Any thoughts on loose 1/4 inch bearings in the AW as a substitute for the 1/4 inch x7 caged bearing? I finally have depleted my stock of caged bearings and I'm not finding them for cheap any more. 1/4 balls are probably much cheaper.

They'll work fine.

If you notice on those Austrian made hubs they continued the older SA design with the removable left bearing cup.
My guess was that they sold or licensed the older design. Most I've seen around here have been mid 60's versions scripted either JCH or just Sears. I've also had a few Sears or 'Free Spirit' three speeds that had smooth shells, without the three rings in the middle. They look like bare SA shells, no date, no name, nothing, but on late 60's/early 70's bikes still using the removable left bearing cup. Its hard to tell if they were SA or Steyr made.
Back in the day though we saw more Sachs / Torpedo three speeds than the Steyr made SA clones. Those three ring hubs though were very common, they turned up all over the place back in the day. I remember buying a brand new case of them branded only "SEARS" at a local flea market back in the 80's. I think I gave something like $5 for the box of 24 hubs.
I mostly used them for parts to repair Sturmey Archer AW hubs.

an interesting article
http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.co.../view-1369.pdf
Covers the Austrian hubs as well as the SW problem...
Worth reading
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ccb0de5f79.jpg

I don't think I've ever seen anything branded Styria here, not sure if they made it to the states.
There were a ton of bikes with the Torpedo three speeds but they were mostly secondary brands.

I read through that article and I don't know if I agree with the Austrian versions being Pirated copies.
Those that we saw here were after the years that SA was making the SW hubs, and I've got AW hubs from those years as well.
I've also got a few Schwinn Approved hubs that are marked Made in England and a few Marked Made in Austria.
The Schwinn Approved hubs are newer, after the period when the SW was being made.

I went out in the shop and found a JC Higgins hub and a few parts.
This particular hub does not say Made in Austria, it only reads "JC Higgins Three Speed"
I have a few shells that read only "Sears" that say Made in Austria, both of those are dated 1965.
The internals are identical.

Here's a few pics and comparisons with some SA parts. The differences are mostly just minor machining differences. I see no drastic difference and if they weren't side by side the differences wouldn't be noticed. The biggest difference I see is the space between the fingers on the driver, the SA is rounded, the JCH is square cut.
The finish is actually a bit nicer on the JC Higgins hub.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d7126c412c.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...eb431280dd.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c5f4d6f425.jpg


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...68194eb846.jpg

Another thought, what about the Suntour version of the AW?

I would also venture to guess that if there wasn't some sort of license deal, they wouldn't have been able to continue making the Steyr or any version for so many years.
I've seen them ranging from around 1958 through 1975 or so on Sears sold bikes,

I don't see the Sachs Torpedo being a pirated copy, its similar in design but shares no parts with the AW.

Thanks. I'll probably convert to the loose 1/4 bearing balls when I run out of caged bearings.

I guess the biggest downside is that you'll need a bed of grease to bed them into while you adjust the cones. If you wanted to make an "oil only" hub, that grease will just end up adding to the mess.

It is with great joy that I've finally turned out my first restoration in the new shop since the fire, 14 months ago. The '55 Royal Enfield cleaned up fairly well, I still need to find a seat for the bike as the original is definitely on its final legs. Otherwise I managed to save just about everything. Of course, being a 21" frame, it's too small for me. Hopefully going to use it a trade bait for something in a Sports or a roadster with a 23" frame. Very unfortunately, I'm going to be passing on Westminster, MD in two weeks. I just don't feel safe enough to hit crowds like that just yet. Which is a shame, because if there was ever a year where I'd be going to buy all sorts of mundane, not terribly valuable, parts this would have been it.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...536c419d0.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a0faca143.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6bdbe5a78.jpeg

Nice looking bike, and a brand I haven't seen in a while.
Were they the original rims?
Every steel wheel bike I find around here either has severe brake wear or major rust damage. I don't think I've found a rust free set of steel rims on anything since the mid 90's or so here.
The only bikes I've got with perfect rims are those I bought new myself back in the day.
Years ago, I bought a new Schwinn Varsity 10 speed, from day one that bike had a Huret/Schwinn Speedometer on it. I put over 24,000 miles on that bike. The wheels on that bike never showed any brake pad wear, or rust. It got kept in the garage, it got used rain or shine for 8 years and then handed down to various relatives when I was done with it. I got it back about 15 years ago and went through the whole bike, the rims are still original. (The 9,999 mile capable speedometer had rolled over again and was reading 32 miles with a broken cable). So it boggles my mind when I see so many bikes with the chrome burned off the rims. I'm also no lightweight, and I went through brake pads pretty fast, but never once did the rim show any wear. Chrome is pretty hard stuff, especially compared to a rubber brake pad.
I bought a ladies Hercules off an old woman. The bike had a hub dated 1965. She told me her sister owned the bike since it was new.
The tires were original Dunlop and likely original. the paint was flawless, there was no rust on the bike, yet both rims had nearly no chrome on the sides, both worn down to bare steel. The rest of the bike's chrome was flawless. I have a same year Robin Hood that's been in my family since new, the rims are perfect. The original Lucas Cyclometer on it reads 4,690 miles the last I checked.
As a large guy, and I'd classify myself as slightly abusive when I was younger when it came to my bikes, its hard to understand how so many rims are suddenly worn so badly.

