Sturmey-Archer S2C Two-speed hub

[GrumpyGregry]

I blame Origamist. He put the idea in my head.

The waffle
I bought a Charge Plug when Wiggle had them cheap in the sale. I bought it as a birthday present to myself and to replace the fixed bike I sold in the late Autumn. Now I wanted a fixed for a bit of fun on clun runs, but I also wanted something practical for my parts of my commute for, as Jack Carter once said, "You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me it's a full time job." So I planned to gear the Plug really low so I could cope with Hateful Hill on the way in and Spiteful Slope on the way home.

Someone said 'hub gears' and pointed me at the Sturmey 3 speed fixed hub. Once my jaw got over the bruising I knew there was no way could I afford one of them, and then, in this very forum, the S2C swam into view. Quick phonecall to SJS, yep instock, £70, happy to build it into a wheel and supply me with the bits to build my own matching front wheel. 36H only - not a problem when you are my size, and only in Silver and with the coaster brake. The brakeless S2 is rarer than hens teeth at present going in the main to Marin, or so a nice man at SA tells me. Various conversations in here help me figure what ratios I need.

The wheel arrives. The cog is fitted. The cheapskates at Charge have fitted a chain that is too short to fit. New chain bought old chain sold. Three attempts at building the front wheel latter I have a hoop which is round, very, very round as my OCD got the better of me on the truing stand. All this is done at work during lunch breaks. And thereby hangs another tale. I'm lucky if I have one lunchbreak a week, tut tut, so everything takes longer, way longer than it should.

The piffle
Last night I took the completed bike home. Well it is only six weeks late. This morning I fitted some lights and rode it into the office, and here are my fist impressions. A pleasing retro SA click click click click click click when pedaling in direct drive, a satisfying step up to the indirect gear. How do you change gear? Simples. You pedal backwards. Well sort of. In reality you can't pedal backwards as this applies the rear brake. That's how coaster brakes work. This makes for an interesting moment or two at the first couple of junctions as I stop and fixed-like my chocolate foot is not at the top of the stroke. Simples. Front brake on, unweight the back wheel and pedal gently and we are sorted. Where were we? Oh yes. How do you change gear?

You change gear by fractionally rotating the pedals backwards. It is quite a subtle movement, a case of just enough and the hub flips and flops between the two gears. Not enough and it rewards you with no change. Before I get free of Horsham this proves quite funny. If you brake then the hub flips gear. Great if you are in top, brake, slow down, and start again in bottom. Less of a gas the other times though, you're in low, you brake, hey presto you're in top, straining on the pedals. You soon learn though. Another thing I learnt is when I stop pedalling I seem to instinctively pedal backward a bit. Sometime quite a bit, thusly applying the brake. Simplest answer is to keep pedalling.

If you (accidentally) give a big backwards stomp on the pedals the brake unit is a bit noisy but more subtle pressure gives smooth and quite progressive braking. (Just as well, the front brake on the Plug is awful - I'm going to order some new pads, if that doesn't improve it then it is going in a skip, there is a thesis to be researched on why the XL version of a bike has the same (crap) brakes as the XS version when the chances are Mr XL will have twice the mass of Ms XS to retard)

The bull
No one but a fool would try to say that the experience of riding a bike with the S2C is the same as going fixed. Obviously it isn't, you can coast, you can freewheel. But the drive, especially in that direct low is satisfyingly direct, no flywheel effect of course, but you do feel much more immedately connected to the rear wheel through the pedals and on a derailleur geared bike. Very useful on Hatefull Hill that is. You know, when you have one of those "Must.... keep.... pedalling.... damnit...." moments.

The torque arm for the brake is butt ugly and the fittings for it look like they will rust. But it does give you a clean bike with a back brake but no rear caliper cable or lever. The hub is not sealed in any meaningful way so it will be interesting to see how it copes in the wet (In the wet? You're joking that's what the railways and season tickets thereof are for).

28mm Gatorhardshells on 700c wheels with a 42t chainring and a 21t cog give me around 54" in direct and the hub lobs 38% on top of that in top. You do the maths, or math if you're an American.

Watch this space and I'll update how I/we get on over the next few rides/weeks.

 

[mickle]

Nice one.

 

[tyred]

Excellent. These hubs interest me.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

So we are a couple of hundred miles into using this hub/bike now and here is the news.....

I've been riding this bike almost exclusively so far this year and it has been an engaging experience. A good few commutes (cross country A B and C roads 13 miles one way) and a few weekend rides up to 30 miles duration, so far. Two gears means little thinking about gear selection and like most singlespeeds it is amazing what you can climb, and how fast you can climb it, when the alternative is walking. The bike has been nicknamed "Greg's psuedospeed" by one of my mates and the name has stuck. A psuedo singlespeed it certainly is and so "psuedospeed" it has become.

After about 50 miles I was a little alarmed to notice that black grease was oozing from under the dust cover on the brake side of the hub. A quick email to Sturmey and the prompt reply advises this is perfectly normal and to be expected. Nothing a baby wipe can't handle though I do sort of wonder what it means when grease no longer oozes out, does that mean there isn't any more grease inside the brake/hub? Is that a good thing?

"The knack and how to get it" There is a definite knack to learn to shift gear without braking, and the cleanness of your ensuing shifts does seem to be affected a fair bit by chain tension. I'm running a half link chain and the tendency of these chains to stretch is, it seems, almost legendary. (It's a vanity thing, I just like how they look; don't judge me.) I had a problem with the rear wheel shifting in the dropouts after one eye popping, vein bulging, handlebar flexing hill climb. I put this down to not doing the nuts up tight enough in the first place as the application of a little more torque since has not seen a re-occurence. A chain tug may be introduced as a last resort, if this happend again though I'm not sure how I might use one with the lock washer arangements on the hub.

The knack itself is simply learning to back pedal the right amount. Not enough especially with a slack chain and no gear change will take place, too much and of course the back brake kicks in. If I could modify things at all it would be to have a greater arc of movement before the brake operates as sometimes the act of shifting ones weight when crouched off the saddle and on the pedals is enough to brake a bit which can upset your balance if you are not expecting it. and of course then you've inadvertently shifted gear. But it is fair to say that the shift, and amount of effort needed is not always consistent. One ride saw me stuck in top, pedalling backwards caused the hub to shift down but within one forward pedal revolution it shifted automatically back into top. Darned annoying. A big hefty stomp backwards when stationary cured this and it hasn't occured since. You can tell what gear you are in by the noise the hub makes once your ears are atuned and provded traffic/wind noise isn't drowning the sounds out.

The other knack that is not yet automatic to me is stopping, in traffic, with a leading pedal. You cannot pedal backwards; which also means you have to take great care when using the mickle method to clean and lube your chain. Fingers, beware.

So in summary, it works, it works well once you learn how to use it (rather like say going from gripshifters to sti's; there is a learning curve), keep an eye on chain tension and if you'd like the clean lines and simplicity of a single geared bike but think the legs aren't up to it (any more) then it might just be for you.