photogravity

This is quite the beauty! What year is this?

photogravity

rhm, where is the picture of this after it was cleaned it up?

acoffin 

Azorch,
How well does that Suntour barcon shift the IGH? I didn't know a set-up like that could be done.

tcs

That Siren will only lure you onto the rocky shore.

There's not enough difference in the weights of modern three speeds (as a percentage of the over the road weight of the cycle + rider) to make up for other factors. The Shimano SG-3D55 is pretty, but comes only in 135mm OLD, only with a factory twist shifter and Shimano does not support it with any parts. Their SG-3R41 is much the same, comes in 120 and 130mm OLD, but has a steel shell and is not as pretty. The SRAM iMotion 3 is a modern design with an inside-the-dropouts shift cable and it can be shifted under pressure, but it comes only in 130mm or 135mm old, only with a factory twist shifter and SRAM N.A. does not support it with any parts. The Sturmey-Archer SRF3 is a beautiful polished hub that comes in a wide range of 117-135mm OLDs, has factory twist, classic trigger, modern trigger, down tube, thumb, dual paddle and bar end shifters and S-A supports repair/overhaul with every part/component/subassembly available. Sturmey's RSRF3 has an inside-the-dropouts shift cable, but comes in only 135mm OLD and only with a factory dual paddle shifter.

tcs

Yep, Capo w/ SRAM T3, brifter. Love riding the bike.

auchencrow

.

Thanks guys. I think all of the bikes in this thread are really, really cool. In my opinion, you just can't miss with an IGH bike and drop bars.

Noglider - I don't know the name of the color Tom -but I think the color was originally a sky-blue. (It's actually quite worn and faded now.)

Velognome - The rack is an early Pletscher, with the short cage. It came with the original tool roll you see (and the tools) for that essential roadside maintenance.

Photogravity - I was riding it just this morning, which only served to remind that you'll have to contact my widow with respect to the sale.
(And to be perfectly candid, I hope you have a long wait. )

clubman 

58 Raleigh Superbe...

Bianchigirll 

You know I remember doing this to my Sears 3spd back in... well when I was in high school because I wanted a 'racing' bike and couldn't aford one. I recall the folks at the local bike club thought it was an odd arangement, I guess because not knowing any better I put the brake levers where you had to be on the drops to use them.

noglider 

auchen, when I was about 18, I saw a sky blue Rudge and said I had to own a Rudge one day. As you know, I do now. It only took about 30 years. But mine is black. Oh well.

noglider 

Oh, I just remembered, before I built this bike into a 10-speed, I built it as a 3-speed with an AW hub, because I had never seen a drop bar 3-speed. I got tired of it soon enough.

The frame is an Atala Competizione, repainted. I bought just the frameset from a friend. Here I am riding it in about 1982.

tcs

The late Sheldon Brown shifted his Sturmey Archer 3-speed hubs with a DT friction shifter for years and reported no problems.

Now, and this is important, you gotta line up 2nd gear accurately. If you don't get 2nd lined up, your hub can have a short and very unhappy life.

The Shimano 3-speed bell crank has an indicator on it for 2nd gear alignment, and the Sturmey hubs have a shoulder that lines up with the end of the axle. With your friction shifter, you have to know ~somehow~ when the shifter is in the right position to align 2nd gear. Mr. Brown said on his set-up that it was when the shifter pointed at his navel.

Of course the other two gears are found on the shifter at cable slack and cable taut.

With SRAM 3-speeds, 2nd gear is cable travel half way between 1st & 3rd. (The secret word for today is "protractor".)

Besides friction shifters, another approach with a three-speed is to use a many-speeds indexed shifter (DT, bar end or brifter) and set one of the middle index positions to 2nd gear. This acurate shifter index position can be found when riding by counting clicks, visual observation, looking at the shifter's indicator (were applicable) or feel.

At a cycle swap meet I picked up an old Shimano LH (front) bar end shifter that had a single index click position in the middle of its travel. It's perfect for three-speed hub 2nd gear shift position.

I've been shifting a SRAM T3 with a low spec Shimano left hand triple brifter for the past four years. I set it the same way SRAM recomends setting their twist shifter: the second shift just barely pulls the hub into low gear at the end of cable travel. Works fine, and BikeFriday and Dahon have shipped factory bikes shifted this way.

Sturmey-Archer has released a dedicated bar end shifter for their indicator chain shifted three-speed hubs. It can be disassembled from its mount and used on a DT shifter boss. They also offer a classic metal trigger, a newer trigger, twist grips in long and short versions, a dual paddle (Rapidfire-style), a downtube shifter, a thumb shifter - even "stick shifts"! - for their AW-family 3-speeds.

AZORCH

Works without hitch!

clubman 

Great C&V picture Tom...nice legs!

3speed

Anyone know if the Shimano 333 is lighter than the AW? I know it's supposed to be fragile or something, but I'm honestly not that worried about it. If it breaks, it just means I'll be late for work one time. Not the end of the world for my job. Seems like it's a little lighter than the later style(later 80s?) Shimano 3sp hub that I have. I don't have an AW, though, and have never even laid my hands on one, so I have nothing to compare to there.

