New Sturmey-Archer Heritage Site



S

Sheldon Brown

Guest
I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at
SunRace/Sturmey-Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer Heritage
Website is now online. I haven't yet had time to explore it thouroughly,
but a quick skim shows lots of gems...

Epicyclic fans should check it out at:

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

Sheldon "Planetary" Brown
+---------------------------------------------+
| I am not young enough to know everything. |
| -- Oscar Wilde |
+---------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com
 
Sheldon Brown writes:

> I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at
> SunRace/Sturmey-Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer
> Heritage Website is now online. I haven't yet had time to explore
> it thoroughly, but a quick skim shows lots of gems...

> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

I don't know why, but the exploded views of the hubs are miserably low
resolution, so blotched that most interesting features can only be
discerned as an ink blobs. I hope, in time, these get replaced by
useful images. Beside that, the images are tilted in a "don't care,
tossed on the heap" scrap book fashion. Who's in charge here?

Jobst Brandt
 
[email protected] wrote:

> Who's in charge here?

From the whois entry:

Administrative Contact:
Clarke, Alan [email protected]
Sun Race Sturmey-Archer Europe
Keienbergweg 79
Amsterdam Z.O., 1101GE
NL
31(0) 20-609-0221
31(0) 20-609-0211

These days SA would be sued out of existence for their 1904 claim to
"Increase speed and distance travelled without extra exertion 25%",
unless they could prove that the hub magically reduced air resistance ;-)
 
In message <[email protected]>,
[email protected] writes
>Sheldon Brown writes:
>> it thoroughly, but a quick skim shows lots of gems...
>
>> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:
>
> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com
>
>I don't know why, but the exploded views of the hubs are miserably low
>resolution, so blotched that most interesting features can only be
>discerned as an ink blobs. I hope, in time, these get replaced by
>useful images. Beside that, the images are tilted in a "don't care,
>tossed on the heap" scrap book fashion. Who's in charge here?
>
>Jobst Brandt

You can save the images to files then open them in an appropriate
application that lets you zoom in.

If you look at:

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-158.gif

and

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-165.pdf

you should get the idea of how the NIG clutch works and this could be
helpful next time there is a question about the later hubs that do not
use the 1936 AW type clutch that you are familiar with.





--

Martyn Aldis,e-mail [email protected]
==============================================================================
 
I wrote:

>>Epicyclic fans should check it out at:
>
> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

Jobst replied:

> I don't know why, but the exploded views of the hubs are miserably low
> resolution, so blotched that most interesting features can only be
> discerned as an ink blobs. I hope, in time, these get replaced by
> useful images. Beside that, the images are tilted in a "don't care,
> tossed on the heap" scrap book fashion. Who's in charge here?

Not sure what you're seeing, maybe there's a funky setting in your
browser. I checked out a bunch of the exploded diagrams and they're
3510 x 2550 GIFs. That's actually an unusually large image to find on
the Web.

They're so large that I need to do substantial scrolling to view all of
the image in Safari.

When I veiw them in Netscape, they are indeed scaled down to fit my
screen, and this does wipe out the detail.

I just checke my Netscape preferences, under "appearance" and there's a
check box "Resize large images to fit in the browser window", and I have
that checked by default. I don't normally use Netscape for browsing so
much any more, though it is still my preferred newsreader.

Safari doesn't seem to offer that option, or if it does I haven't found
it, but I generally don't want it anyway.

I also just checked Firefox. It too offers the auto resizing option,
under "advanced" in "preferences."

So, if you're using either Firefox or Netscape, un-checking that option
will allow you to see the full resolution of the GIFs.

Sheldon "Browser Settings" Brown
+-------------------------------------------+
| Any smoothly functioning technology |
| will have the appearance of magic. |
| --Arthur C. Clarke |
+-------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com
 
Sheldon Brown wrote:

> Not sure what you're seeing, maybe there's a funky setting in your
> browser. I checked out a bunch of the exploded diagrams and they're
> 3510 x 2550 GIFs. That's actually an unusually large image to find on
> the Web.

IE (spit) often won't display very large GIFs at all.
 
Sheldon Brown writes:

>>> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

>> I don't know why, but the exploded views of the hubs are miserably
>> low resolution, so blotched that most interesting features can only
>> be discerned as an ink blobs. I hope, in time, these get replaced
>> by useful images. Beside that, the images are tilted in a "don't
>> care, tossed on the heap" scrap book fashion. Who's in charge
>> here?

