52telecaster

The romance is lovely.

brianinc-ville

I can't speak to the 4-speed, but the X-RF5 (w) 5-speed is a real pain in the butt to adjust. Works pretty well once it's adjusted, but on the whole I wouldn't recommend it.

tcs

Yeah, uh, two completely different hubs, with completely different designs, different gear trains and different shift mechanisms.

In other news, I like my RX-RF5 (yet another completely different hub) quite a lot, but (and it's a big but) you could use one to anchor a bass-n-ski.

cudak888 

Sounds like time for the Lake Eight'en Tour.




Fun fact: Got this thing up the Rickenbacker Causeway's William Lehman Bridge in first without ever standing out of the saddle. No slippage either.

Downhill over the other side is the only time I've ever maxed out 8th gear. From 21.9 to 91.7 gear inches after cresting the hill. Probably doesn't sound like much to anyone in remotely hilly terrain, but it's something down here, especially on a Raleigh Sports.

-Kurt

Road Fan

What do you mean "without the neutral?" The old AWs have a gear selector position labelled N. Or are you saying older ones can have a gap between gears where no gear is engaged and no torque is transmitted?

Road Fan

52, when we were kids a bike like that was exotica in the Midwest, even in Chicago! I'm still working on my 1952 Rudge with Sturmey Archer.

I like the comment in this thread about if you are going to build a wheel, why shouldn't it have more gears? As something on my wheel-build slate, I like it. But what about durability and reliability of the more gear-rich modern Sturmey Archer hubs, 8 speed or even higher? My Rudge has an excellent frame, though cosmetically challenged, and on my test rides I recall being very satisfied with the size and fit.

tcs

The "N" on the old quadrant shifters stood for Normal, i.e. 1 to 1 ratio.

The AW (1937~2000) had a clutch travel position between 2nd and 3rd where no gear was engaged. This was between the indexed 2 and 3 positions on the shifter. The late Jobst Brant opined that this was a fatal flaw and the hub was unconditionally unacceptable. The late Sheldon Brown pointed out the AW hub was used by millions of riders for over 6 decades with no issue.

Beginning in 1984 Sturmey-Archer introduced the AW-NIG (No Inbetween Gear) modification, where the hub is always in a driven gear. The two modestly different designs were produced side by side until 2001, when the line was rationalized and the older mechanism was dropped. The SRF3, in its pretty polished aluminum shell, contains the AW-NIG mechanism.

tcs

I like my RX-RF5, but I haven't ridden it enough to give a 'durability and reliability' opinion. The RX-RF5 is a contender for 'most weight per gear ratio'.

I have, however, ridden my Sturmey XRK8 since 2009. Great hub. Note: the Sturmey 8-speed hub has 1:1 in first gear and increases the drive ratio in every higher gear. This flummoxed many folks in 2009. You have to use a much smaller chainwheel (lower primary drive) to create useful gearing. These days we're more used to seeing 1x and fatbikes with small chainwheels - plus Shimano has since introduced their own 'all up' IGHs, so it's got to be okay, right? - so it's no longer so out of the box.

"One thing I can say about the 8 speed Sturmey Archer is that from my experience and perception, it is the most free running, efficient multi speed gearhub I have or have had in my fleet. It seems to lose very little efficiency to internal drag." - Dan Burkhart, Bike Forums, July 14, 2019

52telecaster

Trust me, it was exotic in my neighborhood too. I have plenty of bikes with more gears and I use them a lot. I just have a yearning that can't be satisfied without the occasional foray into the AW universe. It doesn't make sense but it feels wonderful.

tcs

Sturmey-Archer hubs famously have a YY-MM date code stamped into the hubshell.

Fun fact: SunRace Sturmey- Archer hubs (since 2001) have a dot-matrix laser-etched alpha-numeric date code on their hubshells.

They adopted:
First position, letter indicating year. 'A' was 2001. 2026 will be 'Z'.
Second position, letter indicating month. 'A' is January, 'L' is December.
Third and fourth positions, letter and number indication day of the month. 'A0' is the first day of the month, 'A9' is the ninth day of the month. Then it gets tricky! 'B0' is the tenth day of the month, 'B9' is the 19th day of the month, 'C0' is the 20th day of the month, 'C9' is the 29th day of the month, 'D0' is the 30th day of the month and 'D1' is the 31st.

