For a bike nerd like myself this was a very captivating 30 mins....thanks for the detailed vid. Still amazing to think that hubs been in service since the 19th century with very little change in design.
I have been cycling for 50 years, I have worked in bike shops in Arizona, Texas and Florida, I have always ignored-hated to think about what goes on inside a 3 speed hub. Then it happened, I got a Priority Classic Gotham 3 speed Nexus bike, which has started a several month long quest to figure it out. Your video is the only one of hundreds that explains this mystery. Thank you, you have a skill-art-gift for it. I'm going to Like Save Share and Subscribe.
Paul, Timisoara, Romania It is the first ocasion for me to meet a clear explanation on the functionality of this kind of hub. As a mechanikal engeneer, but amateur bicycle reparator , thank you for your helping video. Many more videos and good health.
Thank you so much my wife’s hercules hunter has this gear system but the cable broke inside the cylinder I would not have known that if it wasn’t for this video it’s the only one that has shown me the problem so many thanks
Thanks - Interesting because the BSA is based on an early version of the Sturmy-Archer hub. You can see how the hub evolved to make the assembly a little simpler. All the same, the SA 1930s design AW is also a very good hub.
Thanks, this has been really useful. I have a 37 hub assembled from 2 with issues. The final stage has been setting the two springs in the axle, one was missing in my hub. The manual download has assisted hugely.
Thank you! I'm getting into IGH world and would love to experience something like that - finding out what's wrong in a mechanism and fixing it. Great video, please keep them coming!
huge help! my cousin gave me 4 bikes, and one of them has a 3 speed gear hub that’s ceased into the highest gear. i’ve tried gear oil, but it just allowed me to ride the bike
I have some old Swedish bicycle with a very similar gearbox. Perhaps it’s also a BSA, who knows, I haven’t checked. Very cool of you to make this video.
Thanks for sharing. I had a B.S.A. 3spd back in the 1970's. Did many miles back on it in the day. ( unfortunately it was moved on) I find this very interesting as shortly i am collection a B.S.A. 3spd with the full enclosed chain, gear change on the top bar and runs on 28'' wheels. I am not going to Restore the bike, only check the mechanicals.
You can spin the calipers around and use the rod to measure the height @4:55 just as you would do for measuring depth. A different method but ... to each his own. Well done all around!
What an interesting video to watch, there are very few that deal with one of the most common forms of transport ever, despite the fact that it seems they are coming back into fashion. The modern system from my knowledge is very much over complicated and also open to all the eliments including misuse. I know that they also tend to wear chains out ratger quickly . For me they are over complicated when put up against the archer system and the BSA system which by virtue of being enclosed and bathed in oil last a lot longer. There is a new gearbox on the market other than shimano that i have seen which gives about 12 gears and is automatic, this is something that amazed me as the change in gear is almost unoticable. I would say that it is about time for the bike to be re looked at and a rebuild firstly to reduce its weight and secondly make it more comfortably i.e. suspension where it is needed. However, this video has thrown a lot of light on the fact that despite their age, these gear changes were extreemly well made and easy to operate.
I have been a BSA motorcycle enthusiast for over 40 years and have always been on the lookout for a BSA bicycle but never got one. I do have a Hercules bike with Sachs Torpedo 5 speed hub. Would that also be best with oil rather than grease? Do you know the procedure for adjusting the 2 cables?
Good afternoon, Mr.Burkhart, may I ask, the 3 sp.BSA hub described in your video, has backward pedalling brake? Thanks in advance for your answer, Paul
This particular hub does not have a brake. BSA made non brake and drum brake versions. I don't know if they ever made a coaster brake version. They went out of production about 65 years ago. Shimano and Sturmey Archer both make 3 speed hubs with a coaster brake.
Thanks for the video. Years back a friend had one of these. Some how a few of us took it apart to see how it worked. I don't remember if we had a diagram, but it was all working on rebuild. Thanks again. Well explained.
