Which 3spd hub, SA or Shimano?

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jan 9, 2011
Messages
40
Reaction score
2
Location
Orange County, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Stumey Archer or Shimano?
Looking into getting a 3 speed hub, which is the best hub and what experiences do any of you have with either.
Thanks.
 
I like SA better, Ive had good experiences with both though, but sa seems a little better to me.
 
I read some bad things about the SA. Try searching MTB review, or just google SA hub reviews. SA has been around for ever but their quality may have dropped a bunch.
 
slowrider said:
Stumey Archer or Shimano?
Looking into getting a 3 speed hub, which is the best hub and what experiences do any of you have with either.
Thanks.

The standard, tried and true common 3-spd hub, the Sturmey Archer AW, is a freewheel type hub (no coaster brake) and for the most part are very reliable with little attention. They do require proper setup of the cables.

Adjustment of the cable is critical to proper operation, and they can be finicky. It's the last thing to do once all the other adjustments and assembly are worked out on your bike, because the cable works by tension. The position of the wheel relative to the cable stop on the frame must not change or your gear adjustment goes with it.

(In other words, taking the rear wheel off requires disassembling and readjusting the cable every time.)

They have a single "fatal flaw" and that is, with improper adjustment, they can have a dead spot, i.e. no drive or a neutral position, between 2nd and High gear. Usually this just requires better adjustment of the cable but it's potentially dangerous to the rider when it happens.

A different hub, the old model Sturmey 3-spd coaster-brake model TCW III is reportedly subject to braking failures. I haven't had one fail myself... and I'm using one on my buildoff bike.

Newer hubs have supposedly corrected the problem. Brand new AW hubs appear to be as good as old ones, and lighter because they're aluminum shells. Long term longevity? Well the old steel ones last 50+ years, so it's hard to beat that track record. The new ones???? Don't know.

Good luck with whatever your choice.

--Rob
 
I've got a couple of the supposedly nearly bullet proof SA hubs that are busted and a couple of the typically fragile Shimano 333s that work well. So I guess your results may vary. The 2 broken SA hubs came to me that way, one missing the fill plug, so who knows how long it was used unlubricated? The other I haven't tried to diagnose yet. Of greater relevance, I've used a couple newer Shimano Nexus hubs with great results so far. I guess I wouldn't hesitate to use either brand now, both seem to make good products now. I'm thinking of using the SA 8-speed on a Stingray Fastback (which has one of the broken AWs). We'll see when get to working on it...
 
Cool, well thanks for all the info guys and I also did a lil researching myself and found lots of info on both hubs.
I think I'm going with the SA hub but deciding to with a 2 speed kick back rather than the 3 speed.
I like the fact that I can still maintain the clean look of my cruiser(no cables) and still have the multi speed option.
I guess they just started reproducing them a couple years ago but we'll see how it goes.
The hub that I'm replacing was a Velosteel hub which didn't last 2 weeks! It looks beefy and feels real solid but can't take much abuse what so ever. After a while I noticed the tire rubbing on the inside of the chainstay. I have a 2.5" rim and tire and it's an extremly tight fit between the stays...about 80 thou each side!
Anyways when I first installed the wheel the hub was true and tight, now it wobbles a bit on the axles:/. Enough play for the tire to rub the left chainstay.
It's too bad cause I heard a lot of good things about Velosteel hubs before I decided to purchase one.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top