That article doesn't make much sense, if they were pirate copies or bootleg hubs there's no way SA would have let it continue for so long.
The pics of the parts in that article do not match what I've found over the years in those Sears and JC Higgins hubs here. They've been every bit as reliable as a Sturmey Archer. My take was that SA likely sold them the rights to make the older removable left bearing cup version of the AW hub. I've not seen an Austrian hub with a pressed in left side cup.

I've always assumed that the Schwinn Approved hubs were made by Sturmey Archer, I've never noticed any real difference in the internals before. I own two on early 60's Schwinn bikes that both say Made in England along with the Schwinn Approved stamping.
More often than not though, most Schwinn's I see have normally marked SA AW hubs.

As best I can tell, they're original. The only things on the bike obviously not original were the front brake caliper and lever, the fender mounting point to the fork was snapped, and the fork was slightly bent back. Somewhere along the way, the original owner ran into something and put the bike away, where it sat for decades. The paint isn't quite as nice as it looks in the pictures, but given we're talking 66 years, I'm not going to complain.

In the next week or two I'm going to ride it up to my buddy's motorcycle shop. He'll get a good chuckle, as he's been restoring a '69 Royal Enfield 750 Interceptor for the past two years.

In the last year Ive seen four Dunelts for sale around Ann Arbor Michigan for between...450.00 to 550.00.....and there have been others on ebay where they are asking big money....maybe we missed something........so I dug one out of my barn shined it up and tossed on some new tires just in case somethings up......ya gotta be prepared and play all the angles

also
 

Ive had two sets of wheels that have Shimano three speed hubs with coasted brakes in the shed for years........so I cleaned them up and tossed them on some old frames i had about...........they look beautiful...like fixies without brakes and cables and are so much fun to ride......they are by far the cheapest bikes I own now ......but Ive been riding them the most....go figure

A good lookin' bike.
The forks look dead on.

OT
Full on Mexican bike...
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...45728e3e51.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ccbccd5127.jpg

For all of those posters recently complaining about crazy high prices for old three speeds, I'm comforted by the CL ads that appear frequently in the Boston area, like this one:

https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/bi...256701080.html

Ladies model = Parts bike. If that was closer and if those wheel are as clean as they look, one of my Raleighs would have a shiny new set of rims ad cranks.
The rest would go on the shelf as spare parts.

I love the chainring on that old Royal Enfield. That and the Norman are among my favorite chainrings - very expressive things (that is, as chainrings go).

Agreed. It seems a shame to pull a bike apart but a good wheel set makes it all worth wile.
Ladies' bikes are much readily available.
Women don't wreck their stuff like men do...
There are plenty of ladies 3 speeds available in Toronto.

As discussed
Here's a 23" men's bike offered at $150 OBO
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ce440be07a.jpg
And another ladies version offered at $175 OBO
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...daf6ab8a7b.jpg
Seller says the rims are almost perfect on the ladies bike.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9ae76f95f3.jpg

Does anyone know where to buy some Sun CR18 rims? The rims on my Superbe are pretty much shot.

Harris Cyclery, or you know, Google it?

The problem around here is that there were never many ladies bikes. It probably started out 50 to 1, men's to ladies models. Its just that the ladies models are the only one's that survived in decent shape.
I did stumble on a decent men's bike yesterday morning, but I had to take it apart to get it home in the company car.
Someone put a super clean Hercules in the trash, complete with a perfect set of Dunlop rims and a 10-59 AW rear hub.
It was on a main road, thousands of people had to have passed by it there all day. I saw it there at 7am but couldn't stop, it was still there at 11am when I came back that way. Laying on its side atop two trash cans on a major road leading to the bridge. I almost stopped in the morning but would have been late for a meeting, and two buddies that are retired whom I called couldn't get there.
Both rims are perfect, the tires are newer Cordovan brand from Pep Boys and there's no rust at all. The paint is 90% intact as well. The only downside is that its way too small for me. So it too is a donor for its wheels, saddle, and other chrome bits. Right next to the bike was a small aluminum Umco tackle box from the 50's, full of tools and a Dunlop branded frame pump all taken apart.
I'm going tomorrow to look at a 'DP Harris Royal made in England' from about the same period for $15 off a bulletin board at the supermarket.

Ummm what's google? I use ask.com