Sturmey Archer X-RDC Aluminium Drum Brake Hub for Cassette Freewheel - 36 Hole

I recommend this product

Well, it took a while, but Sturmey Archer sent me a replacement hub, so with customer service like that I will have to give the hub a thumbs up and just hope that my first 2 tries were really bad luck. I hope it works out because I love the concept!

Seriously, if reliability is of any concern to you, DO NOT BUY THIS HUB!

If you're thinking that maybe I'm some nut who knows nothing about bikes, let me just say that I have been an avid cyclist ever since I had my first tricycle as a toddler. I organize and run bicycle tours in Mexico and cycle a good 10,000km per year. I have also been doing all the work on my and my partners bikes for many years.

So... in less than 6 months, I have gone through 2 of these hubs. The first failed when the pawls in the hub stripped, and unfortunately, no one at SA seamed to know how to change these out, so I had to order a new hub. This was with less than 500km on the new wheel. The second hub has failed after less than 1000km with the cartridge bearings coming loose, and there's no apparent way to replace them without fabricating a special tool to remove the hub pawls first, or perhaps use a powerful hydraulic press to push the new cartridge in past the pawls.

So, to make a long story short, I have a lot of respect for SA's past products, but at least with this hub, they have failed miserably in design and quality control.

DO NOT BUY THIS HUB!