>I have what I thought was a Sturmey alloy 5 speed. It turns out on cleaning
>that it says 3 speed. There are numbers "56 10" (I presume means Nov.
>1956). My questions are:
>1) Are the internal gear ratios the same on the alloy as the steel hubs?
assuming were talking AW, yep, they are.
>2) Does anyone know a source for those 3 or 4 speed clusters that fit where
>the single cog goes?
>3) Is there a cogset that is any better (ratio-wise) than any other?
those 3 cog stacks are hard to come by. but! you can, however,
stack two sturmey cogs on one hub, bulge portions together
(with a thinner than normal spacer between), and snap the circlip
on. thats how i usually run mine for touring with any real climbing
involved - 2 sets of gears that way - one for flats, and one for
climbing... manual gear change, but it only takes a minute once
you have it down.
>4) Anyone service these things? In an ill fated attempt to remove the axle,
>some little thing went flying and I never found it. No idea what it was, but
>I figure it was probably necessary.
id put my money on it being the spring cap - little bit that goes on top of the clutch spring, with reasonable odds of being ejected by said part upon disassembly...not absolutely neccessary... ive run hubs without them, and some aw diagrams dont show them.
as for places that service them, i dunno - i do all my own work, but im not confident enough to say ill work on someone elses :) can definitely provide parts locally, though, from my stash of dissected old aws... pedal revolution and american cyclery (both in sf) i know to have various spares.
-joel
--
joel metz : magpie@messengers.org : http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
po box 191443 san francisco ca 94119-1443 usa
==
i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
after she got that bicycle...