Month: December 2017

Shimano Nexus 8: Stripped down & Reassembled

This particular hub was originally owned by Thorin (who I know vaguely through the MBTC). Thorin gave it to John Harland, but John wasn’t going to use it because he doesn’t like the uneven gear ratios (more on that to come later). The idea of pulling it apart came up at another swap meet, when I saw an 8 speed for sale, and suggested buying it. John told me about the old internals that he’d got from Thorin.

And that’s how this hub came to be donated to Science. Continue reading “Shimano Nexus 8: Stripped down & Reassembled”

Strip down: Sturmey Archer S3C

This story begins at another Vintage Club swap meet. John Harland had brought along a lot of stuff to sell (he went there with more than 100 kg loaded on his bike, and didn’t want to take it all back home), which included two Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub gear + coaster brake jobs.

Fun fact, this all happened back in April, and it’s taken til now for me to get my shit together to write this up. Working full time, you see…

I already have more hub gears than I have bicycles to put them in, so I wasn’t all that enthusiastic about taking them. However, I noticed that one of the hubs was seized up, so I decided it could be interesting to pull it apart just to see what was wrong, and to attempt to restore it to working order. But mainly just to see how it works, since I don’t have any use for either of these hubs, and (being completely satisfied with cantilever brakes) no motivation to use a coaster brake hub. Continue reading “Strip down: Sturmey Archer S3C”