There are some bits of bike kit that I really like, thought I’d share here what they are and why I like them. First off the block is Sturmey Archer’s S3X fixed gear hub.
Only been using this a week and it is just so much fun, it’s been a long time since a new bike put as bigger smile on my face as the Kogswell I built up using one of these. Can’t find a bad word to say about it. The hub does have just a little backlash, enough that you can feel it, but nothing to worry about. Not sure I’d want to skid stop using one of these, but rather think skid stopping with a hub gear might be asking for trouble, I’ve found the fixed-ness of the hub works just fine for regulating your speed.
Some people have criticised the hub as having too wider spacing of it’s gears and having it’s top gear as the direct drive. For my part I’m finding the spacing just fine, I’m also finding that I’m spending most of my time in the top gear, so having this as the direct drive makes sense. The top gear is way higher than I’d usually choose to ride with a fixed gear, but knowing that I can always bale out with a lower gear has made pushing this bigger gear far more comfortable than I’d usually expect. The lowest gear of 2/3rds of the top has been fine for climbing hills, steepest I’ve tried so far was Fountain Drive (near Dulwich).
So all in all, very happy with this. One last thought, the cog attachment system for this hub is great. The hub’s driver is splined for a Shimano DX cog, but this has threaded over it a standard threading for a freewheel. This means you can use a splined cog with a thread on lock-ring or you can, if you prefer (but can’t think why you’d want to) use a freewheel, in the process disabling the hub’s “fixed-ness”. This would though be an excellent idea for the freewheel side of a flip-flop fixed hub. It would add the option of using a splined fixed cog (no more stripping threads), but using a standard DX spline, rather than a proprietary spline – as with all the currently available splined fixed hubs. Genius.
