Sturmey Archer had their own stand but the most interesting new hub they've produced wasn't on it – it was nestling quietly on the Moulton stand, who were displaying the only working prototype. The S2C is a re-imagining of the Fichtel & Sachs Torpedo Duomatic hub that Moulton have been busy reviving since they found a bunch of old stock and used them to make a 50th anniversay four speed machine with the Duomatic at one end and a Schlumpf speed drive at the other: four gears and no shifters; no cables either meant that the bike separated easily into two.
The hub is a kickshift with two speeds, simply kick back to switch between ratios. Lean further back on the pedals and you'll engage the coaster brake. It's an elegant solution that requires no cabling to the rear of the bike, so it'll fit in very well with the fixed aesthetic, and it gives you an extra ratio for accelerating and climbing the hills. Sturmey Archer are confident that they'll shift a ton of the S2C hubs and we'd tend to agree, it's going to be less than £100 and it's almost the perfect hub for those stripped back urban machines. Especially if you live somewhere hilly, like we do. Fitchel and Sachs are now SRAM, and they've definitely missed a trend here by not digging out the blueprints and reviving the duomatic themselves.
5 thoughts on “Cycle Show 2009 – Sturmey Archer’s new S3X and S2C hubs | road.cc”
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This is very good news!
I have a 1967 F&S Torpedo Duomatic that works as good as it did when it was produced 42 years ago. Everybody is surprised that I run two gears without any cables of any sort to clutter up the look. A few drops of oil into the oil port every few weeks and she runs smooth as butter.
I will buy the Sc2 to compare with the original when it comes out. I wonder if it will have an oil port to add oil periodically instead of having to open up the hub? Perhaps it will be a sealed cartridge bearing system like on some other Sturmey hubs? Any more details on this new Sc2 would be welcome.
y not start with a bike with a track wheel with freewheeling sprockets (freewheeling in both directions ie no ratchet) then have a chainwheel & chains on both sides. this gives one 2 drives. then have a device to lock either one of these sprockets. which ever one is locked to the wheel is the drive.
u then have two track sppeds u can shift to.
when neither one of the sprockets is locked u have a frictionless freewheel. unlike an internal hub u do not have fixed ratio jumps u can set said jumps as in a derailleur.. u also have neear 100% efficiency in BOTH gears
i have avoided detailing the locking mechaism
but it would be easy to construct.
Tomw, I don’t see point of your idea… iternal gear 2 speed hub is very simple to use. And efficiency deference 99.99% users cannot tell at all. BTW, chain IS NOT 100% effcient. 🙂
dear why: i believe my system would be considerably lighter and 100% efficent in both gears. are you implying that the 2 speed internal is that? it is only in one gear. further the jump from the first to second gear would not be fixed at a given % jump-it can be what is desired.
dear why:i also forgot to mention that my two speed can function as a track bike ie in fixed mode. the 2sc can’t.