Lubricating Sturmey Archer gears

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Chris S

Legendary Member
Location
Birmingham
Sheldon's article recomends lubricating Sturmey Archer gears with a few drops of motor oil.

Unfortunately I can't see any lubrication holes on the hub. Does anybody know where they are?

 

TheDoctor

Europe Endless
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
I think the older ones had a hole in the hub for lubing them, whereas the newer ones are lubed for life.
There's nowhere on my quite-new hub to insert lube.
 

MacB

Lover of things that come in 3's
I won't cut and paste it all here but there're some great info threads, on the CTC forum, about Sturmey Archers. Several good contributors with GrahamNR17 being a star, here's a link to one of them:-

http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34132

There's genuinely too much info to try and repeat here but a search on his name will bring up lots on CTC. There's also Rogerzilla on CTC and YACF with some good threads.

I've got the new style SRF3 and haven't had to touch it yet, but I have practiced on stripping an old AW. I used the videos from Graham but also got some hands on help from the mechanic at my LBS.
 

buddha

Veteran
The new hubs (XRF5 in my case) need a thick lithium grease IIRC.
Don't use thin lube ... like I did
rolleyes.gif
 

Cycle power

New Member
I was talking to my local bike shop owner about sturmy archer hub gears some months ago. I think he said since they closed down in England, can't remember which city they made them could have been Derby. Any way they are now made in Asia and are mostly plastic and cheap inside. so i was told.
Like someone has said there use to be a hole in the hub to lubricate so it does make sense that the hole has since gone because all there is inside now is plastic
 

hubgearfreak

Über Member
I was talking to my local bike shop owner about sturmy archer hub gears some months ago. I think he said since they closed down in England, can't remember which city they made them could have been Derby. Any way they are now made in Asia and are mostly plastic and cheap inside. so i was told.
Like someone has said there use to be a hole in the hub to lubricate so it does make sense that the hole has since gone because all there is inside now is plastic

what complete & utter twaddle. i've dismantled a post 2000 hub. it's all metal and nicely made.. ofcorse, having seen inside one is no substitute for unfounded, 2nd hand rumour:tongue:

new ones are greased. you can buy the grease from oldbiketrader, £7.50 incl. P&P. you can find out how to dismantle from the above links.
 

Cycle power

New Member
That's what the bike shop owner and his son did.They dismantled a hub and found it to be put together rather shoddy.
Plastic parts where there use to be metal. This is someone who has been in the business 40 odd years so i guessed he knew what he was on about.

Perhaps if you dismantle a pre 2000 one there may be and i believe the bike shop owner over an Internet forum member that there will be a difference. As sturmey archer was bought in 2000 by Sun Race Sturmey archer inc and operations were moved to Taiwan.
Lets face it is anything of any real quality that's made in the far east.
 

hubgearfreak

Über Member
That's what the bike shop owner and his son did.They dismantled a hub and found it to be put together rather shoddy.
Plastic parts where there use to be metal. This is someone who has been in the business 40 odd years so i guessed he knew what he was on about.

Perhaps if you dismantle a pre 2000 one there may be and i believe the bike shop owner over an Internet forum member that there will be a difference. As sturmey archer was bought in 2000 by Sun Race Sturmey archer inc and operations were moved to Taiwan.
Lets face it is anything of any real quality that's made in the far east.

i'm intrigued. please ask him again, i've yet to see a plastic part inside an SA hub.

as for dismantling pre2000, nottingham built hubs, i've done dozens from 1950-1999

and taiwan making inferior components? that's just about 99% of bikes and parts now, along with vacuum cleaners, dvd players, mobile phones, everything
 

MacB

Lover of things that come in 3's
That's what the bike shop owner and his son did.They dismantled a hub and found it to be put together rather shoddy.
Plastic parts where there use to be metal. This is someone who has been in the business 40 odd years so i guessed he knew what he was on about.

Perhaps if you dismantle a pre 2000 one there may be and i believe the bike shop owner over an Internet forum member that there will be a difference. As sturmey archer was bought in 2000 by Sun Race Sturmey archer inc and operations were moved to Taiwan.
Lets face it is anything of any real quality that's made in the far east.

Following the move to Taiwan new production was delayed as they had to retool so much. A write up by Sheldon Brown indicated that he felt quality had gone up since the move, or at least in comparison to later year hubs produced in the UK. HGF knows more than just a little bit about SA hubs, there are links in this thread to a vast amount of info on the subject. You could even have a chat with Derek at Old Bike Trader who seems to know everything about SA.

The OP saught advice about a specific aspect, he got responses from SA hub owners and links to even more data. I'm not convinced that anecdotal evidence from one conversation quite stacks up against this.
 

Rohloff_Brompton_Rider

Formerly just_fixed
That's what the bike shop owner and his son did.They dismantled a hub and found it to be put together rather shoddy.
Plastic parts where there use to be metal. This is someone who has been in the business 40 odd years so i guessed he knew what he was on about.

Perhaps if you dismantle a pre 2000 one there may be and i believe the bike shop owner over an Internet forum member that there will be a difference. As sturmey archer was bought in 2000 by Sun Race Sturmey archer inc and operations were moved to Taiwan.
Lets face it is anything of any real quality that's made in the far east.

BOLLOCKS!!!
 

Cycle power

New Member
Rather uncalled for.
Other people have an opinion too. If it differs from yours plese by all means post your point of view in a more adult sensible attitude.
 

buddha

Veteran
No plastic inside my XRF5.
Do 'people' still think that everything made in the far east is inferior?
rolleyes.gif
 
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