Yes, the frame includes 'Made in England' on the top tube. I know what you mean about the funny look of the rear rack. I'm also not exactly sure what you can use the clamp on top of the rack for. Perhaps a jacket or something small I guess.

Yeah, some of those old catalogs are the best. I love the drawings.

I bought this bike with the intention to use it for my short commute to the train, since my last commuter got stolen after only two days parked at this station. I was looking for something 'old' and less appealing to bike stealers. But of course now I am rethinking this strategy. I'm already becoming too attached to take the risk.

So I am seeing another worse looking bike in my near future.

Very cool! I need to find something like that for my wife. Right now she has an old AMF Roadmaster but could use something a little lighter and geared. Speaking of gears, I think I need to do the same with my hub...it's making a grinding noise when I pedal backwards even slightly while coasting. Something seems out of whack. Any good online tutorials for taking the hub apart? I am wrenching all the time on my old BMW motorcycle but for some reason the Sturmey Archer hub intimidates me.

I expect the lugs are nice and curvy cut? I have an Eaton's Glider 3 spd with great lugs. (to think I used to look for great legs) - ...Just checked the stable, the head tube ones are very similar style to the Raleigh Grand Prix lugs. The others are plain.

Yeah, I pulled that rack off first, thinking it belonged on a kid's bike. I knew what you mean about the sprung clamp. But the Pletscher one on my Sports I have found quite useful - much quicker than playing cats cradle with straps and strings and ending up with myself tied worse than the luggage. It'll come right up to 90 degrees. I just snap a carabiner on to the saddle frame if its something pricey like a camera bag or such for security. I wish the racks were longer though, my heels bang into the saddlebags I have. I guess you need a bigger rack if you're well-heeled.

Where are you located? If your wife is petite, I just got an 18" Lady's Sports, thanks to Khatfull (see here) I offered it to lady who is looking for a smaller 3-speed, but haven't heard back yet.

For online tutorials, my favorite has disappeared, but GrahamNR17 has several excellent videos on YouTube. Go to his website and click on "Technical": http://www.togglechaintour.co.uk/
Also, an old copy of Glenn's Complete Bicycle Manual has fairly good step-by-step instruction:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3406/...ed708ff543.jpg

I like that blue color. I have the same saddle and find it uncomfortable. :(

[QUOTE=gna;10942226]

For online tutorials, my favorite has disappeared, but GrahamNR17 has several excellent videos on YouTube. Go to his website and click on "Technical": http://www.togglechaintour.co.uk/

[QUOTE=gna;10942226]


Great viddiyo. My favourite line so far:

"Cause nothing coming out o' Nott'n'am by then was particularly circular."

[QUOTE=Fir;10942881]
That's a good one.

I love it when the dog farts in one of the videos.

[QUOTE=gna;10943056]He has the most specific oil advice i've seen [except he says nothing about amount or frequency.] Guess i'll stop with the double virgin extra cold pressed olive oil with tarragon then. Now i'm looking for the dog one.

I think it's a pawl one.

I use 10W30 motor oil. I bought a quart of synthetic 10W30 on sale. Lots of folks use Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF), too.

[QUOTE=Fir;10943460]Problem with the tarragon infused oil is that you can't help from getting hungry on your ride, which is always a problem for me.

My rides tend to be the time spent between snacks.

Czech it out
 

Speaking of which, Aaron mentioned something about repowering his motor and I was thinking to suggest a nice dark Czech fermentation. There's one called "Baron" (est 1466) for instance. I find it powers my bike remarkably. I just place it in the refridgerator in an obvious location. I find the bike moves much quicker and more smoothly, particularly when pointed toward home.

My Alma Mater! B.A.Sc. Mechanical Engineering '86
We probably didn't quite cross paths... then again, I took a few post grad classes up to '88 or so. Oh, and I was dating an English major(ette) in '88...

The 3-speed hub on the $30 Raleigh Sports that I posted about recently was pretty much fubar when I bought the bike. After I took the hub out of the wheel, I overfilled it with ATF and exercised the crap out of it in all forward gears and back pedal. I thought that I was going to have to take it apart, but after messing with it for relatively brief periods over several days, and draining and re-overfilling, it started to work ok. all three gears would engage and it would "coast" properly. Eventually, it stopped leaking ATF and appeared to be fine. I built it into a new wheel and it's on the bike and it performs flawlessly. Shifts easily, coasts properly, back pedals properly -- what can I say, I'm in Sturmey Archer Nirvana. The moral of this story is, just because your 3-speed hub isn't happy right now doesn't mean it won't respond to a ltittle massaging -- even while enclosed.

Sturmey Archer and ATF: a match made in ______________(fill in the blank).

I don't know if ATF is the ideal lubricant for these hubs or not, but it seems to work fine. I know that it's supposed to be for automatic transmissions (duh), but it is also the fluid that Mercedes specified for the transmission in the 190SL (Dexron, as I recall). Volvo 240s with manual overdrive transmissions also use ATF (Mercon, which may be the same as Dexron, I don't know). I've sort of taken a liking to ATF, probably because I have a supply left over from a Volvo 245 station wagon fetish that required serious intervention to overcome. I'm thinking of using it as chain lube.

My suspicion is that the lubrication requirements of the SA 3 speed hubs are pretty easily met by any low viscosity oil that doesn't turn to tar like linseed oil or WD40 would or easily evaporate.

