Rims, Spokes & Hubs...

[FatMarty]

I have some hard earned information on IGH hubs from Sturmey Archer gear shift adjustments:
the yellow markers on the shift chains are calibrated for road bike frames so when using a mountain bike frame the dropouts are generally much thicker and the indicator mark will not line up as intended.
Normally the yellow mark would be center in the view hole of the axle nut in 2nd gear for a 3 speed hub
After destroying one hub and not being able to get all three speeds to work reliably it finally hit me the other day that the dropouts on my frame are much thicker than the ones on older road bikes with 3 speed SA hubs I had when I was younger.
After adjusting with yellow mark moved in towards hub it is now working wonderfully.

No more hard shifts and no more not being able to get all 3 gears oftentimes.

[calfee20]

From S-A's site and one of their owners manuals. The yellow mark is supposed to align with the end of the axle not the middle of the hole. This corresponds with what you have found.

[theronchaplin]

I imagine I will be running into this shortly. I've just got to size the housing and shift cable then it's time for the "Gear Adjustment" phase. Good timing, thank you!

[calfee20]

That is for a hollow axle old style. I was answering Fat Marty's post. We have solid axles with a rotary shifting mechanism. You have to line up the two yellow lines when in second gear.

[theronchaplin]

I better get my glasses then... and hope I can see the color yellow. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...

[theronchaplin]

Gears are adjusted. The Sturmey Archer directions certainly don't inspire confidence, but I'm pretty sure it's good, or good enough. It states for vertical dropouts you should have 100mm of cable from the housing to the nut/clip that attaches to the shift lever. Well that was no where near enough in my case. It was more like 120-130mm to get in the ballpark. Then the shift 2 to 5 rinse and repeat to line up the yellow marks was about 20 minutes of rinse and repeating.

Like I said, prolly good enough. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the electric bits hooked up and go for a spin :D

[calfee20]

The other thing wrong with the directions were they only showed 2 spots to mount that little arm. The arm had 3 spots on it. The third spot being the V for vertical that we needed.

[theronchaplin]

Ha! Yeah I forgot about that! That was part of my hangup in getting the brake arm to line up. If this is acceptable practice I think I'm going into the "instructions that are almost helpful but often times not" business. Pretty sure I can do just as good a job as they did on these. Oh and in that business you have to make sure the customer can never get a hold of you for any questions LOL

[theronchaplin]

Got everything together this evening and took the bike for a shakedown run.


First trial no motor down the street and back. SA 5 speed seemed to shift pretty well, a little clunky on 4th and 5th but not bad. Checked the yellow line alignment (2nd gear) and all looked good. Powered it up and went for trial 2. Everything started fine, but the shifting got progressively worse until *SNAP* chain popped.


It snapped clean at the master link (nothing bent). I'm going to assume it must not have been tight enough (you can see a slight droop in the first pic). I feel like the chain line was pretty good.


Yellow line alignment (2nd gear) on the hub was also still good.


Now I gotta get a hold of some master links. Anybody see anything I might be missing? If I keep my current chain tensioner I'll probably have to put it in the "down" configuration as the "up" didn't quite get the tension I need. Otherwise I better look into another chain tensioner as well.

[calfee20]

What kind of master links are you using. Do they look like this?



Or this



If you are using the top photo style, the three piece one, it is good to know that they can be directional. The long U shaped clip should have the closed end going in the direction of chain travel. If the open end leads the way there is a small possibility it could snag on something and pop open.

I was just looking at one of your photos and noticed how close the chain comes to the housing of the hub. It would also be a good idea to put the U shaped clip on the outside of the chain to keep it away from that crowded area.

[theronchaplin]

The chain had the top one and I'm pretty sure I had it going in the correct direction. Looking online I couldn't find the same one that wasn't $37 each + shipping. I ordered some heavy duty KMC missing links (like the bottom pic) I'm hoping will be the correct fit. My Wipperman chain is 1/8" x 1/2" and the KMC links stated they were for the same dimensions. Fingers crossed!

[theronchaplin]

Wondering if it's worth putting the cheapo Bafang chain ring cover on...