Glenn Jordan wrote:
>
>> If I get such a hub, would the modern S/A 3-speed trigger work for the older
>>
>
>The Close and Medium range 3-speed S/A hubs shift with the same amount of
>cable throw as the more common Wide range hubs, so the shifters are all
>identical in effect. In order to shift a 4-speed hub, you need a 4-speed
>shifter (and some consistant good luck), and I don't know any way around that.
>
>I have recently aquired a 5-speed S/A hub and it uses two shifters, very '60s
>looking things with lots of shiny silvery stuff and black plastic knobs on
>the ends - kind of a cross between a downtube shifter set and sports car
>stickshifts. Son Aaron snapped off one of the cable stops and I am trying to
>get the courage up to get it repaired.
Those shifters were never any good, and it is my belief that the bad reputation of the S-A 5-speeds owes a lot more to the shifters than to the hubs themselves.
The much superior way to use these hubs is with a standard trigger for the right cable, and a thumb shifter or some other sort of friction-type derailer shifter on the left.
Did you know that this type of gear system was the first application of space technology to a consumer product?
Sheldon "Planetary Gears" Brown
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