On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 20:48:18 -0700, Bill <
[email protected]> wrote:
>I should have guessed that somebody would do it and it would be him. Now
>I wonder if the Japanese or anyone else has 6 or 7 (or more) speed hubs.
Shimano Nexus hubs are currently at 7 and 8, and the 8s Sturmey is coming
soon. There used to be a Sachs 12 speed that was crappy. The Rohloff 14,
at the price of nearly as much as most bikes ($1000 or thereabouts), is
the Best Gearhub Ever, bombproof and designed for mountainbike stresses.
>7 times 21 would be 147 which should be good for bragging rights until
>Sheldon found out and found a way to get more speeds. He did pick a good
>hub though since I have never heard of a Sturmey-Archer hub breaking.
>Wearing out the brakes is possible but the kids I knew always skidded to
>a stop. I didn't see anything about back pedaling unless that is covered
>by the 'free wheel' part of the setup.
The old coaster brake Sturmeys (AWC) are actually crappy hubs and
dangerous. The common Sturmey, the AW, is only a threespeed, no brake. The
commonest in my country is the AB, three speeds and a drum brake. Neither
of those have a problem with backpedaling.
Before the 1930s, SA hubs had threaded drivers instead of splined, for
what is now known as track cogs, and since that is the same thread as
modern freewheels, on those hubs you can just screw on a freewheel (which
is what Sheldon did top prove his point).
In more recent times, there was the Sachs 3x7, a 3 speed gearhub with a 7
speed cassette intended to be used with a single front ring, mostly for
special bikes like recumbents or folders. Currently, the SRAM 3x9 is
available, which is what it sounds like. Combine that one with a triple,
quad, or quint crankset and you're already up to 81, 108, or 135 gears, in
pretty much off-the-shelf technology.
Jasper