So, let's see:One AW hub just says 'Patent', indicating it was manufactured before WWII when Sturmey was selling off K hub inventories (or during the war, and Sturmey was hiding some civilian production from the war department - stories differ!).
My AM is 51-3, March 1951.
One SW says 58-10, October 1958.
One SW (NIB!) reads 58-11, November 1958,
My GH6 Dynohub reads 78-12, December 1978.
The S5-1 hub was manufactured in 79-6, June 1979.
Another AW hub reads 88-7, July 1988.
The SRF3 indicates FCC7, March 27th, 2007.
My XRK8 reads IEB4, May 4th, 2009 (early adopter!).
My RSRF3 reads JFB7, June 17th, 2010.
The RXRF5 reads OKC4, November 24, 2015.
My XRF4 says RDB0, February 10, 2018.

rudypyatt

Is the S3X still available? I didn’t see it on the SA website. If I remember the ratios correctly, it was basically the bottom three gears of the ill-fated XRF5(W). Seems like a useful range.

tcs

Discontinued? Don't know.
Out of stock between production runs? Don't know.
Available? I see SJS Cycles in the UK has some.

Seldom up to date. I get the impression (I could be wrong) that Sturmey-Archer.com is maintained by the US distributor, not the factory. The site doesn't show the AW (technically the AW-NIG), but they're available. The new A2 automatic shift two-speed is available, but not shown on the website.

rudypyatt

Thanks, TCS. That's good to know about the website. I guess I'll check with my usual shop to see what's available.

rudypyatt

Another couple of questions if you don’t mind, tcs. Is the XRF4 an all-up hub? Does it require a small chain wheel like the XRF8?

GamblerGORD53

Doesn't make sense to get one without a drum brake. I switched to a SA X-RD3 on my 1973 CCM.
I haven't really compared it to my XL drums that are as good as a disc brake. But the 70 mm is weaker, but better than most calipers for sure.
Anyway, I can do a 100 miles anytime I want with the 3 speed, that is 50 lbs with a usual load. 584 x 38 mm SMP tires.

JohnnyRingo

Great question

tcs

Yes, low (1st) gear is 1:1, as is the Sturmey-Acher XRF8, Shimano Nexus Inter-4 and Shimano SG-C7000-5D five-speed.

My XRF8 has 30/25 primary gearing.



An XRF4 I might gear 34/24 with the same wheel/tire size.


As always, YMMV!

Velo Mule

It makes sense to some of us. When I was young my Aunt and Uncle lived in a more rural area then my own neighborhood. My Uncle would take me fishing when we were there for a longer visit. They had a pair of 3 speed bikes, probably Raleighs, definitely Sturmey-Archer hubs, that we would ride down his dirt road then onto paved roads that were hilly. After a while we would arrive at the fishing hole. I don't know if I ever caught anything but it was so much fun to go there by the river and just hang out, cross the river on the two cable traverse and enjoy life for a little bit. And it was his three-speed bikes that got us there and back with their distinctive tic-tic-tic-tic.

52telecaster

That tic-tic-tic gets me every time. It amazes me that everyone doesn't get excited yet peaceful the moment that is heard.

3speedslow

The SRC-3 that I ordered has arrived at the bike shop. Hope to be building it up with a 700 rim sometime. Plans are to pair it with a reg front hub. Have not decided that yet.

tcs

Modern 3-speed? The Sturmey-Archer AW-NIG (these days referred to as just the AW) and its spiffy SRF3 version can be fitted with the HSA800 driver, which accepts Shimano 9-spline cogs.



Oh, but it gets better - an outfit called BrommiePlus offers a longer 9-spline driver that will accept 3 (or 4) modern thin cogs+spacers.

https://www.brommieplus.com/portal_c...pe=1&up_page=1

Be the only kid one on your block with a 12-speed hybrid AW!