Sturmey-Archer

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A Sturmey Archer three speed AW gear, probably the most common kind of Sturmey Archer gear

Sturmey-Archer is a manufacturing company originally from Nottingham, England. They primarily produce bicycle hub gears but have also produced motorcycle hubs.

The company was founded in 1902 by Henry Sturmey and James Archer under the guidance of Frank Bowden, the primary owner of the Raleigh Bicycle Company. ^[1] In 2000, Sturmey-Archer was sold to Sun Race Sturmey-Archer Inc. and operations were moved to Taiwan, with European operations in Amsterdam.

1 Products
- 1.1 Gear hubs
- 1.2 Dynohub
2 Cultural significance
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Products

[edit] Gear hubs

Sturmey-Archer's most widely-known product is the AW 3-speed gear hub, introduced in 1936 and still in production as of 2007. In 1939 a 4-speed model was developed. This led to the development of a series of 5-speed models, and by 1994, 7-speed hubs were introduced. Production was low, and in the mid-2000s these were discontinued. In 2007, the XRF8, XRD8, XRR8, and XRK8 8-speed hubs entered series production.^[2]

The Sturmey-Archer name was also credited with the 49cc two-stroke engine fitted to early Raleigh mopeds, although this was actually a reworking of Vincenti Piatti's "Trojan Mini-Motor" and built by BSA's motorcycle operation.^[3]

[edit] Dynohub

The Dynohub was Sturmey-Archer's hub dynamo for bicycles. The Dynohub was designed as a means of generating electrical lighting power for bicycles during the second world war. The initial GH12 12-volt model was introduced in the early 1940s. This was followed several years later by the GH8. This 8-volt unit was in turn supplanted in the 1950s by the lighter-weight GH6 6-volt version, which remained in production through the early 1980s. The term "dynohub" is sometimes applied generically to bicycle hub dynamos, but it originates as a trademark.

The GH6 version produced a rated output of 6V, 3W from a 20 pole ring magnet with a stator having a continuous winding. A 2.4W headlamp bulb and a tail lamp bulb of 0.6W were used with the Dynohub. This is different from a modern standard bicycle dynamo, though properly-rated replacements can still be had.^[4]

Rated output was reached at around 20 km/h (12mph), a rotational speed of approximately 60rpm. The name dynamo implies DC output, but as usual with bicycle dynamos (known as generators in North America), output was in fact alternating current.

Dynohubs were offered as front hubs and as rear geared hubs. The AG was an AW 3-speed rear hub with inbuilt dynamo, while the FG was a dynamo similarly combined with an FW 4-speed.

Hub generators were absent from Sturmey-Archer's product range from the 1980s until the 2006 introduction of the X-FDD front hub, which combines a 6v, 2.4w or 3w dynamo with a 70mm drum brake.^[5]

[edit] Cultural significance

In the UK "Sturmey Archer" is a genericized trademark that is occasionally used to refer to any kind of hub gear, regardless of manufacturer. Talk of Sturmey Archer gears can also be somewhat nostalgic, referring to the days of old when hub gears were more common. The John Shuttleworth song Dandelion and Burdock is an example of such nostalgia. In the song John reminisces about his boyhood activities and recalls cycling up a tall hill, singing "I was grateful for the Sturmey Archer gears"^{[citation needed]}. Poet Laureate John Betjeman referred to them with nostalgia.