The SRAM hubs, at least the 2 and 3 speeds, have a lot of Fichtel & Sachs DNA. The designs are great, and they're durable if used correctly, but the finish and qulity of materials are just not what the old F&S stuff had. The 80s/90s Sachs (sans Fichtel) were more like the SRAM stuff, and Sachs is the firm that SRAM bought-out.
Sturmey-Archers were odd in that they kinda had peaks and valleys, in terms of quality and design. Their best stuff were the old 3speeds from the pre-war era, although early post-war was good, too. At some point, they started playing with different designs that weren't as good (the first 2 attempts at the coaster were terrible--especially the TCW... the 60s-era 3 speed fixed gear was quirky, the SW was meant to replace the AW but had engagement issues, etc...) and the QC just sorta kept dropping, ever so slightly, for a few decades before SunRace bought them out. According to Sheldon's site, the SunRace guys bought the name, designs, and all the tooling.... and paid a small fortune shipping the machines to Taiwan, only to find that they were so worn and out-of-spec that they had to make new ones, anyway. Still, n a lot of ways, i think i could argue that the Sturmey-Archer was the greatest hub ever made, if not b/c it was actually the best at any one thing, b/c it was so good at so many things.... and so ubiquitous and influential, it really shaped cycling for the past, what??? 80 years or more! That's amazing; no other hub has been in continuous production nearly that long.
Whenever see an old F& hub, though, I can't deny it; tho se things are gorgeous. Little works of art....
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. skpc
