It's been over two years since I started riding the S3X. I'm still happy with both of mine, and have had no issues that were the fault of the hub.
I did have one scary little incident where the hub found itself in a "neutral" due to the shifter not being clicked in correctly. I was in the middle of a swirling crowd of tourists, bikes, rollerbladers, and dogs on 20 foot leashes, etc., when it happened. I was going about 3 mph and was clicked in. It's very hard to recover when the cranks spin loose and you can't click out. Fortunately, I managed to get a foot loose and kept from munching in front of everyone, falling on anybody, or causing a pile-up. I've always been afraid of this, but imagined it would happen while standing and cranking hard. But this was my fault: I just failed to get the shifter clicked in correctly.
Otherwise, the hub has performed faultlessly. As I have said before, I don't skid, or apply tremendous back pressure when I ride, and I use a brake to bleed off speed when necessary. Most of the time I'm in top gear, and shift infrequently. I used to think, mistakenly, that the planetary gears did not spin in the top gear, but have been told they do, so it seems like staying in the top gear most of the time doesn't save wear and tear. There seemed to be some drag when in the lower gears, but that cleared up with breaking in.
I have been reading some of the reviews on Amazon, etc., and people have had very mixed results with their S3X hubs. Aside from the complaints about lash, the shifter design, and other niggly things, there are a number of people claiming failures with very little use. Some have admitted hard use like skidding, off road, etc., but others have said they broke in under 100 miles of normal use. These are not cheap hubs, and I would be pissed if the hub broke. One should be able to expect years of service out of a product that costs this much. I am and will continue to be somewhat careful with mine, as it is a somewhat delicate mechanism that is subjected to pretty forceful stresses.
Let us know how your hub is holding up. I'm very interested to know how others have fared.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
Setting Up the SA Hub on the Bike
Well, it's time for a new post. Every couple years ought to keep things going,eh? In the spirit of having this be a forum of sorts, I'm posting another S3X enthusiast's story and questions. The ones that can be answered mostly relate to setup. The others boil down to preference. Anyway, let's dive in with Europa's bit:
Ahhh, it's story time.
I'm about to convert my bike to an S3X. She was custom made to be fixed gear but has geometry more like your 80's roadie - you can think of her as a modern, lugged steel framed, fixed gear sports roadie. She's got track drop outs (with 120 spacing) and, being built for fixed gear, the only cable guides are for brake cables.
I live in a flat (sorta) city surrounded by our version of mountains. Naturally, I live up on one of them lumpy bits and so get to grind up the sodding hill and do the hamster on acid routine on the way down. Being an ageing wombat, having gears sounds like a real good option while maintaining the fixed gearing that I love so much.
And conversions are sooo easy aren't they - HAH!
My first issue is that my current rear wheel has 32 spokes - this seemed a problem until I discovered that Sturmey Archer have moved into the latter part of the 20th century and now offer a 32h hub ... but you can't get them from the cheap sellers on ebay and Amazon (dammit). Okay, so I can pay shop prices, over the internet because the industry in my country is soooo enlightened but seeing this is the bike I hope to be riding when the doctors take my bike away from me, the cost is bearable (and if you believe that, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you).
The alternative of course, is to get a 36h rim.
Well, my wheels are the Miche Express. I like them. They are light, strong, have held their true and while I was initially skeptical about the weird graphics, I actually like them. No, Miche don't sell rims and don't do them in 36h anyway. They also make the rims themselves (as they do everything with their brand name) and they have an odd cross section so just buying 'something similar' proved to be an exercise in frustration.
The bike is pretty special to me so I don't want to go Frankenbike and have mismatched wheels.
One option is a new wheel set - ie, S3X, two good quality rims, front hub, spokes and a pleasant couple of evenings lacing them all together (I enjoy wheel building). Not surprisingly, that adds up to quite a lot of money.
And I'd like to keep her looking like she does now.
And I'm a stubborn sod about unimportant things sometimes (which is probably why I get away with riding fixed gear).
Now that it appears I can get the S3X with 32 holes, that's the way I'll go ... I think ... maybe.
Now we get to the bits I don't really know about - how to make it all work.
