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…
Chester Cycling (and other stuff) 
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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