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Gecko

Gecko

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A while ago I picked up a prewar Colson, (Schwackardson) as my first foray into vintage bikes and I would like to add a gear or two to help get up a hill or two and pull a trailer. U would like to keep the inch pitch chain and sprockets.

What are my options? Any brands to look for? Kickback?

Thanks in advance.
 
Seems like a lot of skiptooth setups had unique interfaces at the driver.... so i's not likely that you'll find a legit inch-pitch rear sprocket with the standard 3-tab pattern that virtually all Sturmey-Archer hubs have. Some folks have grinded off every-other tooth on a sprocket with an even number of teeth and report that it works, but others claim that this will lead to some crunchiness in the chain. I've never done it myself, but that's what I've heard. I'd ask the Bendix-heads if the inch-pitch sprockets will fit the manual or "auto" kickbacks if I were you. I'm not sure whether those fit or not. Or, TBH, if yo don't mind risking your chain, give the grinder-3tab sprocket on a Sturmey a shot. Most all of those parts are cheap....

HTH
 
Shimano also makes a decent 3 speed coaster. if you have the room for the offset, weld a skiptooth sprocket to a ground down 1/2" pitch. Keep your eye out on craigslist, sometimes you can buy a whole bike with the wheels you want for less than just a rear wheel.
 
When I want to run a 3-speed with inch pitch, I run a Sturmey Archer AW with one of the Ichibike conversion cogs. If you want a coaster, try the Sturmey SRC3 with the conversion cog. Ichi made them in several sizes. Remember, the larger the rear cog, the lower the gearing.

http://www.bikeshedva.blogspot.com/2013/11/schwinn-new-world-update.html


IMG_3004.JPG
 
Yeah, if Ichi is still making those cogs, safest bet is an AWC or an S-RC3 with one of those. (Yeah, you can run Shimano but....well, that's a topic for a different post.) With all the 3 speeds, the 2nd gear is direct drive, so gear it like you would your singlespeed, and enjoy an underdrive for the hills and standing starts, as well as an overdrive for downhills, sprints, and whatever "racing" you involve yourself in on your ol' cruiser. :crazy: 2nd will be your most efficient and durable "Cruising" gear....
 
PS- you're gonna have to spread your rear dropouts some. If you're frame hasn't been spread by some other guy already, it's 110mm at the rear. Sturmey 2- and 3-speeds are spaced at 116mm. Shimano and SRAM are at 120mm. Some vintage multispeed coaster hubs may be narrower--- I got a Sachs Torpedo Duomatic that's 112mm over the jam-nuts. It's no big deal; just be ready to do it....

Also, I just checked Ichi out; the skiptooth 3-tab "cogs" are back-ordered...
 
Bicycle808 said:
Yeah, if Ichi is still making those cogs, safest bet is an AWC or an S-RC3 with one of those. (Yeah, you can run Shimano but....well, that's a topic for a different post.) With all the 3 speeds, the 2nd gear is direct drive, so gear it like you would your singlespeed, and enjoy an underdrive for the hills and standing starts, as well as an overdrive for downhills, sprints, and whatever "racing" you involve yourself in on your ol' cruiser. :crazy: 2nd will be your most efficient and durable "Cruising" gear....
Click to expand...

Here are my notes on what I have found setting gear ratios for SA hubs:

http://bikeshedva.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_17.html
 
Those are good notes; would you say that you gear your 26" singlespeed bikes similarly?

It's also worth noting that most of the current Sturmey 3 speeds are geared like the AW (wide ratio; 177% overall, 33% increments), with the exception being the S3X fixed gear, which is a 160% close-ratio that has the same 33% jump to overdrive, but only has a -20% jump to low gear....

FWIW, the Shimano Nexus 3 hub has a slightly wider range than the AW, with 36% steps between each gear....
 
Is there info on here for installing a Nexus hub on a middle weight? A 60ish Schwinn or Columbia?
Mike
 
mickeyc said:
Is there info on here for installing a Nexus hub on a middle weight? A 60ish Schwinn or Columbia?
Mike
Click to expand...
If you don't have the frame yet, get yerself a Schwinn MW that came with gears... that'll buy you another 6mm in the dropouts. Spread it the other 4mm, put the wheel in, and go! If you're switching to a 559 wheel, you'll need to either run smaller tires (1.75") or no fenders, or you gotta get creative to fit balloons with fenders....

If you already got one and it's a singlespeed frame spaced at 110mm, you'll just need to spread it more to fit the Nexus 120mm. Better ppl run Sturmey; narrower spacing between the jam-nuts, and more rebuildable/serviceable.... In fact, a Sturmey AWC, S-RC3, etc will drop right in a Schwinn Canti frame that had gears from the factory....
 
Thanks for that. Just bought the Nexus set up, don't even have it yet (mail). I have several 60ish frames, not sure which one I am going to put the set up in. I got it with the hand controls and cables, so will need help with how to run those. Will post more when things are closer. Most likely after the holiday.
Merry Christmas to all!!

Mike
 
mickeyc said:
Thanks for that. Just bought the Nexus set up, don't even have it yet (mail). I have several 60ish frames, not sure which one I am going to put the set up in. I got it with the hand controls and cables, so will need help with how to run those. Will post more when things are closer. Most likely after the holiday.
Merry Christmas to all!!

Mike
Click to expand...

I see zip-ties in your future.... for the stays, anyway. There are bolt-on cable guides and stops for 1" tubes that you can run on the mainframe. I prefer guides to stops b/c full-length housing= less maintenance. The "hard" part will be adjusting cable tension, which isn't actually hard at all.
 
Bicycle808 said:
Those are good notes; would you say that you gear your 26" singlespeed bikes similarly?

It's also worth noting that most of the current Sturmey 3 speeds are geared like the AW (wide ratio; 177% overall, 33% increments), with the exception being the S3X fixed gear, which is a 160% close-ratio that has the same 33% jump to overdrive, but only has a -20% jump to low gear....

FWIW, the Shimano Nexus 3 hub has a slightly wider range than the AW, with 36% steps between each gear....
Click to expand...


If possible, I would run a single speed close to the 3-speed set up where N gear is most comfortable. You are correct about Normal (2) gear on the AW- that's direct drive and similar to what your single speed would feel like on the same bike. I only have two single speed bikes right now, both with old-type American thread-on cogs, which limits my selection. I think one has an 18 and one has a 20, if I remember right. If they were 3-spline like the AW, I wouldn't hesitate to swap up to 22 on them.
 
Yeah, the second gear isn't just "similar to what your single speed would feel like"; it's the exact same ratio! :D It's also more efficient and durable than the under/overdrive gears.... so, theoretically, that's the one you want to be in the most. I just bought a Sturmey 3 speed for a tadpole cargo trike I'm looking to get; I'm gearing it a 52" in direct drive, b/c I'll want as low as possible for any loads I'm hauling. I could see spending as much time-- or even more!-- in 1st than I will in second, but that's an extreme case. (If I had to run the trike singlespeed, I would have gone with 45" or so...)But, if I'm setting up a bike for more typical riding, I'm going to run something like a 44x18 or 63.5" in direct, which'd give me a very usable unerdrive gear for climbs, and a considerably bigger gear for riding fast. Of course, since the ratios change by percentage rather than fixed increments, the jumps between gears become larger as the direct drive gear gets higher.... but it's still a pretty good rule of thumb for a starting point.
 

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