I want the bar end shifter, and you can get them individually on ebay as well as with hub sets, so that's not a problem. I've never set up a bar end shifter but can't imagine it's any more difficult that what Shimano has thrown at me over the years (am I delusional? Again?).
Then there's the cable run. I use panniers so going down the rear seat stay isn't an issue - it'll be down the main tube (the front one that collects all the road grime) and along the chain stay.
My original thought was to run the cable within an outer all that way, the thinking being to keep it clean, but I believe Vance has found that you want to minimise the amount of cable outer you use. That leaves some sort of cable guide near the top of the main tube and one of them funny wheel gadgets that Sturmey Archer sell.
Am I right in imagining that I can buy a clamp that takes a nylon fitting that will bolt to my main tube to hold the cable outer?
From there, do I only need one of those wheel things to get the cable around the corner and thus to the hub?
Is there anything else I need to get, or would be advisable to get, or at least consider?
Thanks for reading.
Well, if the bridge happens to be the Golden Gate Bridge, a really nice guy already sold that one to me a while back. But, I've always liked the Brooklyn Bridge....
I have, on two different bikes, both a fully sheathed shift cable, and a bare cable running over a pulley. Both work fine. However, the covered cable method is a bit stiffer and a bit less positive. I prefer the pulley setup for its positive, easy shifts, but like the sheathed version for weather protection and clean appearance. It's also easier to set up on frames sans cable guides and stops. You just clamp it on with nylon ties.
In order to do the bare cable over a pulley, check the pics on my earlier post. It shows the stop, clamp, and pulley that are necessary to set it up that way. These things are available from various sources that carry SA parts.
As for the route, I had the downtube/wheelstay run setup once, but I kept getting heel strikes on the shifter chain. Running it along the top tube and down the seatstay works much better for me. Let me say here that I wear a size 13 shoe (huge) and you normally proportioned guys might not have that problem.
I'd say doing the conversion to S3X is fairly simple. Anyone who can build wheels should have no problem doing this. As you know from my pics I use bullhorns which makes the barend shifter installation very clean.
Certainly, one wheel is cheaper than two. I happen to have no problem mixing wheels and spoke counts and all that, but I certainly understand the compulsions that drive us enthusiasts (of anything, really). So, how you go about your compromises is your business. One thing: being a big, heavy guy, I prefer 36 spokes, especially on the rear. Having 32 on the front is ok, but I'd prefer 36. One of my bikes has a 36/32 and the other 36/36.
OK, that's my two cents. Anybody else?
Ahhh, it's story time.
I'm about to convert my bike to an S3X. She was custom made to be fixed gear but has geometry more like your 80's roadie - you can think of her as a modern, lugged steel framed, fixed gear sports roadie. She's got track drop outs (with 120 spacing) and, being built for fixed gear, the only cable guides are for brake cables.
I live in a flat (sorta) city surrounded by our version of mountains. Naturally, I live up on one of them lumpy bits and so get to grind up the sodding hill and do the hamster on acid routine on the way down. Being an ageing wombat, having gears sounds like a real good option while maintaining the fixed gearing that I love so much.
And conversions are sooo easy aren't they - HAH!
My first issue is that my current rear wheel has 32 spokes - this seemed a problem until I discovered that Sturmey Archer have moved into the latter part of the 20th century and now offer a 32h hub ... but you can't get them from the cheap sellers on ebay and Amazon (dammit). Okay, so I can pay shop prices, over the internet because the industry in my country is soooo enlightened but seeing this is the bike I hope to be riding when the doctors take my bike away from me, the cost is bearable (and if you believe that, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you).
The alternative of course, is to get a 36h rim.
Well, my wheels are the Miche Express. I like them. They are light, strong, have held their true and while I was initially skeptical about the weird graphics, I actually like them. No, Miche don't sell rims and don't do them in 36h anyway. They also make the rims themselves (as they do everything with their brand name) and they have an odd cross section so just buying 'something similar' proved to be an exercise in frustration.
The bike is pretty special to me so I don't want to go Frankenbike and have mismatched wheels.
One option is a new wheel set - ie, S3X, two good quality rims, front hub, spokes and a pleasant couple of evenings lacing them all together (I enjoy wheel building). Not surprisingly, that adds up to quite a lot of money.
