Overhauling 60 Year Old Sturmey Archer 3 Speed Hub

I overhaul the Sturmey Archer hub from my 1954 Indian Scout bike. The hub is an AW model and has the 54 date code on it.

👍 And please give my video a thumbs up 👍

▶FACEBOOK.com/RJTheBikeGuy

▶TOOLS

▶SHIRTS

▶WEBPAGE

[DigitalMentorGroup]

What is really quite fascinating, and amazing, is how the 3-speed Sturmey-Archer bicycle transmission was so durable, and long lasting. There are.bicycles from the 30's, that still work as designed. An incredible piece of engineering.

[ravinperera]

I use to pull these apart often back in the 70’s when i was about 13 years of age, we use to love working on our bikes, life was simple and great!

[Bassmunchkin]

51 years ago my mum and dad bought me my dream chopper bike for xmas and it was the best present i have ever been given. If i knew then what I know today after watching this absolutely fascinating intricate video, I would of seen with my X-ray eyes that there was pure beauty in the developers eyes.

[curbmassa]

As a kid 50+ years ago instead of unscrewing the large ball race with the hammer and screwdriver on the driven side to get it apart, I would chuck the fixed side hub in a vise on the two flats and use the wheel to unscrew it- quicker, easier. This was on the '50s & '60s wheels. Bought a new Raleigh Sports in '72 and by then they were pressing the fixed side in instead of threading. My sister borrowed the bike one night while wearing sandals and the hub came loose and she ripped her big toenail off when her foot hit the street. I replaced the wheel with a '56. The bean counters had begun their unrelenting quest to shift the global manufacturing paradigm from "How good can we make this" to "How cheap can we make this". They won. As someone else mentioned, the quality of steel they used on the old ones was amazing.

[dodgeboy]

Hi ... from Australia, , I started work at Raleigh bicycles, Faraday Road, Nottingham in 1959 in the Sturmey Archer section, I remember spending all day grinding 'burrs' of tiny machined washer parts and threading the chain attachment, ,,all day every day ... Thanks for the video now I know where they fitted in the assembly..

Oh by the way the making of ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning '''was being filmed when I started, ,, theck the begging scene to see what life was like as a 15 year old boy..!! thanks again

[luckyguy]

Old school is 'best school' no matter how old you are. If you ride a bicycle for pleasure on a warm spring day you are still a kid at heart. No matter how old your body gets.

[Tom-Lahaye]

I have owned a couple of British bikes in the past which had those hubs.
First one was a BSA, as my money back then wasn't enough to afford a Raleigh, which was well past $1000, - in 1977 already.
After a year or 4 I replaced my BSA with a Raleigh, which is a city bike which will last a lifetime, actually I gave it away 2 years ago.
As I learned maintaining my bikes from my dad I was brave enough one day to take the Sturmey Archer hub apart, and I was amazed about the ingeneous way it worked, workmanship and the quality of the steel.
Even after 30 years of use there was almost no vissible wear on the parts, this was British engineering from the days gone by now.
A strange thing I marked from the video, what is gear one on your shifter was gear 3 on the shifters sold here.

I have a few comments on things seen in the video.
Firstly, the axle nut on the non drive side should be a standard 15mm axle nut, the tubular one was just to guide the indexing pin, however using a tubular nut on the other side won't harm, it was probably what the previous owner had around after losing the original nut.
Secondly, the amount of play on the second cone you fitted back in was to much, there should't be any visible play.
It must be tightened untill the axle feels to turn stiff, and then loosened a quarter turn, if it still feels slightly stiff it's not a problem.
When you buy a new cartridge bearing it feels a bit stiff as well, a new bearing is supposed to have an amount of preload on the bearings.
Having it that loose as you had will lead to uneven wear on the ball race as only a couple of bearings at the very bottom of the race will bear the load, instead of the load being spread around the whole bottom half of the race, also will the bearings have the tencendy to move from side to side a bit inside the race when not tight enough.

[cigarboxpickandslide]

What a great design, still-used and virtually unchanged or bettered in decades . Thanks, very helpful

[LibertyMA]

Worked as a bike mechanic from 74'-78'. Did several Sturmey Archers and another type which was popular at the time (push-pin design). Out of all the repairs I did to bicycles, this was by far the hardest repair. Many SA's would get broken chains and you could not get the pin out without opening up the hub. Big Hint - count the bearings when they come out. If you miss a single bearing you will not be able to adjust the hub.
NICE VIDEO RJ !!!

