Internal Hub?

I wrote Sheldon Brown about whether the new Taiwan production Sturmey Archer was any good and he said it was. As you may know, he was a big fan of English S/A.

He also said new Shimano 3 speeds were worthwhile now, which squares with my own experience as I have used one to the point of having to respoke (& it's still good), but I think those only come with a coaster brake. That one saw some mild off-roading.

I only have used a new S/A 8-speed briefly; I wanted to put it on an MTB but let the project sit. It worked good & probabaly still would.

I had an old S3C Sturmey 3 speed but found Consumer Reports had uncovered a flaw which could cause the coaster brake to disengage if the shifter went out of adjustment.

The old AW hubs from S/A, in production since the 1930's, are supposed to be good durable hubs but some say they can pop out of gear into neutral when pedaled hard at high speed. S/A claimed it was a matter of poor cable adjustment but Jobst Brandt, a mechanical engineer & author of "The Bicycle Wheel", seemed to think it was the design. Supposedly it was changed in the 1980s & the new taiwan AWs reflect the update, but I am not sure about that.