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-   -   For the love of English 3 speeds... (https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=623699)

BigChief 02-05-17 08:31 PM

That's a great video. Here's another cool one in case anybody missed it.

RobHalligan 02-06-17 03:52 PM

Is Superbe pronounced "superb" or "super-bee"? (I think I've heard both.)

clubman 02-06-17 04:41 PM


Originally Posted by RobHalligan (Post 19361350)
Is Superbe pronounced "superb" or "super-bee"? (I think I've heard both.)

We talked about this before :)

I think the consensus is like the french, "Soo-pear-buh", with the last syllable very soft. No hemi engines with 6 pack Weber carbs.
edit Holley carbs?

gster 02-06-17 06:28 PM

Superbe translates as both beautiful and magnificent.
An apt description.

plumberroy 02-06-17 08:28 PM

I will be joining the English 3 speed club soon Have this on lay away Had $5k in medical bills in the last few months so it has to wait until tax check gets here .
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...psqclla7mq.jpg

BigChief 02-06-17 08:34 PM

Amazing condition for a 40 year old bike. Congrats and welcome!

noglider 02-06-17 08:53 PM

I love the 1945 video on how a bicycle is made. They refer to lugs as brackets. Suddenly it makes sense: the lowest lug is the bottom bracket! In time, the term morphed into referring to the mechanism (bearing) inside the bottom bracket, and the lug -- formerly the bottom bracket -- is now called the bottom bracket shell.

Dante41 02-07-17 12:33 AM


Originally Posted by plumberroy (Post 19361842)
I will be joining the English 3 speed club soon Have this on lay away Had $5k in medical bills in the last few months so it has to wait until tax check gets here .

Gorgeous bike. How much was she?

RobHalligan 02-07-17 08:53 AM


Originally Posted by clubman (Post 19361441)
We talked about this before :)

I think the consensus is like the french, "Soo-pear-buh", with the last syllable very soft. No hemi engines with 6 pack Weber carbs.
edit Holley carbs?

Thanks, man. I may split the difference between full French pronunciation (cuz I'm worried it could come out like I'm playing a Monte Python character) and the 4-barrel Holly on a monster Mopar hemi yeehah....somewhere between "pur" and "pear" and not too much "b". Gotcha.

BigChief 02-07-17 12:07 PM


Originally Posted by RobHalligan (Post 19362466)
Thanks, man. I may split the difference between full French pronunciation (cuz I'm worried it could come out like I'm playing a Monte Python character) and the 4-barrel Holly on a monster Mopar hemi yeehah....somewhere between "pur" and "pear" and not too much "b". Gotcha.

It's too late for me. I've been saying Super Bee for 40 years. It will just have to stay on my list of mispronounced French words.

adventurepdx 02-07-17 12:20 PM


Originally Posted by RobHalligan (Post 19361350)
Is Superbe pronounced "superb" or "super-bee"? (I think I've heard both.)


Originally Posted by clubman (Post 19361441)
We talked about this before :)

And we'll talk about this again! ;)

Seriously, there's a lot of stuff on this thread, but it's hard to dig through to find it all, unless you had the hours and hours and hours to sift through all the posts. Maybe a "Best of..." of this thread is in order?

Mike from Iowa 02-07-17 04:03 PM


Originally Posted by sirpecangum (Post 19360128)
All that weak beer and milky tea and unbridled carbohydrates at lunch time (or dinner as they'd probably have called it) and not a single fatso. What went wrong?

I remember an earlier discussion of this movie where an older Brit mentioned that when this was filmed in early/mid 50's Britain was still on war-time level food rationing. I think they were eating all they could get their hands on!

BigChief 02-09-17 05:39 AM


Originally Posted by sirpecangum (Post 19366551)
When I first came to England in 1978, I remember people eating breakfast fried in lard, plates and pans cleaned with "doorstop" wedges of bread. Cream cakes, biscuits and a constant stream of sweat tea, Mountains of mashed potatoes. Suet and Yorkshire puddings - more bread products roasted or boiled in lard. Pork pies and Cornish pasties... And rare it was to see a fat person.

Back then, people, especially children, were far more active than they are today. I'm getting old now. Sometimes I feel like I fell asleep and woke up on a different planet. I lived on my bike. Rode to school on my bike, delivered newspapers on my bike, hung out with my friends and rode our bikes everywhere. Life is different today.

DQRider 02-09-17 07:15 AM


Originally Posted by BigChief (Post 19366632)
Back then, people, especially children, were far more active than they are today. I'm getting old now. Sometimes I feel like I fell asleep and woke up on a different planet. I lived on my bike. Rode to school on my bike, delivered newspapers on my bike, hung out with my friends and rode our bikes everywhere. Life is different today.

