As mentioned weeks ago, I’m prepping the Quickbeam for the Lake Pepin Three Speed Tour. The objective is to put my fixed gear bike into a British Roadster costume. The costume is partially complete, and in the testing phase.
I took the bike to my office in downtown Fort Worth. But even on my urban rides, I’ll find a gravel path if I can.
Drop bars were switched for albatross bars.
Fixed wheel was switched for a Nexus 3-speed hub with coaster brake.
Nexus grip shifter was switched for a Sturmey Archer 3-speed thumb shifter…conveniently installed on my stem.
Preliminary test results indicate this should work very well. The remainder of the costume includes cream colored longboard fenders and my black Carradice saddlebag. Updates pending.
Pondero 
Lookin’ good and will be fantastic with the fenders!
Thanks…it seems to look pretty good in my head. We’ll see…
And now all you need to do is become a Society of Three Speeds member to really “finish the costume.”
Great idea, let me investigate that. Would you like to give any details to anyone who might stumble on this blog and not be aware of the Society of Three Speeds (yeah, I know, unlikely, but…)?
Sure…
Careful! Once you’ve fallen in with geared hub riders of ill repute, you get a reputation!
(Says a geared hub rider of ill repute)
Yeah, my choice of friends and strange activities is a bit of concern to my loved ones.
Cool! The Lake Pepin ride sounds amazing, and the orange Quickbeam is looking quite fine. I like the stem-mounted shifter a lot. (“hmmm…”) I’m considering pulling the S3X wheel out of the shed and fitting it up to the Quickbeam.
My plan was to convert back to fixed after the Tour, but I admit it’s kinda fun like it is. I’ll admit to thinking about the S3X alot…
Orange, cream, and black…Such a natty ride for the tour, what!
My goal is to not embarrass my riding partner who talked me into this silliness.
No worries; though the Twenty might feel a bit intimidated by those huge 700c’s! 😉
Orange is absolutely the best color. Speed is one of the reasons, though that’s not necessarily a goal of the Three Speed Society. But there are other reasons, good reasons, if you will allow a link: http://wp.me/p1iGqw-R.
Well then…that was entertaining. Thanks for the link.
Sweet ride you have there. How many tooth cog are you running in back? Bay City hill is humbling on the Pepin Ride.
Hmmm… I don’t remember (17 or 18?), but I’m planning to ‘run what I brung’ and am okay with being humbled. I make peace with that every morning I walk out of the house.
I’ve ridden the up the Bay City Hill with a fully loaded touring bike and kept up a conversation the whole way. It’s long, but not difficult.
I looked at the profile, and it’s bigger than our little rollers around here. I’ll be carrying a loaded saddlebag, but I won’t be in any kind of hurry. Thanks for the encouragement, Doug, maybe my low gear will be okay. If not, I can walk a bit.
Nice. I did a similar 3-speed conversion to my Bianchi San Jose last year. Built it up sorta like an old Raleigh “clubman” with drop bars. I really like it. Does the SA shifter work ok with the Nexus hub? I hate the Nexus grip shifter.
The SA shifter works very well. I am so glad I didn’t need to clutter my hand positions or be forced to roll my wrists on the swept back bars. When I learned that someone else had installed it on the stem, I knew that would be perfect for me.
And there’s always the Ant Bike location… http://www.biketinker.com/2011/projects/s3x-seatstay-shifter-mount/
A while back I built up my old Panasonic racing bike as a 3 speed with an ancient S-A hub. First set-up was with drops for an English Clubman look but now it sports bars similar to the North Road (upright) style. The bike encourages a quite deliberate style of riding. It’s an interesting change from my touring bike. I think you’ll enjoy the difference from your other Rivendell. Hub shifting, and the limited range, is a distinctly different experience.
Yeah, thanks, Doug. I like your “encourages a quite deliberate style of riding” comment. I couldn’t agree more…and it is all fun.
I’m considering ordering a bike with a 3-speed Nexus hub. I really can’t stand the ergonomics or the aesthetics of the standard revo shifter, so I’m interested in the SA thumb shifter. There aren’t really a lot of good reviews of it, and after a bit of googling around I ended up here. You seemed very pleased with the shifter in your comments back in March so I thought I’d ask and see if you feel the same way half a year later.
Has the shifting been consistent? Have you noticed any play in the action? Does it require tuning or maintenance?
Interesting question. I never really thought about the shifter performance until you asked. It seems to work satisfactorily for me, but keep in mind I normally use friction downtube shifters and am used to fine tuning my shifts. I’m not in a hurry and it doesn’t bother me at all. That said, the action is not super crisp. There is a definite click for each of the gears, but there is additional lever play beyond the highest gear. The lack of crispness might be my long fully insulated cable, my hub adjustment, and/or my shifter. I’m a IGH newbie, and no authority on this topic.
I will say that I rode the bike several hours over this weekend and no shifts were missed. Some might argue that the lever has a little vagueness to its feel, but as a downtube friction lever user, it isn’t bothersome. I’ve done no maintenance to the lever, but did adjust the hub a little a few weeks ago (figuring some cable housing compression had occurred).
I’ll add that I prefer the feel of my dérailleur shift bikes, but I still enjoy riding this one so much I haven’t been in a hurry to go back to fixed gear mode for this bike.