> Not sure what you're seeing, maybe there's a funky setting in your
> browser. I checked out a bunch of the exploded diagrams and they're
> 3510 x 2550 GIFs. That's actually an unusually large image to find
> on the Web.

I'm using MS Internet explorer and the images are as I described,
looking like tenth generation copier copies and not aligned with the
page.

> They're so large that I need to do substantial scrolling to view all of
> the image in Safari.

> Jobst replied:

Yes that is so but that does not increase the resolution of a low
resolution picture. I can zoom in on details that are toner blobs and they get larger.

The suggestion that I open my own pictures such as:

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-165.pdf

brings up colored photos of a high resolution enormously large file.
Sharp line drawings of which the fuzzy ones are descendants would be
useful.

> When I view them in Netscape, they are indeed scaled down to fit my
> screen, and this does wipe out the detail.

The detail isn't there in the first place. I can zoom in on the
lines that are classic toner blotched descendants of interesting
drawings.

> I just checked my Netscape preferences, under "appearance" and there's a
> check box "Resize large images to fit in the browser window", and I have
> that checked by default. I don't normally use Netscape for browsing so
> much any more, though it is still my preferred newsreader.

> Safari doesn't seem to offer that option, or if it does I haven't found
> it, but I generally don't want it anyway.

> I also just checked Firefox. It too offers the auto resizing option,
> under "advanced" in "preferences."

> So, if you're using either Firefox or Netscape, un-checking that option
> will allow you to see the full resolution of the GIFs.

If this web site requires special features to be viewed, I think it
should be made accessible to people who want to click on a diagram
listed in the right hand column to see it.

Jobst Brandt
 
Sheldon Brown writes:

>>> it thoroughly, but a quick skim shows lots of gems...

>>> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

>> I don't know why, but the exploded views of the hubs are miserably low
>> resolution, so blotched that most interesting features can only be
>> discerned as an ink blobs. I hope, in time, these get replaced by
>> useful images. Beside that, the images are tilted in a "don't care,
>> tossed on the heap" scrap book fashion. Who's in charge here?

>> Jobst Brandt

> You can save the images to files then open them in an appropriate
> application that lets you zoom in.

> If you look at:

> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-158.gif

> and

> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-165.pdf

> you should get the idea of how the NIG clutch works and this could
> be helpful next time there is a question about the later hubs that
> do not use the 1936 AW type clutch that you are familiar with.

I see what the problem is. From the "History" page, the "exploded
views" are the ones that are haphazardly tossed in and low resolution.
It is these that I would like to see in clear copy. The "Detail" ones
are flashy pictures but the information is in the exploded views... if
they weren't such poor quality.

Jobst Brandt
 
In Internet Explorer, rest your cursor over the image. A few seconds
later, an icon will appear in the image's lower right-hand corner.
Click it, and you'll see the image full size. Not an ideal
arrangement, but it works.
 
in message <[email protected]>, Sheldon Brown
('[email protected]') wrote:

> I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at
> SunRace/Sturmey-Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer Heritage
> Website is now online. I haven't yet had time to explore it
> thouroughly, but a quick skim shows lots of gems...
>
> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:
>
> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

Ah yes. Here is the hate-object of my adolescence:
<URL:http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-52.gif>

And this is the one which tried to kill me:
<URL:http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-58.gif>

How do I loathe thee, let me count the ways... nope. Not enough fingers.
Or toes. Not even nearly.

Surely, any true epicyclic fan would wish that these classic
illustrations of the unimaginative complacency and poor quality
management which led to the collapse of British manufacturing industry
in last century should be expunged utterly from the record. If it
weren't for Sturmey Archer, quality epicyclics might have been developed
far earlier and might now be far more widely used.

Sturmey Archer? Just say NO!

Rohloff? Jah, bitte!

I for one welcome our new ruthlessly efficient sausage-eating masters.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

<p>Schroedinger's cat is <blink><strong>NOT</strong></blink> dead.</p>
 
Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Sheldon
Brown <[email protected]> gently breathed:

>I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at SunRace/Sturmey-
>Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer Heritage Website is now
>online. I haven't yet had time to explore it thouroughly, but a quick
>skim shows lots of gems...
>
>Epicyclic fans should check it out at:
>
>http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

Very nice!

But can we have whoever thought "sturmey-archerheritage.com" was a
sensible choice of domain name made to buy every reader of urc a new
bicycle please? That's awful in the extreme! Why not
sturmey-archer-heritage.com? Hyphens should be used to make domain
names more readable and to seperate words, this is the worst of both
worlds.