[CigarManGarth]

I just dived back into the Raleigh - "Sturmey Archer World" after a 47 year break from cycling. Once again a demonstration video of pure perfection. I think I'm getting addicted to Raleigh bikes and the Sturmey Archer 3 speeds. I just acquired a 1978 Raleigh D-1 with lever brakes in which I'm trying to replicate a British WW1 Raleigh bicycle. I wish they used a Sturmey Archer 3 speeds, but nope, single speed as far as I can tell. A few changes to the crank set, rear wheel 3 speed to single speed and a new style - old style 3 spring Brooks seat, bolt on - rifle mounts, leather tool case and cargo last but not least - a paint job to khaki. Some where black, some where khaki.

[justineckhardt]

Great video; thanks for sparing me the anguish of staring at a table full of parts I would never have know how to put back together.  I rebuilt my mother in laws childhood bike after her brother dismantled it 20 years ago... she is thrilled.

[trekkeruss]

I went to Schwinn school in the 80's, and 3-speed hub overhaul was a major part of the curriculum. At the time I had already done both SA and Shimano hubs before on many a customer's bike, but the course was helpful to learn tips and tricks about these hubs. Not long afterwards, IG hub popularity died off for a long while, and I have not overhauled one in probably 25 years. So it is great to watch your video. I may have to dig out an old bike at the co-op and open up the hub just for the heck of it.

[fredvp]

Great video. My 1968 Raleigh Sports 3 speed was in rough shape after being stolen in Vermont. The local constable found it a year later in the woods on the side of the road. After getting it back to working condition I noticed low gear was slipping. It would engage sometimes but mostly not. With the help of your video I took it apart. I found both low gear pawl springs completely gone and ground up inside. I also found all of the bearings and the 2 cones were pitted. After replacing all that and putting it back together it is running fine again. With a working low gear now!

[brendaleetv]

A customer brought me one yesterday, from a bike that was in a scrap yard. It didnt rotate at all, I had a spare one, belive I had one how did I get a spare from a scrap bike too!. And I sold him the one that I had which worked perfectly, I stayed with his non working one to see if I can fix it. Great vid.

[luckyram]

Hi again, am from UK, thanks a lot RJ for the really really useful vids . The greatest challenge in my project was the pawns & the miniature Springs, without another pair of hands, I would never been able to put them back in place.

[ARON]

Hi there. I just wanted to say thank-you for this great video explaining the three speed hub. I have never tackled one before and your video was just what I needed.
Seized three speed SA hub dismantled, freed up, cleaned and reassembled. Just need to learn how to lace it into a wheel now 😃

[pknuckey]

Thank you. Have taken apart 3 of these in the last few months and still need your video as I suffer from CRS. Excellent!

[trevorrdavies]

Its amazing to think that this hub was designed over 100 years ago without computers or any other modern technology, Much less that it worked for 60 years. I wonder if it would stand up to daily commuting.

I had a few Sturmey Archer 3 speeds back in the 1970s. I remember the problem that the low gear was not low enough to make it up a lot of the hills near home so it meant walking the bike. I also remember that the shift chains frequently broke. That was why we all went to "10 speeds" as we called road bikes then. The last time I remember seeing one must have been 10 years ago.

[ladamyre]

You need to protect your hands from the mineral spirits: the stuff dissolves collagen and your body will rob it from other parts to replace what's winding up in the parts washer tub. I saw your hands at 14:20 and went, "Ouch". Trust me, I'm a retired ASE Master Tech and wish I had been more diligent about that when I was your age.
Here's what I do nowadays: on this S/A hub I would have filled it up with 2-3 tablespoons of WD40 and rode it for a mile or two and then took it apart and soaked the parts in a bucket of warm water and detergent: good old cheap Tide works very well. Drying it up is all you need to do, residual detergent is actually a good thing for it and won't hurt the oil.
After re-assembly I used 2 teaspoons of 2-cycle engine oil, that stuff you mix with gasoline. The synthetic is good, don't get me wrong, but it's expensive overkill. The 2-cycle oil is some sticky stuff, it has to be to do the job it's designed to do, and it won't leak out of your hub too fast. It'll leak some, but if you wash your bike every week or two it won't get on your tires and you'll get to replace a teaspoon or so every couple of months and so keep the oil inside on the newish side.
Actually, getting back to your hands, transmission fluid is not bad to clean your hands with because of the detergent in it: sort of a preliminary to dissolve the grease and grime so soap and water can get the oily off. ATF doesn't get inside your flesh and dissolve the collagen like those solvents do. Come to think of it, next time I do a S/A hub I'll use ATF on it to clean it up before I disassemble it and I think I'll lube it with ATF for assembly.

[VegasCyclingFreak]

Mechanically, that is a very interesting hub... never seen one before.