Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,177
Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.
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I have had an old three speed in storage since the 1980s when I could no longer find the tire size it used for sale in any stores. And that was pre-internet so I did not have a very good understanding of tire sizes either.
But, I finally bought some 650b tires for it now that they are readily available. (The bike is not British, thus it does not use the 26 inch tire used on British three speeds.) I occasionally ride that bike to the grocery store, but I would never want to ride anywhere on it if there were a lot of hills, the total range from lowest to highest gear is quite limited.
Mine has drum brakes front and rear, and they drag a bit, but that is a problem unique to mine, most three speeds do not suffer that problem.
I think you could make a three speed bike that rolled well that uses a Sturmey Archer hub, but you can't really fix a limited range of gears. I listed below the range of gearing on some of my bikes:
Sturmey Archer 3 speed - 178%
Road bike (Campy compact double, Miche 12/29 cassette) - 355%
Rando bike (road triple 52/42/30 and eight speed 11/32 cassette) - 504%
Rohloff - 526%
Derailleur touring bike (half step plus granny triple 46/42/24 and eight speed 11/32 cassette) - 558%