I do believe they used to make the bicycle saddles as well. As a young kid, I asked my Grandfather what the 'BSA' stood for. He said, "Bloody Sore Arse." Looking at the saddle on his bicycle, I could see what he meant 😂😂
This is a great video indeed. There is so little on BSA 3 speed hubs. I’ve been trying to suss them out for years,. How did you fix the drive side pawls? Is this part of the critical 0.915” measurement? If the left hand pawls were in the planet cage, with the ratchet in the shell, what would be the difference? Would there be problems engaging and disengaging them that don’t happen from 2nd to 3rd because these pawls are riding up and down the driver which guide them? The AW’s and other Sturmey’s have the planet cage always in the one place because of the introduction of a sliding clutch which switches the low gear pawls in and out. Tony Hadland has a book, ‘The Sturmey Archer Story’, which has a lot of the history but little of the technical detail. I found it a very interesting book otherwise. Sturmey sold the rights to their first 3 speed ever made to BSA around WW1 give or take. BSA introduced a ball race along the length of the driver, but apart from that the hub remained almost unchanged. You have possibly the first ever Sturmey 3 speed hub in your hands according to the book. There was possibly a Sturmey hub which was actuated from the left side but this was was a problem and it didn’t last long at all, perhaps not even getting out of pre production. The cable stopped people mounting the bike from the rear. This was quite the way to do things then and they didn’t know any better.. The axle nut was in effect a peg. The peg was necessary because the fashion was for very high gears needing long cranks and a big frame to compensate. Thus you had to have at least one axle nut that was a peg to allow you to mount from the rear. These extended wheel nuts cum mounting pegs still turn up from time to time.
At 23:15 you can see how I went in from the drive side with a pick to retract the pawls and allow them to slip over the ring and engage the ratchets. The range of motion of the pawls sliding back and forth on the high speed ratchets in 2nd and third gears, and onto the free running ring in first gear is what the critical dimension is all about. If is not correct, the pawls could slip off the ring in first gear, and the hub would jam.
When BSA built motorcycles into the 70s those of us who had their flagship 650 s lovingly referred to them as Bloody Sore Ass. And yes I own a BSA manufactured .303 Enfield rifle from the Great War.
I am a mountain bike driver and I drive a Surly Pugsley. I want in the worst way to get rid of my rear derailleur (already ditched the front derailleur) and get myself a good hub drive train. But the Rohloff is too bloody expensive! What is a good hub drive that can take my punishment (I weigh 230 pounds and drive hard, including in SD winters in minus 25F temps) and won't break the bank?
If I'm not mistaken, the Pugsley has 135mm rear spacing unlike most fat bikes. If so, a Shimano Alfine 8 or 11 speed will fit, but I can't say if they are robust enough for the punishment you would give it.
@@2wagondragon I got the Shimano 8spd hub on the Pug. Had it for almost a year. It is awesome! Zero maintenance and is holding up against anything I throw at it.
Interesting that you compare it to the Sturmey Archer design, because the BSA hub is a Sturmey Archer design, it was designed and released in 1905 and gained the designation Model X in 1910, before being discontinued in 1914. It was around this time that BSA gained a license to manufacture it an d continued to do so until the mid 1950s
@@2wagondragon Thank you for your video by the way, you motivated me to just go out and fix my BSA 3 speed on my 1954 New Hudson Meriden. It had a chipped pawl which was more chipped than the design permits without failure and so was without a high gear (I think the driver pawls were stabilising the ring gear in Normal so as to allow one (and a quarter) pawl operation of the high gear freewheel.
@@2wagondragon I was wondering that as well I had read - as you say that BSA was based on an early S-A hub at one time had some extra ball bearings which did not really reduce friction. This one would have been made by S-A.
Your Raleigh would have a Sturmey Archer hub, not a BSA. Anyway, what you describe is a symptom of what is called the false neutral, or in between gear. It is almost certainly a cable adjustment issue.www.sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer/adj.html
Very interesting video. Thanks Dan. Nice that you brought this gem back to working order. The CCM bike looks kinda cool too. Is that a cotter-less crank I glimpsed?
