Originally Posted by
IAmSam
I went through hell with a Sturmey Archer S3X some years back. It sounded so good and I wanted to like it so badly but it never worked well. Thank god I found someone to give it to who was going to fix it with some kind of upgrade kit SA ended up giving out.
The early production S3X hubs had problems. Later production sorted that out. I've had one of the later ones for about a decade now with no issues. It's my bad weather bike, but I've also ridden century rides on it without problems. The only thing I'm not crazy about it the odd gear ratios: 0.625/0.75/1,0; I would have preferred closer spacing at the high end with a big jump to a bail-out gear for hills and headwinds, like the old ASC ratios: 0.75/0.90/1.0