--
- DJ Pyromancer, The Sunday Goth Social, Leeds. <http://www.sheepish.net>

Broadband, Dialup, Domains = <http://www.wytches.net> = The UK's Pagan ISP!
<http://www.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk> <http://www.revival.stormshadow.com>
 
I wrote:
> I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at
> SunRace/Sturmey-Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer Heritage
> Website is now online. I haven't yet had time to explore it thouroughly,
> but a quick skim shows lots of gems...
>
> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:
>
> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

Alan probably knows more about Sturmey-Archer hubs than anybody living.

He went to a HUGE amount of trouble to dig through his amazing
collection of old data to put this up, even though he's not a Webmaster
by trade.

And what's the reaction? A bunch of crybabies kvetching and whining.

I wonder why he bothered.

Sheldon "Disgusted" Brown
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, |
| or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. |
| --Abraham Lincoln |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com
 
On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 19:46:45 -0500, Sheldon Brown
<[email protected]> wrote:

>He went to a HUGE amount of trouble to dig through his amazing
>collection of old data to put this up, even though he's not a Webmaster
>by trade.
>
>And what's the reaction? A bunch of crybabies kvetching and whining.

Because those of us who bought our Phillips Lion Three-Speeds in a
local department store with paper route money, rode them thousands of
miles, and loved them till we wore them out several times over,
replacing parts as needed, are cowed by Puriists and True Believers
who would shout us down with condescending and contemptuous epithets?

Just a guess. It's been known to happen.
Warmest Regards,
A Newbie since 1953.
 
Sheldon Brown wrote:
> I wrote:
>
>> I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at
>> SunRace/Sturmey-Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer Heritage
>> Website is now online. I haven't yet had time to explore it
>> thouroughly, but a quick skim shows lots of gems...
>>
>> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:
>>
>> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com
>
>
> Alan probably knows more about Sturmey-Archer hubs than anybody living.
>
> He went to a HUGE amount of trouble to dig through his amazing
> collection of old data to put this up, even though he's not a Webmaster
> by trade.
>
> And what's the reaction? A bunch of crybabies kvetching and whining.
>
> I wonder why he bothered.
>
> Sheldon "Disgusted" Brown
> +-----------------------------------------------------+
> | We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, |
> | or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. |
> | --Abraham Lincoln |
> +-----------------------------------------------------+
> Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
> Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
> http://harriscyclery.com
> Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
> http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com
>
I went to the site and set my Firefox not to resize the images and they
were really big, but the lettering was still fuzzy, like they had not
been scanned at a high enough resolution or were maybe over compressed,
which will cause fuzziness. There were a few links that didn't work
quite right but overall I will applaud his effort just for doing it and
not complain about the site because I know how much trouble it is to
build a fancy site (too much).
Bill Baka
Former owner of several Sturmey-Archer hubbed bikes in the 50's.
 
On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 17:13:52 -0800, Bill Baka <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Sheldon Brown wrote:
>> I wrote:
>>
>>> I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at
>>> SunRace/Sturmey-Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer Heritage
>>> Website is now online. I haven't yet had time to explore it
>>> thouroughly, but a quick skim shows lots of gems...
>>>
>>> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:
>>>
>>> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com
>> Alan probably knows more about Sturmey-Archer hubs than anybody
>> living.
>> He went to a HUGE amount of trouble to dig through his amazing
>> collection of old data to put this up, even though he's not a Webmaster
>> by trade.
>> And what's the reaction? A bunch of crybabies kvetching and whining.
>> I wonder why he bothered.
>> Sheldon "Disgusted" Brown
>> +-----------------------------------------------------+
>> | We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, |
>> | or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. |
>> | --Abraham Lincoln |
>> +-----------------------------------------------------+
>> Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
>> Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
>> http://harriscyclery.com
>> Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
>> http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com
>>
> I went to the site and set my Firefox not to resize the images and they
> were really big, but the lettering was still fuzzy, like they had not
> been scanned at a high enough resolution or were maybe over compressed,
> which will cause fuzziness. There were a few links that didn't work
> quite right but overall I will applaud his effort just for doing it and
> not complain about the site because I know how much trouble it is to
> build a fancy site (too much).
> Bill Baka
> Former owner of several Sturmey-Archer hubbed bikes in the 50's.


I have no problem in either Firefox or Opera. The only "fuzziness" I see
is from the not too high quality printing on the paper original. The GIFs
seem to reproduce the original precisely, flaws and all. The person you
should be whining to are the century ago printers.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of
transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in
heart."
Iris Murdoch
 
On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 03:23:06 GMT, "Lorenzo L. Love"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>I have no problem in either Firefox or Opera. The only "fuzziness" I see
>is from the not too high quality printing on the paper original. The GIFs
>seem to reproduce the original precisely, flaws and all.
/
Eggs effin act lee.

