My SA XL RD-5w Shifting FLAW finally Solved. Yippie !!!!

[GamblerGORD649]

   In 2012 I bought this XL-RD5w hub from SJS, my first IGH. My spokes were slow coming, so I played with the shift chain several times. I kept wondering why it kept sticking going back in. I used it a year and liked it very much but, it didn't get any better. So the next annual take apart, I sanded the corners on the 2 key nubs. It was a little better, but still troublesome. The last time I tried it gears 2, 3, 4 wouldn't work at all, so I let it sit 3 years.
 
This week it was raining so I got it out again. I stripped it down to the axle and pinion planets assembly. I put it in the vice horizontally and spent an hour yanking on the key chain till I figured it out. There are 6 rows of 4 nubs in the assembly, so there are 5 slots the key goes in/ out.
  ONE of them was OK, the other 4 were NOT. This may be why so many of these hubs failed.
=====The SOLUTION turned out to be very EASY. I got out my diamond bit engraver to mark the bad slots. Then I got the bright idea to use it to lightly grind off the last 6 mm at the mouth end of the slots and round off the lip more. The grinder works very fast, so it just takes 30 seconds each. I did this until the key had NO stickiness. I doubt it could be done without this engraver actually.
 Then I spent all day converting the Rohloff setup and my chain case. Darn I can't find any old tour bike with 100/ 130+ dropouts. I took it out twice for 30 miles. It works PERFECTLY now. Yayyyy. So now it works as well or better than my 46/ 16T Rohloff, if only using gears 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14. LOL.  SA is with 46/ 17T now so I can go try going 46 mph down my fave hill again soon. ha. This 5w is WAY faster than my new 3 speed.
 
SHAME SHAME on SA for putting me and likely many others thru this horrible ORDEAL.
.....But OTOH, I would have struggled with 35 to 92 GI in Vietnam with the SA 5w. LOL

== BTW SJS, did your mechanics ever figure out this FLAW?
And anyway, would a SA disc line up close to a Rohloff disc?

[GamblerGORD649]

So last Friday I DID beat my record and go 46.0 mph, with a bigger tailwind actually. LOL.
GIs are 46/ 55/ 73.5/ 98/ 117.3. It actually wizzed out at 40 mph. Video on YT, btw.
Then Monday I had a perfect day to go all day, 11:40 min clock time. Only my 3rd century in the last 3 years. Tour bike is 78 lbs.
106.5 miles >> 7Hr36 moving, final avg. 14.0. The first 45 miles was 14.73 avg. in about 3 hours, with a bit of tailwind. I had a 10 minute stop in a park at 23 miles.
3 1/2 hour lunch/ 11 mile putter around and 90 minute sit, in the middle. Another long ice-cream break at 66.6 miles. Return was all a cross breeze. So I never got very tired at all. 3rd direct gear was SO EASY to spin up to 17.6 mph. Then I would go up to 4th and go 20/ 21 mph until I lost momentum.
The road was 90% crappy going and 90% perfect returning. LOL
Just like 5 years ago when I rode it all year, absolutely fabulous.
 But my bike has gained over 15 lbs, so uphills suck even worse. 
It's not much of a problem for my 46/16T Rohloff. 
Now you know why Dutch commuters only have 1% deFAILeurs. LOL

[GamblerGORD649]

Well it didn't take me long to do a really long ride. 107 miles is just a small potato. LOL. I left the granite lock and some other stuff at home. Only 73 lbs now.
On Aug. 4 I eyed my sort of holy grail of ride here. DT Edmonton to the SE and Camrose. Then 25 miles W thru a valley to Wetaskiwin and N home. The first 5 and last 35 miles are actually the same as that said 107 mile ride.
I picked a perfect day with perfect light winds. A double my age 133.66 miles beating my previous PB by 7 miles.
The first 59 miles had an avg. of 16.08. I was at 14.32 at 130 miles, where the city traffic gets slow.
12.5 hours clock time. Had the usual long lunch, putter around rest and icecream supper stop.

I actually had, for my first time, a one man peloton for half the way from mile 18.5 to 59. He was almost 76 years old on a 20 lb CF bike with rando bars of course. He has been a racer and club rider for years. He was following me more, until we got to a little hill and he would take off. On the flat I actually was going faster myself. Pretty sure he was impressed with my bike mostly keeping up with him. LOL.

I also did 101.6 last Sunday and another 107.5 yesterday with 5 miles of fricking gravel. At 85 miles I was going down the main avenue of a suburb, with some down slope and 13 mph tailwind. I cranked it up to the speed limit of 35 mph. LOL. There is a MUP on both sides.
So I now have 1,120 miles in 35 days with my SA RD5w. That is like tour miles. The chain now has 1,300 miles with the factory lube. I also switched my aging crankset to shorter 175 arms and a full 1/8" crank finally. It seems to be more a struggle on up hills. It should be quieter and better for chain life, I'm hoping.

[Pavel]

shorter 175 cranks?  What did you have on before?  Are you more spinner or masher?

I've always used 175 cranks and am 182 cm now (used to be a hair over 183) with longer than average legs.  I tried 170's just recently and lijed the change, though it feels minor.  I may try 165, or heck even 160mm cranks.  I like the phrase "how do you know you've gone far enough - If you've never gone too far".

[GamblerGORD649]

I'm 5'8" and grew up using 7 1/8" 181mm cranks on my dad's antique SS Rudge. The bike just seems to float along when I get up to speed. I did really feel the difference in speeds when I went up from 165 mm, with the temporary crank. When I first got the RD5w.

Actually the reason I changed was the White Ind. 180 crankset was getting old and dragging my DIY CF chaincase. That powered all my Rohloff and SA 5 miles, about 25,000. I kind of wrecked the DS square hole when I was prying the rear dropout out to 135 mm. Then made it worse this year grinding where the axle was digging into the hole. It will be OK, if I finally find another frame.
My old CCM 3 speed has a puny 168 mm 1 piece crank. My knees don't really notice the diff after the first couple blocks.