The pleasure of the coaster brake, any converted road bikes?

[Captain Awesome]

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Thread digging looking for info. My wife has an older Schwinn Frontier (circa 1995) she absolutely loves that she would like me to convert to an internal hub. 3 speed should be fine for her as it's flat as a board where we live. I've already done a single chainring swap up front and lost the derailleur

But I'll admit that internals are foreign to me. I've never had one or messed with one. I'd assume as long as it's the correct spacing, a complete 26" wheel with the shifter would be the ideal swap. But I'll take some guidance from you pros

She just wants a stripped down city/beach bike with minimal "Doo dad's" as she calls it

 

[Wildcat]

Thread digging looking for info. My wife has an older Schwinn Frontier (circa 1995) she absolutely loves that she would like me to convert to an internal hub. 3 speed should be fine for her as it's flat as a board where we live. I've already done a single chainring swap up front and lost the derailleur

But I'll admit that internals are foreign to me. I've never had one or messed with one. I'd assume as long as it's the correct spacing, a complete 26" wheel with the shifter would be the ideal swap. But I'll take some guidance from you pros

She just wants a stripped down city/beach bike with minimal "Doo dad's" as she calls it

If it's flat, a 2 speed kickback or auto 2 speed might be more her style, no cables.

The 3 speed with coaster brake would be the way to go if 3 is needed. I'd say the Nexus is the one that has a good price and is dependable. It's fairly common on cruisers. But it needs a cable and shifter. But she could leave it in second and ride all day without needing to shift. One other option would be one speed, but you would have to get the right number of teeth on the cog to have just the right gear for riding. You are correct about the spacing, the new hub should be the same width, unless you want to "modify" the frame.

 

[pebblewurm]

3 Speed hubs are easy to work on. Watch a couple of videos and you are there. Fine tuning the shifter is no harder than setting up derailleurs properly.

 

[Captain Awesome]

If it's flat, a 2 speed kickback or auto 2 speed might be more her style, no cables.
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The 3 speed with coaster brake would be the way to go if 3 is needed. I'd say the Nexus is the one that has a good price and is dependable. It's fairly common on cruisers. But it needs a cable and shifter. But she could leave it in second and ride all day without needing to shift. One other option would be one speed, but you would have to get the right number of teeth on the cog to have just the right gear for riding. You are correct about the spacing, the new hub should be the same width, unless you want to "modify" the frame.
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Auto 2 speed you say..........

 

[Wildcat]

I had two of them, one a freewheel and the other with a coaster brake. They shift up and down centrifically at a certain rpm. I liked them and will try to get this 26" bike with the coaster version back when I move to the Philippines. I also used them on 20" folders. You can change the gear ratio by changing out the cog, it's the same as most one speeds. Also the chain wheel can be changed to a different ratio. But SRAM quit making them a few years ago, I just looked on Amazon and Ebay and didn't find any. Bike shops may still have them in stock. The Sturmey Archer two speed kickback is abundant though, but SRAM was the only hub that was automatic, the other two speeds need to pedal backward to shift.

 

[Wildcat]

You could also go American classic with one of the many good Bendix two speed kickback hubs. They came in yellow band, also red. There was a blue version for 20" bikes with a higher gear, the yellow and red had a low gear and a normal gear. I've seen a lot of them in nearly new condition or even NOS for sale here in the For Sale Forum and on Ebay. That would be the cats meow. They aren't automatic though, but the brakes are good. I liked the yellow band I added to a Varsity ten speed frame. If you ride one bike all the time, the kickback shifting becomes second nature and it's great to have.

 

[Captain Awesome]

I think she'd be ok with cable operation. There's cleaner options, but some routing is not a big deal. Ideally freewheel. Auto would be awesome to find

Sounds like I'll keep chasing this one and amass some parts at some point

 

[Wildcat]

That sounds like a good plan. I found the 3 speeds I've used on complete bikes from CL. For about the same cost as a hub, I had the whole wheel plus tires and parts. The nexus 3 is used on many cruisers.