This was a fun project…

My friend Amanda brought her Kronan Swedish Army bike in to put on consignment. She bought it in Europe and rode it around over there before bring it back home to West Marin. It was in the shop for a few weeks before someone bought it. The buyer also wanted to replace the single speed coaster brake with a 3-speed unit. Boy, it’s hard finding 3-speed hubs from distributors these days. Every distributor I called was out of the Shimano 3-speed internal hub and only one had a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub. Maybe the lack of 3-speed hubs is a sign that a lot of bikes are being converted to commuter bikes??? Maybe. I hope so. Would be a good thing.

So, Sturmey it was. Because the rims are somewhat unique to the bike being black, steel, and compatible with rod brakes, I waited until I had the hub before taking the wheel apart to rebuild it with the 3-speed. Got the rim measurement, got the spokes, and was all set to rebuild it. Dang. The previous spokes were 12g which meant that the spoke holes in the rims were just a little too large for the 14g DT nipples I was using.

Project on hold again until I get nipple washers. When they arrived, I had to laugh at myself. Instead of nipple washers, I had ordered spoke head washers – DOH! Finally, got nipple washers in and they were just what the doctor ordered. The wheel built up perfectly. Got all the shifter components installed and it’s just like it was meant to be on this bike. Turned out really sweet. Should be a great riding bike.