Cycle Show 2009 - Sturmey Archer's new S3X and S2C hubs | road.cc

Sturmey Archer had their own stand but the most interesting new hub they've produced wasn't on it – it was nestling quietly on the Moulton stand, who were displaying the only working prototype. The S2C is a re-imagining of the Fichtel & Sachs Torpedo Duomatic hub that Moulton have been busy reviving since they found a bunch of old stock and used them to make a 50th anniversay four speed machine with the Duomatic at one end and a Schlumpf speed drive at the other: four gears and no shifters; no cables either meant that the bike separated easily into two. The hub is a kickshift with two speeds, simply kick back to switch between ratios. Lean further back on the pedals and you'll engage the coaster brake. It's an elegant solution that requires no cabling to the rear of the bike, so it'll fit in very well with the fixed aesthetic, and it gives you an extra ratio for accelerating and climbing the hills. Sturmey Archer are confident that they'll shift a ton of the S2C hubs and we'd tend to agree, it's going to be less than £100 and it's almost the perfect hub for those stripped back urban machines. Especially if you live somewhere hilly, like we do. Fitchel and Sachs are now SRAM, and they've definitely missed a trend here by not digging out the blueprints and reviving the duomatic themselves.