Overhauling a Sturmey-Archer SW 3-speed Hub

In my experience, bits of information on the Sturmey-Archer SW hub are few and far between. While Brian Hayes provides a wealth of valuable information on Sheldon Brown's website as does Tony Hadland, I still had to dive into this operation unsure of what to expect the first time. That being said, if you plan to work on this hub and/or put many miles on it, I suggest that you thoroughly read Hayes' article before doing anything else. This post is the first of a few "tutorials" I plan to write and with it, I hope to bring together all of the information I have found useful and provide straightforward, basic instructions to tear down one of these hubs and get it running without modification.

Image from en.wikimedia.org

Throwback: Raleigh Tourist Comparisons

I have recently unearthed some old photos from way back before I first overhauled my DL-1 Tourist. Here, I remember lining it up side by side with my old Sports to see just how much bigger it was.

Red

So, where do we begin?

I'm Still Here

Well, it seems like even the overload of schoolwork and lack of time for anything else still can't put my bike projects on pause. I have come to realize that these are the things that keep me from going insane during this stressful time. The only true reason why I have not been posting lately is that everything I have been doing and the associated posts are still in progress. There is much that has been done and much to be completed still, but I just can't seem to sit down and finish any one of them. 

Nonetheless, there is one thing that I have managed to complete: I have turned the old, bent fork of my '79 Ross Gran Tour into some sort of handheld weapon by taping up the threads and plugging the end ... I now keep it next to my bed, ready to use in the off chance that I may have to try and fail to defend myself. It would probably be more effective than the Nerf gun, in any case. 

Anyway, the point of this post was to say that I am still here and still building things. Your patience will be rewarded and soon there will be plenty of eye candy.