten record to this day.



In 1937 and again using a SA three-speed hub, Sid Ferris covered an 870 mile course from Land's End to John O'Groats in 54 hours 33 minutes. This record stood until 1958.



And that's cool. Your tastes are your tastes.

Gear steps & the derivative overall range are a choice. The mainstream three-speed hub from multiple manufacturers settled on a universal compromise around 1920. Narrower step/range hubs have been offered in the past.

My experience has been that a rider coming from a tight 11+speed freewheel will most likely HATE a three-speed hub, and a rider coming from a single-speed will often think a three-speed is manna from heaven. Hmm. Can a rider who is used to an Enviolo hub ever again be comfortable pedaling a discrete-gearing bike?

*plush or very luxurious

CliffordK

I've ridden 100+ miles on a variety of bikes, but avoided 3 speeds. There are people who have done century rides on single speeds.

Much of my personal riding is relatively flat.

However, many organized century rides have a few hills scattered into the middle which should be considered. So, 100+ valley miles would be very different from those hilly routes.

nlerner

I currently have my 1950 Lenton Sports set up as a two speed with a SRAM automatix hub. I'm likely to convert it to drop bars later this summer and would definitely think about doing a century on it. Actually, I'd think about taking it to Cino with all of its climbing and dirt roads, but I'd need to find a smaller chainring for the Williams crankset.

Kilroy1988 

Based on the initial post, I would think that the question is whether or not the typical seating position on a classic British 3-speed is appropriate for riding a century. I would say no because I have also felt such pain in my wrists and butt after long rides in upright positions.

The question of gearing is irrelevant without knowing the terrain. I rode a century last year in Sacramento on a 10-speed but I think I only shifted up and down between two cogs the entire time. Might as well have been a 3-speed, and I was riding with a guy who was doing it on a single.

-Gregory

bikemig 

This is neat history. British riders obviously used SA 3 speed hubs for a long time on all sorts of rides. When you look at the derailleur technology that was available up through the 50s or so, the choice between a derailleur equipped bike and a SA 3 speed hub involved trade offs without there being a clear winner.

downtube42

I did a 90 mile day on a 70's Schwinn Continental fitted with a Shimano 3-speed, carrying camping gear in rear panniers. Some kind of generic swept-back bars, seat of unknown origin. I used all available daylight, stopped frequently, and generally had a nice leisurely day.

rudypyatt

I had a shop modify my single speed in imitation of bikes like the three speed Raleigh Record Ace. As tcs says, coming from a single speed to three speeds is a revelation. I don’t mind the wide gaps because I was already used to varying my cadence.

I’ve done 40 miles on it at this year’s Five Boro Bike Tour. I’m sure I can do a century on it as long as the hills aren’t really steep and really long.

rudypyatt

And if anyone has any doubts about centuries being possible on a three speed, check this out:

https://on-the-drops.blogspot.com/20...cher-team.html

tcs

There actually was a clear winner in the late-1930s.



Derailleur and IGH Competition in the 1930s

Copyright Tom Shaddox



1937 will be remembered by gear-head cycle historians as the summer the derailleur made a belated return to the Tour de France after a 25-year absence. While derailleurs ruled in France, across the Channel there was a completely different type of multi-gearing system that had been in use for over 40 years. These two approaches to multi-gearing had a unique meeting in the same competitions under the same rules just before WWII, with results that will surprise modern riders.



Unlike France, in the UK there was little massed start racing in those days. Cycle sport was by-and-large time trialing and point-to-point records, and because of its length and variation of terrain and weather, the Land’s End to John O’Groats record was the ne plus ultra event. Cyclists began tackling the big ride in the 1880s, and the Road Record Association was formed in 1888 to lay down rules for comparison and to document results. The RRA’s rules contained little in the way of equipment limitations.



Fast-forward to the 1930s and a dynamic time in British cycling. Time/distance and point-to-point records, long the domain of athletic competition, proved to be an excellent vehicle for commercial promotion. The derailleur had been re-introduced after spending some 30 years exiled in France, and was challenging the ubiquitous Sturmey-Archer internal-gear hub for the enthusiasts’ market. Derailleur importers, utilizing the services of some of the best Commonwealth riders, began to have records set using their equipment. When world-famous Australian Hubert “Oppy” Opperman took the End-to-End record using a four-speed Cyclo derailleur in 1935 it was the final straw for the men in Nottingham.



