I have the S3X on two bikes, with thousands of combined miles. I’ve never had a failure—only one missed shift that I can recall in about two years of riding, and that was probably my fault.
I don’t have proof, by my guess is that the S3X is more sturdy than a standard Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub because it doesn’t have pawls inside. Because it has no pawls, it also runs silently, without the constant (if quiet) ticking that a 3-speed hub normally makes. To run in fixed mode, you use a splined cog that slides onto the hub and is held in place by a locking. There’s a bit of “lash” in the hub—even with the chain properly tight, there’s a slight lag between backpedaling and forward pedaling. This eliminates a bit of the “flywheel” effect of a true fixed gear, but it still rides pretty much like a regular fixie. You also have the option of spinning on a standard one-speed freewheel, which turns the S3X into a coasting hub. The benefit to this setup is that the pawls (the part that usually breaks) is outside of the hub and easily fixed—either fix the freewheel or put on a new one. I have a White Industries Eno freewheel on my Quickbeam; my Motobecane is still in fixed mode. I have my bikes geared so that the top gear is my normal cruising gear (somewhere around 72 inches) and I have two lower gears for the steep stuff (75% and 60% of the top gear). With a top gear of 72 inches, this gives a low of 45, which is for me good enough until the gradient goes over about 10 percent. YMMV. --Eric Norris Email: campyonly...@me.com Web: www.campyonly.com Blog: http://campyonlyguy.blogspot.com Twitter: @CampyOnlyGuy Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/campyonlyguy On Dec 24, 2013, at 9:31 AM, Lee Chae <leec...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Eric. Can you review the S3X hub? I'm thinking about using one but I know > there were mixed reports on them when they first came out. > > Thanks! > Lee > >> On Dec 24, 2013, at 9:26 AM, Eric Norris <campyonly...@me.com> wrote: >> >> That would be too easy. >> >> One solution I have found is to use a 3-speed hub, which gives me a good >> range of gears without messing with the wheel at all. I use a Sturmey Archer >> S3X, which I can run as a fixie or (with a standard one-speed freewheel) as >> a coasting 3-speed. >> >> --Eric Norris >> Email: campyonly...@me.com >> Web: www.campyonly.com >> Blog: http://campyonlyguy.blogspot.com >> Twitter: @CampyOnlyGuy >> Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/campyonlyguy >> >>> On Dec 24, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Bill Lindsay <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> ...or just run short brake pads >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. >>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
