I don't remember if I mentioned that the first S3X hub I bought was a silver one that needed building into a wheel. After I got it, I found the Bike Island site which had the black wheelset for a great price and free shipping. So in the interests of easy and quick, I got the wheelset and mounted it on the Bianchi. It is the one shown in the pictures. I never did put the front wheel on, not liking the black so much. I figured I'd get around to building the silver wheel eventually, and start using it instead.
I bought spokes and an Open Sport rim from Harris Cyclery, and following the directions for a 36 spoke 3x wheel on Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding site, laced it up and trued it as best I could. This was my first go at building a wheel, and it went OK. I had to enlist some help in getting the thing round, but but was able to tension and true it laterally on my own.
BTW, building your own wheel is not cheap. You will pay way more for spokes, nipples, hubs, and rims than a company that makes lots of them does. And you end up paying shipping charges, which are not cheap for wheel-sized packages. I paid more for the parts to build this wheel than I paid for the wheelset from Bike Island. It was an interesting experience, but I won't do it again unless I can't buy what I want off the shelf.
I mounted it and took it out today for the first ride. Interestingly, it has less lash in the hub than the black one. I suppose it's from a later run, and they have been improved some. I think it looks a lot better than the semi-aero, black Alex SUB wheel on my bike.
There was no performance difference that I could tell. It worked great, shifted smoothly, and stayed true. Now I'm wondering what to do with the Alex wheelset. Maybe I'll find another frame somewhere....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Vance,
ReplyDeleteWhile searching the internet for more info on this hub, I ran across this comment from someone in the UK with a S3X. I can't remember exactly where I got it, but cut and pasted it to a file for later reference. Thought you might be interested if you hadn't read it already. You might find the portion about the lash interesting, especially about the need to adjust the axle cone on the left side. Well here it is and thanks for continuing the updates. Take care!
Jim
April 02 17:39
Roger Cantwell
I've had this hub for a few months now. Firstly, they're not properly adjusted out of the box. Take it for its first ride, which tightens the ball ring hard into the shell, and then adjust the axle cones using normal SA procedure. You should have infinitesmal play, but *some* play, at the rim when this is done. If the hub is sloppy then the neutral positions between gears will become large - you have been warned. Normal road bike cable stops are the wrong way round for this hub at the end of the chainstay. Ideally, get a clamp-on fulcrum clip and roller and run the cable along the top tube and down the seatstay. Then you only need a tiny bit of outer sleeving (from the lever to the fulcrum) and it won't get chewed up between the chainring and chain when you fix a puncture. I measured the lash at the crank as 3.5 degrees in middle gear (10mm at the pedal spindle). This is indeed like a slack chain, but not the 10-15 degrees I've seen quoted elsewhere on the Internet. Changing gear is easy - just relax the pressure a bit and shift. I don't see the problem here, although naturally your legs have to speed up or slow down the moment the gear engages - it's like driving a car without a clutch. Make the top gear 84" or 90" and you have a sensible spread of gears. Top gear is direct because it's based on the lower end of the current 5-speed hub. Likewise, the old ASC was based on the contemporary 4-speed. It is noticeably more draggy in the non-direct gears, but you need to run it in for 100-200 miles to polish the gear teeth. The 3-speeds are pretty treacly when factory fresh as well. I'm not sure the original writer really understands this hub. It's not a hub to make riding fixed easier or to make it appeal to the masses - it needs some mechanical sensitivity to meake clean changes and it will bite you hard if you don't adjust it properly, don't "click" into the next gear fully or sweep from top to bottom without anticipating the huge jump in pedal revs. It's a challenge and a bit of fun, and it's good that we have the choice.
Thanks! I'll address your comments and Roger's insights in the next post! To much to discuss here.
ReplyDeleteVance