 |
_BEN_ |
I'm going to Disneyland |
|
posted @ 13:20:57, Jul 10th 2009
I have been doing some internet research on two speed hubs because I want to build a light weight bike with one of them. I currently have a Bendix red stripe model on a 60 pound 1960's beach cruiser.
These are the stealth bombers of bike hubs. They look like regular coaster brake hubs but they are packing a secret weapon. Extra gears packaged neatly inside the hub that either offer a nice gear reduction for climbs or a gearing increase for speed. Very few companies made two speed hubs with no external cable controls. Bendix, Sturmey Archer, Fichtel & Sachs, Schwinn, New Departure, Corbin, and Musselman. Information on these hubs is about as rare as the hubs themselves. Many were never sold in the U.S. You may be wondering well how do they shift if there is no external controls? In order for the rider to shift gears they must pedal backwards (like you would apply a coaster brake) to switch gears then resume pedaling normally. On some hubs the gears switch automatically depending on RPM so the rider just needs to pedal faster for the gears to switch. Bendix made three different two speedhubs with coaster brake. These seem to be the most common ones. Each model can be identified with red, yellow, or blue stripes. All three have coaster brakes but they are all different internally. The red and yellow striped models offered fixed hub (direct drive) operation and a low gear for climbs and take offs. The blue stripe has a fixed gear and a high gear for speed. Fichtel & Sachs made two variants of the two speed hub. The "Duomatic" and the "Automatic". The Duomatic was similar to Bendix's red and yellow striped models where it had a fixed drive and a gear reduction. The Automatic had a rather unique feature. It always started in low gear and as RPM's increased an centrifugal clutch would automatically switch to the next gear. Sturmey Archer's "S2" two speed hub is also unique in the crowd. It offered the same shifting as the Bendix and Duomatic hubs but it did not have a internal brake. That ment that it had to be installed on a bike with hand brakes. The New Departure "Model DD", Musselman, and Corbin Hubs have very limited information on the internet about them. Like Bendix and Fichtel & Sachs, New Departure did not only make bike parts they were a division of GM. I'm sure most of these manufactures made a veriety of parts especially during WWI to help with the war effort. All of the hubs I have mentioned so far are rare antiques. I have been waiting for a Duomatic to pop up on eBay now for months now. I could spend 120 euros and buy one from the "hubstripping" blog but the price seems steep. It seems like the hubs with the least documentation are also the rarest ones. Only one company has stepped into the ring to produce a modern variant of the two speed kick back hub and that is Schwinn. But because they just want to sell bikes and not parts there is very limited info on these hubs right now. Here is an example of a Bendix red stripe. I just rebuilt this a few weeks ago and I took a couple pics. 
 1 Comment
|
Friends (0)
|
|
XS Forum, Copyright © Xsevo |