52telecaster

With bag


Without bag


Drive train


Hub


SA 3 speed bar end
I had a spare steyer knockoff of a sturmey Archer aw hub and I really love riding my 73 Carlton competition. The two are not particularly cherry so I thought since the comp is used as a city bike, it might need a 3 speed hub to go with a triple set up as half step and granny. For the big steps in the hub I find 26-40-46 works well with a 21 on the hub. Gives me evenly spaced gears for the top 6 and two gears lower. Plus if I forget to shift down at a stop light I can shift the sturmey at a stop. I am enjoying the hell out of this. Top gear is about 80, low about 25 and they all work well.

squirtdad

fun franken hack, derailer as tensioner had be wondering about total speeds for a second 3X3X7

52telecaster

I was going to use the huret jubilee that came with the bike but huret it didn't have the ability to run the high gear stop way too far in. Once again the Japanese made a superior derailleur.... And actually 3x3 is plenty enough gears for me. I may do an overnight camp trip on it.

clubman 

I just surprised I haven't seen a lot more of these. Nice!

gugie 

I like it a lot! Made good use of the kit available.

52telecaster

There is something deep in me that wants to ride on old three speed hubs. My first cool bike was a black three speed with 24" wheels. It had been junked and my grandfather restored it. The click of those hubs sounds like adventure.

JulesCW 

You should definitely be a member of the Society Of Three Speeds

https://societyofthreespeeds.wordpress.com

Very nice hack!

52telecaster

I ordered stuff from that place from another link I think but didn't realize a membership was an option. I also have 3 speeded my supercourse

Oldairhead 

I've got a 3 speed hub that takes an 8 speed cassette. Pair that with a triple crank-set and what do you get? About 36 redundant gears!!!

52telecaster

The beauty in this is only 1 redundant gear. I could have had none if I would have went higher with the big chainrings but I don't need higher gears.

steelbikeguy

You are in good company! Frank Berto did a Bicycling article about a similar hybrid gearing system a few decades ago....







Steve, also in Peoria

52telecaster

Very cool but I like my gear choices better. Nice to know someone smart sees what I see in a city bike.

USAZorro

That's the coolest 9-speed I've seen in forever.

You've done a great job of retaining the original character without getting carried away (as I have done on a couple occasions)

USAZorro

Where there's a will, there's a way...

52telecaster

I just wanted it to work for me.

elcraft

In 1979, I made almost the same bike using a hi-ten Raleigh Record frameset and the legendary Cyclo-Benelux triple cog conversion cluster. I used a Huret Challenger derailleur, as it could handle the 22 tooth largest cog. The article mentions the Cyclo-Benelux part, but neglects to mention that it is designed for a 1/8” chain width, not the standard 3/32” derailleur chain. This required shimming out the pulley cage for the additional clearance needed. This set up was really easy to use in commuting situations because one could instantly.down shift the IGH hub, no matter which derailleur cog was engaged. This bicycle was stolen in Philadelphia, in 1983. I really missed that unique bike!
The custom machined adapter for utilizing standard freewheel cogs is a fantasticat beast, Few of us have neither the resources to have one made or make one ourselves, nor find the now extinct K507 threaded driver. These were last manufactured in 1951. They are rarer than the Cyclo- Benelux part.
At one time, there was a Dacon converter that could enable Suntour freewheel cogs to be used on a standard splined type driver. I have only read about this converter, never seen one in the flesh.
In both these non Cyclo scenarios, a larger cog could have been used for an amazing gear range, as described in the article.
A standard AW can have two standard cogs mounted on the splined driver if the spacers are eliminated, thus creating a six speed set up. This is essentially what Brampton uses to create their own six speed models, excepting for their unique proprietary derailleur.
Sun Race/ Sturmey Archer currently has models of three speed hubs that are designed to mount a seven speed free hub cluster upon. These would be ideal in situations where a front derailleur would be problematic such as folding bikes.
SRAM, had made a similar hybrid gearing hub ,but IIRC, it is now discontinued.
A modern version of this hybrid gearing could benefits from incorporating all weather drum brakes or disc brake capability.

swampyankee2

I like it too! I hope to look at a Robiin Hood Raleigh Lenton Sports 10 speed. The frame is really just a classic Raleigh gas-pipe steel frame so not really a speedster. I was thinking of setting it up with a set of wrapped moustache bars and bar end shifters for leisurely touring, yet more versatile gearing than my Sports. Now I'm inspired!

jonwvara 

Nicely done! Fooling around with gearing is a lot of fun. I did something similar several years back with an old Raleigh Sports. My setup was a 2x6, with two modified cassette cogs on the AW hub, a Huret Allvit rear derailleur, and the original 48-tooth single front chainring. I can't remember the details now, but it give me six nicely-spaced gears.

