At 8/3/2005 03:26 PM -0400, kohl57@starpower.net wrote:
>Definately. Although I must say the most reliable "sexy" SA hub gear is
>the
>AM (three-speed medium ratio). The four speeds (FM, FC) are swell and the
>FC sublime but I must say that lowest gear is often a ***** to get shifted
>down to. And stay in place. One of the many things a dad would tell his son
>was "never stand in the saddle with a SA hub"... worth heeding with the
>lowest gear on an FC. Someone told me they fixed all this around 1958 but
>no one was buying such things by then.
This is because the detents in the shifter can be overpowered by the
high spring tension needed to get a 4 speed to shift into low with
only one cable. I've never had an FM or FC apart, but the FW has a
delicate 2 piece indicator rod that has to apply a lot of force. The
5 speeds are much simpler and more reliable.
>I am not too sure about five-speed hubs... they were all wide-ratio and
>kinda boring if you're looking for something "club bike" and sporty.
The ratios are the same as an FW with another gear on top. Gaps are
not nearly as wide as an AW. Given the numbers of young folks riding
"sporty" single speeds these days, having to be a bit more flexible
with one's cadence doesn't seem like a big deal. And, worth the
extra range. Especially as my old legs haven't aged as well as it
sounds yours must have. (If you're out kicking butt on your RRA, as
Lance says "It's Not About the Bike".)
>They also needed dual shifters, the kind that look they belong on a
>Stingray or
>a Chopper. You'd lose all respect from the club lads showing up with that.
My friends and I have about twenty S5 and S5/2 equipped bikes, and none of us use those shifters. All that is needed is a simple 3 speed trigger for the right side, and either a friction or trigger shifter for the rarely used left.
For anyone thinking about going to an old SA hub: The dual cable 5 speeds and the FW 4 speeds shared almost all of the internal parts. And, most of the parts that wear are also common to the ubiquitous AW 3 speed. There are two sets of planetary gears. On the 5 speed you have essentially two 3 speed hubs. The left lever determines whether the ultra wide ratio (-33%, 1:1 and +50%) or the medium wide ratio (-21%, 1:1 and +26%) gearset is in use. Almost all riding is done in the medium wide set, and the left lever is only used to make high gear even higher or low gear even lower. Sounds confusing, but my decidedly non-mechanical wife got comfortable with it after one ride.
To make all this work with a single cable 4 speed, one first shifts into "low", then pulls even further to engage the other gearset to get "Lower Low". Unfortunately, this requires compressing two additional springs, leading to the problems PC alluded to.
I've converted 4 speeds to 5 speeds to get better shifting, not because I needed a higher gear.
BTW, Post CR timeline, Sturmey came out with completely redesigned single cable 5 speeds, all with the same ratios as the S5s. The early ones were pretty bad, but the newer ones are supposed to be quite reliable. Too bad the market wouldn't support a "5M" or a "5C". It would be hard to spread development and tooling cost among the few dozen of us, worldwide, who might be interested.
Mark Stonich;
Minneapolis Minnesota
http://mnhpva.org
http://bikesmithdesign.com