3 speed hub question

[wheelhorseman]

I picked up an old Worksman trike with a 3 speed coaster brake hub. Theres no cable on it and harder to pedal so I assume without a cable its automatically in 3rd gear.

Is there a way to manually shift into second gear and lock there?

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[SILVERKINGPC]

Not really. Put a shifter and cable on it, then enjoy all three gears! Those parts are relatively easy to find and cheap..

 

[Bicycle808]

Not really. Put a shifter and cable on it, then enjoy all three gears! Those parts are relatively easy to find and cheap..

i agree....

 

[Starnger]

There is a trick with SA 3 gear hubs. You grab a spoke, twist it in (appears SA shifting rod has same thread as spokes do) and then cut most of the spoke off. Then you bend the tip of the spoke in a shape of a hook, so it would not fall inside, and hold your hub on a second gear. Sometimes requires some adjustment. Have done it a lot back in Netherlands

 

[Wildcat]

If you really don't want to hook up the chain cable and shifter on a SA, or rod, cable and shifter on a Shimano 3 speed, you can have the second gear ratio by changing out the chain wheel and taking a few links out of the chain to make up for it. If your chain wheel is now a 44 tooth, change it to a 38 or 40 tooth and it will lower the ratio to what you would have in second gear or very close to it. In fact, no matter what size your chain wheel, get one with 4 to 6 less teeth and you'll have your second gear ratio locked in. No cables or shifter, just one gear.

 

[Bicycle808]

It might be worth noting that both Shimano and Sturmey-Archer suggest running a primary ratio no lower than 2:1... as with everything, YMMV.

 

[SILVERKINGPC]

There is always a way to rig things to "work", but if it is a Sturmey Archer S3C hub, and the drive clutch and pinion pin interface is worn, it will tend to jump out of 3rd gear after 15 hard pedal strokes and potentially send you flying instead of riding.
IF you are going to rig it, put it in 1st gear(not 3rd) and change your sprockets accordingly, which, again is more pricey than putting a shifter and cable on it..

 

[Wildcat]

When my brothers and I were kids, we would put a small rock in the Shimano bracket on the axle to keep it opened up enough to hold second. Sturmey Archer uses a chain in the axle, we never figured how to hold those in second.

I would go ahead and get the shifter, bracket if needed, and cable and use all three gears, especially on a trike.
Shimano:

Sturmey Archer:

 

[wheelhorseman]

I was able to wedge a bolt in the bracket to hold it in first gear making to easy to pedal which makes it an easier sell if somebody test rides to buy. The in between 2nd was to tricky to get.

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[Bicycle808]

Oh.

This is one of those caveat emptor kinda things, huh?

 

[xray]

So, let me see if I understand. Are you saying your real question is:

"How do I jury rig it to sell to somebody who doesn't know any better, even if it means they might be seriously injured when it breaks as they ride it?"

 

[Wildcat]

Seriously injured? It's a Worksman trike stuck in first gear. If the bolt falls out, it's stuck in third gear. How is someone going to be seriously injured?
It would have to be advertised as a one speed anyway.

 

[Bicycle808]

I agree that the buyer would be unlikely to be injured in this scenario, but this is definitely a rip-off flipper move. Let the buyer beware, yadda yadda yadda, but c'mon-- that's some shady stuff right there.

 

[xray]

I apologize if that comment is a little harsh, but here's the deal... when an internally geared hub slips out of gear, the pedals suddenly let loose like your chain has come off. You go from pushing on a pedal that gives you some resistance, to no resistance. It's the reverse of the old tug-of-war joke where you're playing tug of war and you let go of the rope so your opponent falls on their butt. Except, the rider falls on their face, on their foot comes off the pedal, possibly going under the pedal.

The first thing you learn when riding trikes harder than your grandma, is the you NEVER want to put your foot on the ground when moving forward. If you put a foot on the ground riding a bike, the bike tries to go between your legs. On the trike, the rear wheels try to run over your leg.

Yes, it is unlikely someone on a trike will be seriously injured, but not impossible. I said they "might be seriously injured," that is a maybe. Maybe they will be injured, maybe they won't. Maybe it will be minor, maybe it will be serious.

Who buys an old trike that doesn't know the difference between a good one and a bad one? Maybe an old lady with a cute little dog she wants to parade around the neighborhood in the basket.