I know exactly what you mean, BC. Our generation grew up in an analog world, where information was found at the local library, just a bike ride away. Now everyone (but me, it seems) carries a "smart phone", and the world is at their fingertips. And of course, there is a price to be paid for that.

http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/...psflyholh4.png

In this digital world, we don't even have to get up off the couch to change the channel on the TV, go shopping, obtain food, pay our bills... modern conveniences brought to you by your technocrat overlords. This keeps us docile and easier to control.

http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/...pswiscpna2.png

I think that is why we find comfort in these old, English 3-speeds. They are remnants of a world we want desperately to hold onto, even as it slips through our fingers.

kmt 02-09-17 11:34 PM

I thank everyone for their advice on lowering the gears on my Raleigh Sports, It was completed this weekend and was not difficult. It rides like a dream. I put a 22 T sprocket in and climbs hills much better.
http://www.bikeforums.net/picture.ph...ctureid=528439

thumpism 02-10-17 03:30 AM


Originally Posted by kmt (Post 19368863)
I thank everyone for their advice on lowering the gears on my Raleigh Sports, It was completed this weekend and was not difficult. It rides like a dream. I put a 22 T sprocket in and climbs hills much better.
http://www.bikeforums.net/picture.ph...ctureid=528439

You can go even larger back there. Shimano Nexus IG hubs (at least the early ones) used the same three-lobe pattern on the mounting hole and interchange with the SA. I have a 24T on my Sports and there may be others available.

BigChief 02-10-17 06:47 AM


Originally Posted by kmt (Post 19368863)
I thank everyone for their advice on lowering the gears on my Raleigh Sports, It was completed this weekend and was not difficult. It rides like a dream. I put a 22 T sprocket in and climbs hills much better.
http://www.bikeforums.net/picture.ph...ctureid=528439

We are very fortunate that so many choices of 3 splined dished cogs are available for Sturmey Archer hubs. With a choice of 16T to 24T, overall gearing can be adapted to suit anyone's needs and helps make these old 3 speeds very practical everyday riders.

Salubrious 02-10-17 01:11 PM

International Bike to Work Day....

nearly 40 degrees here in Minnesota. A friend's dog was licking the salt off my tires this morning.

clubman 02-10-17 01:53 PM


Originally Posted by BigChief (Post 19369074)
We are very fortunate that so many choices of 3 splined dished cogs are available for Sturmey Archer hubs. With a choice of 16T to 24T, overall gearing can be adapted to suit anyone's needs and helps make these old 3 speeds very practical everyday riders.

My clever mechanic friend clamped an SA cog to a 22 hyperglide cog. He traced it out and then demel-tooled the excess metal and cleaned it up in about 20 minutes. I have one, it works fine with narrow or wide chains and sounds easy to do. I'll try it next time I need a big one.

BigChief 02-10-17 02:05 PM


Originally Posted by clubman (Post 19369993)
My clever mechanic friend clamped an SA cog to a 22 hyperglide cog. He traced it out and then demel-tooled the excess metal and cleaned it up in about 20 minutes. I have one, it works fine with narrow or wide chains and sounds easy to do. I'll try it next time I need a big one.

Why bother with that when you can get a 22T for six bucks?
Sturmey Archer 1/8" 22t Coaster Brake Cog | eBay

clubman 02-10-17 02:14 PM


Originally Posted by BigChief (Post 19370009)
Why bother with that when you can get a 22T for six bucks?
Sturmey Archer 1/8" 22t Coaster Brake Cog | eBay

That auction would cost me $26 cdn including shipping. We live in different worlds my friend. I can get adequate hyperglide cogs for really nothing so it's worth it.

BigChief 02-10-17 03:26 PM


Originally Posted by clubman (Post 19370028)
That auction would cost me $26 cdn including shipping. We live in different worlds my friend. I can get adequate hyperglide cogs for really nothing so it's worth it.

That's terrible! I had no idea.

dweenk 02-10-17 03:38 PM


Originally Posted by BigChief (Post 19370175)
That's terrible! I had no idea.

I offered to give Dan Burkhart a S/A hub recently for the cost of shipping. The best price I could get was in excess of $36 USD. At the same time I can buy 2 tires from Ribble via Royal Mail for $6.38 USD shipping. What is the deal shipping stuff over our border with Canada?

clubman 02-10-17 04:12 PM


Originally Posted by dweenk (Post 19370193)
I offered to give Dan Burkhart a S/A hub recently for the cost of shipping. The best price I could get was in excess of $36 USD. At the same time I can buy 2 tires from Ribble via Royal Mail for $6.38 USD shipping. What is the deal shipping stuff over our border with Canada?

I used to get goods from the US cheap, while shipping to the US was always expensive. USPS must have taken a page from our book because now they are both prohibitive. Shipping from Britain is cheaper at current rates.

Sidebar: Face it, everyone is out of control and playing the game for themselves. Man, I heard the Temptations Ball of Confusion on the radio two days ago and it was groove. Top ten on my current list.

thumpism 02-10-17 07:44 PM


Originally Posted by clubman (Post 19370251)
Man, I heard the Temptations Ball of Confusion on the radio two days ago and it was groove.

First time you'd heard it? Jeez, that was high school (actually two years after).


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