>The person you
>should be whining to are the century ago printers.

The person we should be thanking is the one who hand lettered in the
probably illegible, or possibly incorrect, parts numbers of the
original printing plates.
--
zk
 
Sheldon Brown writes:

>> I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at
>> SunRace/Sturmey-Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer
>> Heritage Website is now online. I haven't yet had time to explore
>> it thoroughly, but a quick skim shows lots of gems...

>> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com

> Alan probably knows more about Sturmey-Archer hubs than anybody
> living.

> He went to a HUGE amount of trouble to dig through his amazing
> collection of old data to put this up, even though he's not a
> Webmaster by trade.

> And what's the reaction? A bunch of crybabies kvetching and
> whining.

> I wonder why he bothered.

OK, take a look at this one, typical of those listed under history:

http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-12.gif

Tell me how sharp and clear this GIF shows up on your screen. These
are the exploded views that interested me.

Jobst Brandt
 
[email protected] wrote:
>
> OK, take a look at this one, typical of those listed under history:
>
> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-12.gif
>
> Tell me how sharp and clear this GIF shows up on your screen. These
> are the exploded views that interested me.
>
> Jobst Brandt

I did as other folks said- I downloaded the image then opened it in an
image editor (MS Photo Editor in my case). The image is good enough to
tell that some of it has been edited by hand at some point in the past.
It's nowhere near an engineering drawing, but it's good enough to see
that left side bearing retainer contains 19, 7/32" ball bearings.

Jeff
 
Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as
[email protected] gently breathed:

>OK, take a look at this one, typical of those listed under history:
>
>http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/views/view-12.gif
>
>Tell me how sharp and clear this GIF shows up on your screen. These
>are the exploded views that interested me.

It's clearly a scan (and a high-res scan) of a several-th generation
photocopy - which given the original is from 1907 is hardly surprising.
Does the original still exist? Perhaps this is the best copy available?

Ok, I admit to whining about the URL (DNS is my day job), but the
content of the site is fantastic, IMO.

--
- DJ Pyromancer, The Sunday Goth Social, Leeds. <http://www.sheepish.net>

Broadband, Dialup, Domains = <http://www.wytches.net> = The UK's Pagan ISP!
<http://www.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk> <http://www.revival.stormshadow.com>
 
Bill Baka [email protected] wrote in news:kz6Nf.26026$_S7.24238
@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com:

> Sheldon Brown wrote:
>> I wrote:
>>
>>> I just heard from Alan Clarke, the history maven at
>>> SunRace/Sturmey-Archer, that the long-awaited Sturmey-Archer Heritage
>>> Website is now online. I haven't yet had time to explore it
>>> thouroughly, but a quick skim shows lots of gems...
>>>
>>> Epicyclic fans should check it out at:
>>>
>>> http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com
>>
>>
>> Alan probably knows more about Sturmey-Archer hubs than anybody living.
>>
>> He went to a HUGE amount of trouble to dig through his amazing
>> collection of old data to put this up, even though he's not a Webmaster
>> by trade.
>>
>> And what's the reaction? A bunch of crybabies kvetching and whining.
>>
>> I wonder why he bothered.
>>
>> Sheldon "Disgusted" Brown
>> +-----------------------------------------------------+
>> | We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, |
>> | or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. |
>> | --Abraham Lincoln |
>> +-----------------------------------------------------+
>> Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
>> Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
>> http://harriscyclery.com
>> Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
>> http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com
>>
> I went to the site and set my Firefox not to resize the images and they
> were really big, but the lettering was still fuzzy, like they had not
> been scanned at a high enough resolution or were maybe over compressed,
> which will cause fuzziness. There were a few links that didn't work
> quite right but overall I will applaud his effort just for doing it and
> not complain about the site because I know how much trouble it is to
> build a fancy site (too much).
> Bill Baka
> Former owner of several Sturmey-Archer hubbed bikes in the 50's.

GIFs use lossless compression. The "fuzziness" is from threshholding the
scans into single bit color depth. Any fading or ink smear in the original
gets quantized into white and black, respectively. Greyscale would preserve
most of the subtle shading detail, but would make the file sizes
unnecessarily large for purposes of browsing the history of these
interesting devices.

I think the images are as good a compromise as one can get.
 
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