[Brompton] Odd things happened on the BWR

[Winfried]

Hello,

I bought a Brompton new in 2014.

The other day while touring under heavy rain + light mud on the bike track, a few odd things happened with the BWR:

• When backpedaling, the chain would kind of fall down, ie. drag
• The indicator chain would screw endlessly, although I could still access the three speeds by pulling the chain
• At some point, I could no longer backpedal at all: The BWR would just refused to go backwards. I removed the rear wheel, put it back on, and it worked again. Thankfully, it happened at the very end of the trip, so I could have walked to the station if need be.

All of these issues are firsts.

But then, it was the perfect opportunity to go ahead and open the BWR for the first time. It was actually perfectly clean inside. I just greased the ball bearings and put some light oil on the pawls.

Any idea what could have caused this? I'm concerned because I have a two-week trip planned later this month out in the country far from any Brompton dealership.

Thank you.

 

[mjr]

I think the BWR is a variation on the Sturmey-Archer SRF-3 hubs with different driver and planet cage. There's plenty of videos on Youtube about maintenance and disassembly, including this one in French:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e9lomR9NMs


I wonder if the indicator screwing in forever means that something has wandered off inside the hub and is jamming something to prevent backpedalling. Pure guesswork, sadly. I don't think it can be the axle key else I don't see why it would change gear at all then. Maybe a BWR wizard will be along shortly...

 

[Winfried]

Thanks.

Even more thorough surgery, with ♫:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Nu1TkLmus


And if, by any chance, an expert does come across this thread… can you confirm there is no ball bearings on the left-hand side, so it just doesn't matter that I couldn't manage to pry open the LH locknut?