And I was planning on shifting mine with a Shimano friction bar-end shifter, so thanks for explaining that set-up a little more.

rhm

I don't know the weights, but I can tell you the Shimano 333 has a smaller shell than the Sturmey Archer ones, so it definitely looks lighter. And the Shimano bell crank thingie is very cool as well. If I weren't such an anglophile I would have no hesitation about using a 333 hub.

As for the shifter, it really sucks when you're pedaling hard and your hub slips. Aside from the possibility that you hurt yourself when this happens (I never have), or that you damage the guts of the hub (I may have done that; but it's hard to distinguish cause from effect sometimes) it will instantly cause you lose your faith in your whole bike and your riding style will change at least for a little while. It's hard to describe. But if my hub skips twice in an hour, I stop and adjust the cable. If I can't make it not skip, I overhaul (or replace) the hub when I get home. Running a friction shifter with an IGH is, in my inexperienced opinion, asking for trouble.

The old Shimano 333 thumb shifter is admittedly an inelegant looking item, but I am pretty sure you could mount one at the end of a handlebar. It is made for a 7/8" bar of course but with a little judicious bending and a longer screw I'm pretty sure you could fit it anywhere on a 15/16" drop bar. At any rate I would do that, rather than mess with friction shifting. I am pretty sure you could mount one inboard of the brake lever and it would look good and be fun to ride.

JohnDThompson 

My Viscount 3-speed fixed gear conversion:

JohnDThompson 

I've not tried the bar-con shifter, but Sturmey Archer now offers a bar-end shifter of their own:

rhm

^^Of all the Sturmey Archer three speed shifters I've ever used, that one is the best. Easy and reliable and it even looks pretty good. I still have period correct triggers on a couple bikes, but only because they're period correct (early 50's).

JohnDThompson 

Maybe you should live dangerously and try a Sturmey Archer SW hub? These also have a smaller diameter shell than the AW, and the eerie-quiet springless pawls. The gearing is slightly wider than the AW: 0.72/1.0/1.38 vs 0.75/1.0/1.33 for the AW.

Despite its dubious reputation, I built up a wheel using an SW this spring, and rode it without problems in the Lake Pepin 3-Speed Tour and well as for my daily commute to work.

noglider 

You couldn't get me to ride a 333. No parts available, and not very durable.

And I probably wouldn't try a friction shifter, either, but I suppose Sheldon was expert at seeing when his pointed at his naval. Pretty funny, if you ask me!

John, that's got to be the best example I've ever seen. Bravo! What crank is that? And is that the lightweight filet-brazed Viscount frame? What fork is it?

JohnDThompson 

Yes, it's a lugless, Trusty-built Viscount frame. The crank is an SR "Royal" with 165mm arms:





The fork is steel; I think it came from a Raleigh "Technium" but I'm not sure (I picked it up cheap at a swap). But it has an internally lugged Takahashi crown that works well with lugless motif of the frame:

John E

Been there ... done that. For a time, I converted my 1962 low-end Bianchi Corsa to a 3-speed Sturmey coaster brake setup, with which I happily shifted w/ the original Huret downtube lever. I concur that the ratios are too far apart, but it was kind of a fun commuter and UCLA campus cruiser.

I also converted an Armstrong 3-speed to drop bars and 12-speed hybrid gear, using a 14-16-18-20 Cyclo block and long axle designed for the application and an early Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleur, which worked much better than the Cyclo bandspring thing that was part of the conversion kit. I used a retro-looking Simplex downtube lever for the 4-speed cluster and tucked a 3-speed Sturmey trigger under the left brake lever, so that I could double-shift the resulting 10-speed (12 - 2 near-redundancies) transmission. With a 40T chainring, 26" tires, and the AW hub, the gear range was a very useful 39 to 99 gear-inches, and it was similar to having a 53-40-30 ringset w/ a 14-16-18-20 block.

Bianchigirll 

Is that a Bell Wind Jammer?

shipwreck

I might be strange, but I love a bike that has achieved that level of dirt and patina. I would ride that bike like it had low self esteem.(after going over all the bearings and such)

Some of these old english bikes just make me drool. Seriosly, if I had Velognomes 63 sports, it would be in a special vitrene in my living room.

Since the OP is thinking about doing a conversion, here is mine. Just put together out of salvaged parts mostly.


Need to take a current pic, running one inch araya rims and a nitto Ibeam stem, got rid of the light and generator. Moved the shifter down where the english club racers pictured here are, under the brake, and I like it, but really liked where I had it in this pic as well. Its a S-10-S, not sure of the year. Not light, but it rides so well its hard to notice.
Its really hilly here, thus the gearing. I have ground up really steep slopes on the old 68 AW, I guess thats not recomended.

sailorbenjamin

196? Armstrong. I think it was a 10 speed to start;