My only caution would be to avoid hammering the pedals in low gear--I'm pretty sure that 25 gear-inches puts a lot more torque on the hub-gear internals than they're designed to handle.

79pmooney

I also have a '73 Competition but just an ordinary 52-42-28 (26? 24? I'd have to go look) and a Sachs 13-26 I just put on; replacing a 13-28 SunRace? Shimano? that ran 21-24-28 the last three cogs and drove me nuts uphill. The new 21-23-26 I love! More work, more standing and sweet intervals.

I just has a thought. This is a city bike that does off pavement really well (though not stiff enough to be secure at high speeds and washboard). The IGH has real appeal for stop and go. Maybe I should try a 7speed cassette S-A with a trigger shift inboard on the bars. Put easy disconnects on the shift wire so the trigger stays but the rest comes off easy for running different wheels. (This might take me down a deep rabbit hole. I might get inspired to further my wheelchair patent inspired by the 1930s S-As my dad rode and loved as a teen. Watched a newly wheelchair-bound-for-life friend struggle uphill and realized an internally geared hub was the answer she needed. My quest was taken up by a brilliant mechanical engineer/inventor who created a wonderful wheel but ultimately failed to produce and sell enough to offset the massive start-up and regulatory costs.)

52telecaster

Buying another bike is always a good thing!

52telecaster

25" is lower than specced on the sturmey Archer hub. I have done it though and being judicious, smooth and generally weak seems to work well for the hub. Actually using the 2nd gear which yields a 33" in that chainring is pretty safe because it's the 1-1 gear. I'll save the 25 for when I'm super tired.

jonwvara 

I have a vague recollection that when it comes to over-torquing the mechanism, the problem has less to do with excessive torque in the low gear position than in high. In other words, you're more likely to strip the gears using the low derailleur-gearing combinations with the SA lever on 3 than you are with it on 1. But don't take my word for it. Maybe someone who actually understands the internals of SA hubs will chime in (I don't, although I've had them apart for service often enough) and set me straight

In any case, my bike had a low gear similar to yours, and I rode it (carefully) for quite a number of years with no issues.

Velo Mule

I'm a fan of hybrid drives. That is what they used to be called. My set up is and old AW hub with half step with a 19 - 22 cogs. As mentioned above, this arrangement does not require any special adapter. Just two Sturmey Archer cogs. They fit because there are spacers normally, and by removing them, there is room for the second cog. Both cogs are dished, so one goes dish in, one out.

This arrangement gives 6 equally spaced gears. And as mentioned above, I can easily shift the hub gear when stop or creeping along. On other thing, that I don't know if anyone uses is the ability to pre-shift the AW hub. I can shift into a higher gear, but the hub won't shift until I ease off pedaling. I don't do it for long.

The Windsor pictured below was made around 1980 or 81. In addition to riding a lot at the time, I rode it in the 5 Boro bike ride back then. I was still in good form at the time and rode up front and had plenty of people asking me what I had.



The wheels are now on my Lampert bike which I have been using as a three speed, but plan on this hybrid geared setup. There will be pictures as that progresses.

By the way, the original bike had this set set up with six speeds between the AW hub and the two speed derailleur, plus two chainrings on the front. While I had more gears, I sometimes had to think which of the three shifters I needed to move for the next gear change. The front went to just a single chainring and life was simple again. This set-up was index shifting before there was a thing called index shifting. The derailleur was either in or out.

52telecaster

I have the same recollection as you about 3rd gear, also st. Sheldon does seem to feel the aw is stronger than advertised.

52telecaster

At one time I had a dual cog set up but had difficulty making non- derailleur cogs work well with a derailleur. I use the narrower ones but they seemed to skip teeth now and then. Not sure what I was doing wrong but it was very frustrating.