And I'd like to keep her looking like she does now.
And I'm a stubborn sod about unimportant things sometimes (which is probably why I get away with riding fixed gear).
Now that it appears I can get the S3X with 32 holes, that's the way I'll go ... I think ... maybe.
Now we get to the bits I don't really know about - how to make it all work.
I want the bar end shifter, and you can get them individually on ebay as well as with hub sets, so that's not a problem. I've never set up a bar end shifter but can't imagine it's any more difficult that what Shimano has thrown at me over the years (am I delusional? Again?).
Then there's the cable run. I use panniers so going down the rear seat stay isn't an issue - it'll be down the main tube (the front one that collects all the road grime) and along the chain stay.
My original thought was to run the cable within an outer all that way, the thinking being to keep it clean, but I believe Vance has found that you want to minimise the amount of cable outer you use. That leaves some sort of cable guide near the top of the main tube and one of them funny wheel gadgets that Sturmey Archer sell.
Am I right in imagining that I can buy a clamp that takes a nylon fitting that will bolt to my main tube to hold the cable outer?
From there, do I only need one of those wheel things to get the cable around the corner and thus to the hub?
Is there anything else I need to get, or would be advisable to get, or at least consider?
Thanks for reading.
Well, if the bridge happens to be the Golden Gate Bridge, a really nice guy already sold that one to me a while back. But, I've always liked the Brooklyn Bridge....
I have, on two different bikes, both a fully sheathed shift cable, and a bare cable running over a pulley. Both work fine. However, the covered cable method is a bit stiffer and a bit less positive. I prefer the pulley setup for its positive, easy shifts, but like the sheathed version for weather protection and clean appearance. It's also easier to set up on frames sans cable guides and stops. You just clamp it on with nylon ties.
In order to do the bare cable over a pulley, check the pics on my earlier post. It shows the stop, clamp, and pulley that are necessary to set it up that way. These things are available from various sources that carry SA parts.
As for the route, I had the downtube/wheelstay run setup once, but I kept getting heel strikes on the shifter chain. Running it along the top tube and down the seatstay works much better for me. Let me say here that I wear a size 13 shoe (huge) and you normally proportioned guys might not have that problem.
I'd say doing the conversion to S3X is fairly simple. Anyone who can build wheels should have no problem doing this. As you know from my pics I use bullhorns which makes the barend shifter installation very clean.
Certainly, one wheel is cheaper than two. I happen to have no problem mixing wheels and spoke counts and all that, but I certainly understand the compulsions that drive us enthusiasts (of anything, really). So, how you go about your compromises is your business. One thing: being a big, heavy guy, I prefer 36 spokes, especially on the rear. Having 32 on the front is ok, but I'd prefer 36. One of my bikes has a 36/32 and the other 36/36.
OK, that's my two cents. Anybody else?
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Vic's Freewheel Problem
pics of the freewheel mounted, but not down all the way; the cog hitting the frame; a fixed cog fitted; the freewheel off the hub; and two different diameter freewheels.
Here's my take. It looks like what I suggested: clearly, the freewheel isn't screwing all the way down the hub. I haven't tried installing a freewheel on my hubs, so I'm not sure what happens when you do. However, this was intended to work by the manufacturer. I will try this myself one of these days, but I don't know when I'll get around to it.
So Vic, I'd suggest getting a steel lock-ring and try to screw it down with the proper wrench over the full course of threads on the hub without the freewheel or cog on the hub. You won't be able to do this with the alloy ball-wrench ring S-A supplies. Alloy vs steel isn't happening. The hub threads might have gotten buggered by a loose cog/lockring on the hub while in use. ???
If you can get the steel lock-ring all the way down the threads on the hub (hopefully cleaning up the threads toward the dust cover) the freewheel should make more progress down the hub and clear the frame.
Anyone: would a bike shop have a die that would fit the hub threads?
I have never run into the freewheel diameter difference, myself. What would the other be used on? Freewheel hubs are all the same in my experience, so I got nothin'. Anyone?
I hope this helps, and I hope there might be more help from out there.....
Good luck, Vance
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