Cycling UK Forum

Rob_J wrote:In the end I bought an RS-RF3 and installed that as a replacement to the SRF5(W). I wanted to get the bicycle usable again quickly and thought I would try out a rotary-shifting version. It came with a thumb-shifter, which has worked perfectly, so far.

Well, that RS-RF3 worked perfectly for about three months, until last week, when the gear cable went slack. The fault appears to be the return spring in the 'fulcrum lever set'. I've not opened that up to check whether the spring has snapped or come loose, for fear of voiding a warranty. In any case, the spring isn't listed as a spare part, but the fulcrum lever set is, so I will replace that.

Rob

Brucey wrote:If the high gear drive pawls are damaged, then gear 3 ought to be lost as well. Loss of gear 4/5 only is more suggestive that the sliding clutch isn't engaging correctly with the planet cage, or perhaps that the sun locking keys are not moving as they should.

Thank you for those tips. In the end I bought an RS-RF3 and installed that as a replacement to the SRF5(W). I wanted to get the bicycle usable again quickly and thought I would try out a rotary-shifting version. It came with a thumb-shifter, which has worked perfectly, so far.

When I have the time, I'll have another look inside the SRF5(W) and see if I can fix it. I won't start using it again, though, without first obtaining a better design of shifter.

Rob

Thank you for the excellent posts, Brucey. I have been using an SRF5(W) for a couple of years when it suddenly lost gears 4 and 5. This happens after braking heavily at a T-junction to allow a motorist to clear the junction. The motorist politely stopped and beckoned me on, resulting in me applying a lot of force (in a high gear?) to get going again.

Yesterday I disassembled the hub - the first time that I had disassembled any Sturmey Archer hub. I carefully inspected the pawls as best I could without removing the grease (not having any suitable replacement grease to hand) but couldn't see any damage. However, I noticed that if I rotated the ball ring by hand (with the internals removed from the shell) the pawls inside would slip, rather than engaging on the ball ring. I suppose that this is an indication that they are damaged.

I have the HSJ959 SLS50 (T-type) shifter, which I have had great difficulty keeping properly adjusted. As you suggest, this has probably been the root cause of the failure of the hub gear. If I can get the gears fixed (perhaps by replacing those pawls) I will try the trigger shifter (HSJ958 DLS52), in case that works better. However, having read your description of the dog-locking arrangement, I am tempted to ditch this hub completely. I may try one of the new rotaty-shifting hubs (e.g. RX-RF5), but I'm not looking forward to either the financial outlay or trying to pick the bike up with the extra weight!

Rob