I have owned two of these. The first broke after 4 days. The second broke after two months.
I am 6'3 and 230lbs. I am a fairly aggressive street rider but I don't do tricks or anything like that. All of my fixed gears always have a front brake, but never a rear. I have owned several over the last 8 years. I am fairly hard on my bikes, but I adore them and care for them well. This bike was ridden every day as my main form of transport.
The first hub was bought as a complete wheel and installed by me. I had my work checked by two independent bike shops, and both signed off on my work. I was fairly hard on this first one, occasionally skid-braking and riding smooth dirt trails hard. It broke as I resist-pedaled down a short berm, losing the lowest gear. A couple miles later the middle gear also went, leaving me with only the top gear. (Direct drive.) This gear continued working for the next 15 miles until I made it home. All told, the hub had less than 20 miles on it when it broke.
It was replaced by another hub and wheel by the local bike shop where I had originally purchased the setup. This time I paid to have the shop install everything for me.
I babied this second wheel. I rode constantly, but carefully. I did not skid brake or ride off road. I used my front brake and resist-pedaled as infrequently as possible. After about two months it failed while I was climbing a steep hill. I was in my low gear, climbing out of the saddle. The hub let go suddenly and without warning. I went over the bars and crash. Luckily there wasn't a car behind me. When I recovered, I once again only had my top gear (direct drive). Both lower gears freewheeled both back and forward. I limped home in my remaining 83" gear.
The shop is going to replace this wheel with a Sturmey Archer AWC hubed wheel.
Please understand, the S3X was amazing while it worked. I adored it. I am extremely sad to see it go. But for larger riders, it is simply too failure prone. I personally consider it fragile and unsafe.
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This hub came with my Felt Brougham, it's the red anodized version. On my first couple rides, I encountered the freewheeling problem once each both times due to poor setup at the shop where I bought it, resulting in misshifts. Once I figured out how to adjust the shifting myself, I never had another problem. All three gears are reliable, shift immediately and positively, and even while climbing some incredibly steep hills it never gave a hint of resistance or trouble. That said, there is a fairly well documented problem with these breaking down under heavy use. I am not sure if there are multiple "generations" for them since they appeared in 2009, and SunRace/Sturmey Archer still hasn't issued a tech document for servicing these. All I can do in good faith is note that others have had problems, but I haven't. I suspect that they are meant for exactly the use I've given them strictly paved city riding, careful adjustment, absolutely no shifting under load, and virtually no inclement weather riding. In other words, total babying. Maybe so, but I really love this hub.
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It's a pain to get going, which I expected. The main problem I have with this is that for $130 they could have given me some options for the shifter. I mean how much would it really cost to provide a handlebar mount? It's the same lever!
