In response to CycleA2B’s Jim, I thought I’d present my damaged X-RD3 hub parts. Sturmey’s 3 speed hubs are usually tremendously durable and long-lasting, which makes the fact that I’ve managed to destroy part of one quite interesting & impressive. The hub has always felt a bit off, and as the DL-1 is second-hand. I imagine that a small amount of damage occurred to the internals of the hub before I bought it, which was made worse through use and led to this failure:
The planets which rotate around the axle were also similarly damaged:
The stripped off parts loose in the hub will have no doubt made things worse:
I’ve ordered new planets and a new axle from SJS Cycles, and I hope they are a bit less lethargic about getting it dispatched than they usually seem to be. Until then it’s Brompton or Yuba only…
Oh lordy.At least it's repairable!What symptoms did it give – noisy? poor shifting? erm, totally unridable?My 5 speed isn't fond of 1st and is probably overdue a strip, clean & grease. I may take it to work next weekend and pull it to pieces…
The old shifter would slip from 1st to 2nd sometimes as I accelerated from stationary and it was accompanied by some horrible sounds. It turned out some of the teeth had broken off and were loose in the hub, a ride down a hobbled hill made it sound a lot worse. A few hours later I was cruising down hill and there was a clunk and the bike became a fixed gear. At the bottom of the hill the wheel had come undone and the bike would barely be pushed along.
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