I use ATF on my chains, too. It's great.

Sorry, Tom; yours was The most specific hub oil recommendation: ATF :-)


BTW, Clubman or anyone, when encountering an old CCM with no documentation, can anyone tell how to discern whether he has a one or two speed hub when he is feeling too poorly to be ridden? I read someplace that some of them had a hub that you kick backwards to shift. How you'd do that without engaging the rear wheel decelleration and tail-spin system was not described.

My favourite chain lube is home brew... 1 part motor oil and three parts mineral spirits.

Best lube I have ever used.

Since I discovered the joy of 3 speeds I've been using 3-in-1 30 weight Motor Oil. It comes in the same convenient and cheap bottle that regular 3-in-1 does but it doesn't gum up like I've heard the regular stuff does. I've had no problems so far. I also use it as chain lube.

When we were kids, Schwinn made a bicycle with a two speed coaster brake rear hub. To the best of my recollection, the hub was by Bendix. What visually differentiated the two speed coaster brake hub from the single speed Bendix coaster brake hub were several red bands painted on the two-speed. It is my recollection that there were grooves/indentations in the two-speed which were painted, but I never examined one sufficiently close to tell. On the net, there are some pictures of two-speed Bendix hubs with the bands painted yellow, but I remember red.

The way that the hub worked was by a very slight backwards torque. Too slight to engage the coaster brake, almost unnoticeable, but it would shift between the two gearings. I never owned one of these bicycles as they were way too expensive for us, but I did ride several owned by wealthier friends and my recollection is that they worked very, very well. My guess is that the two gears were low, and direct -- sort of like the two lower speeds on an AW hub. But that's a guess.

Probably, in addition to the colored bands there will be some sort of marking either on the hub itself or the coaster brake frame bracket which will identify the hub, though that's a guess too.

http://www.bunchobikes.com/auto.htm

For the Bendix version, the two-speed hubs are substantially larger than the regular coaster brake hubs.

I think there were two of the two-speed models: red and yellow. One has ratios for a smaller wheel (yellow, I think). In the US, anyway, the two-speed hubs are somewhat rare (that is, you'll see a very large number of bendix coaster brake hubs for every one two-speed that you come across).

Fichtel und Sachs also made a two-speed hub (I believe these are regarded as superior).

Edit: Ah, better info here: http://www.trfindley.com/pgbndxhbs.html

CCM sold a Centennial Duomatic model in '67 sporting the F&S Duomatic hub...that's the only one I know of.

You only back pedal a titch to make the gear change...you don't have to create any drag, at all.

Thanx guise, I have two CCMs one with 28" and one with 26" round and round parts. Both have the Sachs hub. Either of them might be centennial babies, not sure. I'll just have to retyre them to find out, i expect.

Last night we took our BBF2 to the opera. It was a total tragedy, with a lot of hollaring and fighting and heaving bosoms and the young lady died untimely. (The opera that is, the bike performed admirably, the stoker exemplary.) It strikes me as a rather civilized way to get to a somewhat barbaric form of entertainment.

We've drifted from English 3 speeds, but if anyone in the Twin Cities wants one of these hubs, I know a place trying to sell some old Schwinns with kickback hubs, so far with no success: http://mmrbstore.com/

Sturmey Archers has a new one out or coming out shortly. I have a couple of the red line Bendix. Biggest problems I have had with them is that there is an internal spring that breaks and is all but impossible to find a replacement for. They are fun to ride, mine is built into a 26" cruiser wheel that is supposed to go on my ratrod if I ever get it built.

Aaron :)

I'd think it'd have a detergent quality that would work very well for cleaning up the hubs. It's not too watery?

I use ATF in my Sturmeys and find that it works rather well.

Also, for the comment about WD-40, I find that with sticky hubs, if you drown it in WD-40 and ride it for 20 miles or so (shifting very often), then refill with ATF twice (to clean out the WD), it works really well to de-gunk long-sitting hubs.

WD40 isn't bad for getting stuck stuff unstuck, the problem is that it leaves a residue behind as it evaporates and it is more volatile than oils, atf, etc. So, if you allow it to remain in the hub, it's not good. Using it as a flush and then flushing it with atf, or whatever, is ok, I suppose.

Apparently, the primary ingredient in WD40 is a light hydrocarbon closely related to something called Stoddard solvent which is a lot like kerosene. It's pretty much the stuff that's used in solvent cleaning systems. So, yes, like the solvent or kerosene it will dissolve gunk and "varnish" left behind by the evaporation of other oils/lubricants. You can also use ATF cut 50-50 with acetone.

Triumph of the will
 

Here's some before, during, and after shots of a Triumph I fixed up for my sister-in-law:

Attachment 155218Attachment 155220Attachment 155219

The hub was coated with varnish and filth. A pawl spring was broken, too. The parts look a little worn, but it seems to work okay. I regeared with a 22T cog, as she lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

Very nice job, gna! How hilly is Birmingham? More importantly, how does she like it?

She saw it when it was in pieces, but it's on its way to her right now. She seemed excited by it. I included the old seat, but I encouraged her to give the Brooks a try.
Birmingham is very hilly--it's the beginning of the Appalachians--so 22T may not be big enough.

Now I have to fix up the Gentleman's Triumph for my brother, and a Lady's Sports for a friend of my wife, and the Sports Khatfull dropped off--lots of English 3-speed love.