Sunday, November 25, 2012

A Couple Years In

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.

8 comments:

  1. Bit poor not to fall on anyone when you had your 'incident' :)

    Regarding the 'reports' on the internet, you have to wonder how the hubs are being used. To my mind, the S3X was designed to widen the working range of a bike ridden by someone who appreciates the advantages and skill set of riding fixed gear. To me, that does not necessarily include riding brakeless, skidding, tricks, etc. I see SA as a tad more conservative ... or maybe that's a reflection of my own paranoia. I think they are probably solid enough in 'normal' use, which is exactly what Vance has found.

    Not that I can talk from experience because I'm still struggling to buy cat chow for 'he who demands to be fed' let alone buying bike bits.

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  2. It is definitely not a robust hub that can stand up to a lot of high demand use. I am careful and ride conservatively to avoid any unusual pressure and leverage on the cranks. As mentioned before I am big, heavy, and have long legs. I don't want to allpply pressures and strains the hub wasn't mmeant to bear.
    Regards,
    Vance




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  3. I purchased one of the first s3x hubs on the market, right after they were released. I bought a wheel set from bike island that had the hub paired to an Alex SUB rim. I put a couple of hundred miles on my s3x before I ran into major problems. I did my best to baby the hub. I never skid stop and always ride with a front brake (my front hub is a sturmey archer X-FDD which is a pretty nifty dynamo hub with a built in drum brake). After a few weeks of moderate use I noticed that the hub started free wheeling in the lowest gear. I was still able to propel the bike forward in that gear, but there would be no resistance if I tried to apply back pressure to slow down or stop. Then it started happening in the middle gear as well. Before long, the lowest gear totally stopped working and the middle gear couldn't be used for stopping. Only the top gear was functional, so I pretty much put the bike away and stopped using it. I had geared the bike to have a fairly tall top gear to take maximum advantage of the hub. Now the gearing was a little bit too aggressive for me to ride comfortably. I put the bike away and didn't touch it again for a few years. Then a week ago I emailed sturmey archer USA, explaining what had happened. I got an email back from a rep the same day. He asked for my address. I gave it to him, and he had a package in the mail a couple hours later. The package contained a complete replacement of the internal workings of the hub and a new shifter (not the whole shifter, just a replacement of the thumb lever). Less than a week later the package was on my doorstep. I just took the bike to my local bike shop to have them attempt to fix the hub. None of the four bike shops that I contacted in my home town had much experience doing major overhauls on SA geared hubs, but a couple of them were willing to give the repairs a crack. I would have liked to undertake the repairs myself, but lacking a good repair manual or an extensive set of tools, I decided that the job was a bit beyond me. I'm hoping to get a working bike back next week.

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  4. Thanks so much for this blog. I think I'm willing to try this guy out but it is very hard to find any info on these hubs. Before I buy one, I have a super simple question. Do I need horizontal dropouts, or are the ones like on my road bike frame OK? Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Thanks
    Dave

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    Replies
    1. Horizontal (track forks) or slotted slanty rear forks are best because you need to be able to tighten up the chain slack. It can be done with dropouts, but it will involve trying different combinations of chainrings, cogs, and probably half links to get an acceptable chain tension. You can't use a single speed chain tensioner with fixed gears. It will break or bend or do something unhappy when you attempt to put back pressure on.

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  5. Vance,

    I was wondering if you still ride this? How is it treating you? Just looking into durability before I drop the coin. Thanks!

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  6. Vance,

    Are you still putting miles on this hub? I'm interested in durability of it. Thanks

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  7. Yep. Still going strong. As I said in previous posts, no skidding, and I use a front brake to ease the stress on the hub, but I still like it, and have had no problems.

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