Sturmey Archer gears.

[stranger]

I have been given an old Dawes ladies bike with a standard SA 3 speed hub.

BUT--it is unbelievably HARD to pedal, even in '1st gear'. OK-so I am not the worlds best cyclist--but even I should be able to shove a bike along better than this. The slightest slope renders it really really really hard work. And it is almost impossible to turn the pedals at all, in 3rd.

Even my husband, who is a 'real cyclist', admitted it was tough going, even after he gave it a good clean and re-grease.

Any ideas?

It's the red and black 'trigger'.

 

[Ivan Ardon]

Pop the gears into second - that's a straight through gear so runs without going through the gearbox. Turning the pedals should result in the rear sprocket turning at the same rate as the back wheel. If it's really hard to turn the pedals in second, then your problems lie outside the gearbox - wheel bearings, dragging brakes, rusted chain and bottom bracket bearings being the main suspects.

 

[jimboalee]

Bikes set up in the factory with Sturmey hubs are invariably geared TOO HIGH.

The gearing will more than likely be 46 chainwheel and a 15 tooth sprocket, giving 60, 80 and 106 inch gear lengths.

It might have an 18 sprocket, giving 50, 66 and 88 inches. Still TOO HIGH.

My Halfords County has a 22 tooth sprocket fitted, giving me 41, 54 and 72 inches. Better, but 23 tooth sprockets are RHS ( Rocking Horse S*t ).

http://www.freemanscycles.co.uk/product2.asp?product_id=1278&pname=Sprockets

Get a 22 tooth jobbie from these guys, and a few more links of chain.

If you do have a 15 tooth, the rear wheel moves forward ( or back ) 1/4" in the dropouts because you are introducing an ODD number of teeth.
If this is so, the gear cable will need re-adjusting to suit.

Good luck.

 

[stranger]

Right. SO it needs a bit of expert 'twiddling' does it?

 

[jimboalee]

Its quite easy.
All the special tools you will need is a small flat blade screwdriver to get the spring ring off.
When you prise the ring off, hold your spare hand over it or it will fly away and be lost.

How old is the Dawes Bike?
You are VERY privileged to get one for nothing.
Some Ladies don't like derailluer gears because pedaling is required to change gear.
On a Sturmey, you stop pedaling to change, so a gearchange can be done while waiting at a junction.

Keep it well. Its not a cheap bike

 

[stranger]

I don't know exactly how old it is. How does one tell?

One the (straight) handlebars it has two circular 'stamps'. One says Road Champion and the other says SAKEA. Made in Britain.

Apart from that, it is just a bog standard 'tourer', turquoise in colour and with the most comfortable bike saddle I have ever sat on.

I'd be thrilled to bits with it if I could only make it 'go'.

 

[jimboalee]

What model is it ?

It won't be a tourer. It will be a Ladies 'town' bike. The modern equal is the Haarlem, over £200.

Does it have two narrow tubes from the head down to the seat tube?

Is is 26 x 1 3/8" tyre size?


Ladies bikes like this a quite 'in vogue' at the moment. You have a BARGAIN

 

[stranger]

It's got Diploma written on the frame.

Which according to my Internet search, is a 2008 model, but it looked very 'neglected', poor thing.

However it seems to be about £300's (RRP) worth of bicycle. I wonder if it was 'abandoned' by it's previous owner just because it was/ is so difficult to ride.

 

[HelenD123]

I have a Dawes Lady Diploma with 3 speed Sturmey Archer from the late 1980s. It's a lovely ride. I've always found the gears perfectly spaced for me. Hopefully with a bit of twiddling you should be able to restore it to its original setting. I've had it from new and I think my parents paid about £120 for it (but I may be wrong).

 

[stranger]

It certainly looks like an 'older bike'. And the frame is not the same shape as the one on the Internet.

Theres a chap who repairs bikes lives not a mile from me, so I will see what he can do for it. It's certainly not very useful as it is.

 

[bikefettler]

+1 to jimboalee's advice, choose a rear sprocket around 20-22 that gives 2nd gear a general gear that you are happy with and then you have top as a down hill wind behind you gear and a first that will get you up reasonable hills , you can date the hub (if not definitively the bike)by looking at the month/year stamped on the rear hub.I have run a sturmey aw on my shopping /urban bike since the hub was new in 1984 and with a drop of oil it has outlasted frames rims saddles etc and is still sweet as a nut, these things will outlast us all , they were built and designed by victorians for bikes that were for transport not fashion,(think forth railway bridge type over engineering)pehaps you can sense a bit of bias but you get my drift!!!

 

[tyred]

Definitely worth investing a little time and money changing the rear sprocket. I love these sort of bikes. Real bikes, made to do a job, not a fashion statement like many modern bikes and fundamentally indistructable. My Raleigh Twenty is one bike I will never even consider selling (I've fitted it with a bigger rear sprocket).

 

[jimboalee]

Ideally, Middle ratio should be similar or the same as 52". This was Starley's 2:1 chaindrive 26" wheel bike.

You will then have a climbing gear of about 38", and a higher gear.

15 tooth sprockets were popular because they took less metal to make.

 

[stranger]

Ideally, Middle ratio should be similar or the same as 52". This was Starley's 2:1 chaindrive 26" wheel bike.

You will then have a climbing gear of about 38", and a higher gear

I am sure you are absolutely right.

Does that mean I will be able to pedal up-hill?

 

[tyred]

I am sure you are absolutely right.

Does that mean I will be able to pedal up-hill?

Hills come in all shapes and sizes but with a 38" gear, you should be able to manage most of them.