As Sheldon and others said in later posts using a standard 4-speed trigger in positions 1, 2, and 4 is perfectly satisfactory - there is always a lot of cable tension in bottom gear on a 4-speed or 3-speed fixed. But PLEASE DO NOT try to have coasting position in position 3 - it can work but it is not reliable - you could have a very nasty accident or cause loads of damage to the hub.
There were a number of other fixed hubs. Sturmey introduced in 1936 another 2-speed, the TC which was a medium ratio gear with a 13.5% drop. Back in the Edwardian period the Eadie 2-speed was offered in both fixed and freewheel forms. Armstrong Triplex offered a fixed version of their first 3-speed hub - making it into a freewheel hub was simply adding an external freewheel. I have one of these on a c1908 New Hudson road racer and they work really quite nicely. There were one or two other fixed hub gears too - but they were far more obscure.
And finally in the 1930s Osgear showed a 3-speed fixed gear derailleur - Overhill a small English derailleur company also showed a 3-speed fixed derailleur in the 1940s.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
Russ Fitzgerald wrote:
>
> First question - since there was a Sturmey-Archer "3 or 4" speed
> trigger, can one modify a standard 3-speed trigger to operate the
> FW/FM/FC series 4-speed hubs? I don't see anything in the online
> information from Tony Hadland, Sheldon and others - any ideas?
>
> Second - there's a good bit of information out there about the
> Sturmey-Archer ASC 3-speed fixed-gear hub. I note that Brother Hilary
> S. currently has a Sturmey-Archer TF 2-speed fixed hub. A while back,
> we had a brief discussion of the BSA DP, a 2-speed hubgear that allowed
> on-the-fly switching from fixed to freewheel mode.
>
> Is that it for production, factory-original multi-speed fixed gearhubs?