Time flies by, it really does. It was way back in May when my hub gears failed reducing me to only 2 gears. I’ve done around 1,800 miles since then, mostly in 2nd gear (39-inches), and have become even fitter than I was before. I had a pre-surgical assessment recently, for the operation on my other foot, following Number 1. The nurse was quite a bit concerned by my heart rate (40-45 bpm). An ECG later, and apparently I’m very fit (severe Bradycardia). But I’m still obese. The effort in cycling in 2nd gear is quite high, and it left me with a big appetite, and no inclination to go back to the gym or do Pilates. Pilates, in particular was actually having an effect on my belly, at least, it felt so.

I want to lose weight, so I needed to replace the hub. I was tempted by the all-new revised Sturmey 8 Speed, which was due in summer 2008, but summer has come and gone and nothing has happened. In fact it won’t come out till next year now, and apparently the drum brake version will be later still.

Drum brakes. That was going to be the upgrade to make my bike the ultimate low maintenance commuter. Well, disc brakes would give me more options, but the Moulton would require major welding to take them. So, I was going to do the front wheel first with a hub brake dynamo, and then the back wheel with the new 8 speed. Unfortunately, although I thought I had an agreement to make the modifications necessary to take a front drum brake, and had got the front hub and 36 hole rims ready, it seems that negative advice from the factory put off my dealer.

So, must stay positive. What about the rear hub? I decided to look again at the market, and to summarise:

• Rohloff - too expensive, no drum brake option only disc
• Shimano Alfine - don’t like the shifter, no drum, only disc
• Shimano Nexus - hate the shifter
• SRAM iMotion 9 - heavy, expensive, no drum and unavailable
• SRAM S7 - expensive if bought in the UK (£180)

I looked at the S7 closely, it had 7 gears, but over 300% range, like the Sturmey. It had a drum brake and a good reputation, but it was expensive, is not a silent hub, and would require a new chain wheel to maintain sensible ratios. The chain ring issue was a niggling minus, since I’d spent so much (£100) on a durable steel ring and cranks.

Of course, I didn’t have to spend £180. I could buy one off eBay in Germany. I couldn’t find one, but ironically, at the time of writing, a search for “trommelbremse S7” on ebay.de, finds 3 shiny ones, for €129, not bad. But buying a German model off eBay would almost certainly mean no warranty. Although there were several recommendations on the Moulton mailing list attesting to the durability of the hub, I was still worried about the noise it would make and the extra cost of the chain ring. And given my style of riding, I felt I needed, really needed a warranty.

In the meantime, this happened:

If you look at the 8pm position on the hub, you will notice tear in the flange. Oh what? I had the wheel built with Tandem spokes for super toughness because any other spokes would break after a few dozen miles (probably because I’m heavy) - but it seems it was too tough now! Instead of the spoke snapping, it ripped through the flange, remaining fully in-tact!

I got a surprise offer from the factory to see if they could secure me an early model of the new SA8. This was a great offer, given that I was now out of warranty, and I went for it, but as time went on, on 27 spokes, I started to get early warning signs, pedal pedal, ping, quiet. Pedal pedal ping. This thing is slowly coming apart! Thinking again about the factory offer, they would get me a 28 spoke freewheel hub. Did I REALLY want another 28 spoke hub? Really?

No. I really needed 36 spokes and a warranty to guarantee me 2 years of use. And the stars aligned. I started ebaying again, and was surprised to find nearly £150 in my Paypal account, earning them interest. By coincidence, Old Bike Trader was now offering the current drum brake SA8 for £135, fully warranted from Sturmey European HQ in Holland. And of course OBT takes PayPal.

And here she is, sleeping in her box, an X-RD 8 Speed:

70mm drum brake on the left, 8-speed hub on the right. If it lasts for 2 years, then hopefully SA will have run out any kinks in the new SA-8, and if it doesn’t, then I’ll be pressing for the new one in a warranty claim. But hopefully, since this is a late revision of the hub, it’ll be a good one. Late revision, since I see it has the new shifter I saw at the Bike Show a year ago:

So, remembering my good experience there last year, I’m going to get the conversion done at Bicycle workshop. They claim they are not afraid of hub gears, which is re-assuring. I will deliver them the rim and hub tomorrow for wheel building, and then the bike for the installation in a week or so. Gulp!

Wish me luck!

Tags: Sturmey

I just sort of blocked the obvious hole on the left. I’ll see if it worked tomorrow morning at 6am.

I bought a spider catcher (see below)

and caught my first spider today.

It’s meant to be safe for the spider, and I think, when I released it into the front hedge, it was alive, but unfortunately it now has 7 legs. Oh well.

Trip to Bristol for a late morning meeting. Afterwards, I took a little walk through the old city centre.
Queens Square

Smirnoff Apple sculpture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge at the City Centre Ferry Landing.

Clock with mechanical bell ringers.

View up Broad Street.

View down Corn Street/Clare Street.

Towards the start of the Bristol-Bath cycle route.