Maybe granny has osteoporosis. Maybe she beaks her hip. That's life changing, sometimes life shortening injury for an old lady.

Maybe it's not a granny who buys it - maybe it's a guy who think it would be fun to trick it out. He gets on it the first day he has it and tries to ride it hard, standing on the pedals and pumping it hard. The gears let go and he falls on his face.

Everybody says this is a cheap, easy fix. If it's a Worksman trike, you can buy absolutely any part for it directly from them.

Maybe our friend has not thought of this, and maybe he'll change his mind about how to fix this. Folks, we've all bought something at some time that was a piece of crap where somebody has hidden a flaw. It ain't right. Maybe they "weren't thinking" about the consequences, maybe they intentionally ripped you off.

I think we can assume our friend was joking around a little, and he wouldn't really do this. I'd like to think he would have warned me if he sold me something that was broken.

If he sold you something broken on this site, you'd certain give him bad rep.

 

[SILVERKINGPC]

Calm down all! Just fix the darned thing!! I just don't get it. How hard is it to hang a cable on a bike? A 10-yr old could do it. You could probably get THREE times as much selling it if you did.
Get it? "three" times more...

 

[Wildcat]

Let's not get wrapped around the axle. I don't see where anyone was seriously going to rip someone and sell a death trap.
The Shimano hub doesn't have the neutral between 2nd and third gear. I've been riding since 1962, and more than once was winding out the old Hercules SA 3 speed when it was out of adjustment and the pedals went free (while standing on them). Too bad it wasn't a girl's bike. That top bar was a crippler! The Shimano hubs never did that, they usually locked up or wouldn't shift at all. I've been through more than a few of each hub, they were mostly hand me downs.
But if this trike is advertised as a 3 speed, then it's a problem, but I don't see that as being the case.

 

[Bicycle808]

As someone who has worked in a bike shop, and who is sometimes the local go-to guy for bike problems, I've seen this kind of thing a million times. some unscrupulous flipper pulls some sort of bonehead move on a flip, sells it to someone who doesn't know any better, and when the hub bites the dust, they don't know what happened, or who to blame....

We all know that a mis-adjusted 3 speed hub will wear out and die in short order. And, we all know that a 3speed hub that has been rigged up as a singlespeed by "wedg(ing) a bolt in the bracket to hold it in first gear making to easy to pedal" by a guy who, just 2 days ago, was asking "Is there a way to manually shift into second gear and lock there?"... That wouldn't bode well for the hub, even if the guy was lovingly trying to rig it up right b/c he was rehabbing the trike for himself or a friend or family member. This is a cheesy band-aid "repair" for a quick flip. And, whether it is sold as a non-functioning 3 speed or as a singlespeed, in a short period of time, it's going to need a new hub...

This is kind of a shame, in my opinion.

 

[SILVERKINGPC]

Must keep loose garments away from spinning axles for sure. Many of us have gone down hard or have been bloodied by a(unmentioned brand) 3-spd cutting loose at full power.. Not my dreigangs though!

 

[Bicycle808]

To be fair to Sturmey-Archer, they fixed the false-neutral issue decades ago. Unfortunately, a lot of folks fell prey to that issue.... and a lot of those hubs are still out there. Jobst Brandt caught a bad one on a S-A equipped 3 speed bike he used to train on, and he NEVER forgave the company. I be you could google some rants he wrote about how much he hated the things.

Fichtel & Sachs made some masterpiece three-speeds (driegangs) for sure; if the parts availability for those was even half as good as what's available for the Sturmey-Archer AW, I'd run the F&S hubs exclusively.

 

[Wildcat]

Our Hercules was responsible for every one of me and my brothers crashing horribly. My younger brother couldn't find a nut and bolt, so he duct taped the brake lever to the handlebars and went "racing" with a friend. He wound out second gear, and was pulling hard in third when the tape gave way, and the handle with cable went into the front spokes, stopping the bike on a dime. He hit the concrete face first. Our friend parked his bike and ran all the way back to our house yelling "He broke his neck! He broke his neck!" He didn't, just had road rash and was known as the swamp thing for a few weeks.

SA had a 3 speed w coaster that had no brakes if you were between 2nd and 3rd! Yikes!

I agree with F&S, the ones I've had, and now the SRAM hubs, seem tough and well made.