Jared Diamond wrote about having just the right amount of competition for progress. Sturmey-Archer had experienced less-than-optimum competition since the Great War, and these imported derailleurs prompted them to begin to innovate for the first time in over a decade. It also prompted parent company Raleigh to assemble a team of top British cyclists to test, prove – and market - these innovations on the road.



In 1936 Raleigh retained Charlie Holland, who had ridden on the U.K. Olympic team in Los Angeles and Berlin, to ride for them. They were rewarded when he won the inaugural massed start Isle of Man International Road Race on a Raleigh bike with Sturmey-Archer gears. In 1937 Holland moved on to the continent and was the first British rider in the Tour de France (using that year’s famous derailleurs, and with a result of DNF-mechanical). Back home, the torch was passed to Sid Ferris.



Sid Ferris came from a cycling family. His brother, H.E.G. “Harry” Ferris, set a number of time/distance records on three-wheel cycles and later ran a bespoke cycle shop offering silver brazed frames. Sibling Sid didn’t really look the part of a lean and hard cycle racer; he had a big smile and, oddly for a speed and distance man, rather boyish cheeks. On the bike, period photos show Sid arched over his Lauterwasser bars somewhat asymmetrically, with his head turned to the left and his right shoulder a bit low. He had only one eye and wore an eye patch on the left.



Lean and hard he proved to be, however, and while some of Raleigh’s other long-distance men had used a medium range or even a wide range hub, Sid rode across the hills, moors and highlands using S-A’s new ultra-narrow range (+7.2%, -6.8%) AR three-speed. During the long summer days of 1937, he toppled all the RRA’s premier records recently set on derailleur machines: Edinburgh-London, 24hrs, 1000 miles. That July he rode the 870 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 54 ½ hours*, besting Oppy’s mark by two and a half hours and setting a record that would stand for a remarkable 21 more years.



While other British riders would continue to race time trials and set time/distance records using internal-gear hubs into the 1960s, Ferris’ ride would be the last time a rider using Sturmey-Archer gears would lower the End-to-End record. With WWII, the curtain came down on Sturmey-Archer’s most impressive period of innovation, and their failure afterward to keep pace with the ever-evolving derailleur would result in history being rewritten and the remarkable competition of the 1930s being forgotten. Of all the records set using that company’s hub gears in the 1930s only Tommy Godwin’s open road year mileage total (75,056 miles on a Raleigh bicycle with S-A AF hub, 1939, besting Ossie Nicholson’s 62,657 miles on a Cyclo derailleur equipped Malvern Star, 1937) has never been bettered by a rider using derailleur gearing.



*16.0mph average. For reference, Hubert Opperman won the 726-mile 1931 Paris-Brest-Paris at a 14.7mph average.

rhm

+1

I rode many centuries on my Lambert when it was set up with an S3X three speed hub. After i got tired of that, I made the bike into a plain old fixie, and rode centuries on that. This was on Long Island, which is pretty flat (but not as flat as you might think). I have also ridden centuries (or 200k brevets) on an Armstrong Moth that has a regular old AW hub, but that, too, has the standard road bike handlebar etc, so it feels like any road bike, just with a three speed hub; I ride this one in central NJ, where it's reasonably hilly.

My Fothergill has an AW hub with two cogs on it, so it's technically a 6-speed, and I've ridden dozens of centuries on that.

martl

People do crazy things on swiss army bikes mod 05 (22kg single speed drum brake)

https://www.facebook.com/militaerrad

rudypyatt

I wish Sunrace/Sturmey-Archer would get back to proving and promoting their products through racing and time trialing. I see how a modern version of the AR ultra close ratio three speed would work very well on a flat time trial or crit course.

bikamper

Somewhere around 2010, I did the metric route of the North Shore Century on my bone stock Raleigh Superbe for grins. I was none the worse for wear at the finish. I got a kick out of the many people that either told me it wasn’t possible to ride the 3 speed that far or were impressed that I was doing it on a 3 speed. I wasn’t in my sixties yet, either.

JohnDThompson 

I have. A three-speed fixed gear, as it happens. I've also don multiple century rides on a standard fixed gear. Pace yourself. don't expect to set any speed records, at least not on your first attempt.

bwilli88 

Check out this guy, I think he did a few centuries over the years

Heinz Stucke

gugie 

SF rando Populaire ride in 2014, 116 km, so more than a metric century.



Why? It rained, and this was my only fendered bike when I was still in the Bay Area.