Long shot: Seeking information about a Sturmey Archer AR-8 hub: IGH + drum brake

[Patrick Moore]

Someone wants to trade for one of my AMs and I want to know what ratios it has.

I realize that this is a long shot (and yes, I first asked on the IGH list) but does anyone know what the ratios are?

>>> Is this in fact an ultra-close ratio AR hub* (made for time trialers) mated for some reason to a drum brake? Perhaps for tandem time trialers? <<<

I'd love to have an AR with or without drum, but I don't want to end up with another AW-type epicyclic.

* Direct, 107.24% overdrive, 93.24% underdrive; say 75/70/66 gi.

--

Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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But wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish,

I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.

[Patrick Moore]

I'm amazed at what arcana comes up from a request for obscure information. I cannot be 100% certain without disassembling the hub in question, but various inputs from several lists indicate that this "AR-8" hub is not an ultra-close ratio racing 3 speed hub from 1938 ("AR-8") inexplicably attached to a drum brake but a AB-8, an AW (133/100/75) wide ratio hub very expectedly attached to a drum brake made in 1938 for very reasonable use on an upright roadsters. Someone thought that the stamping read "AB-3" but I see an 8 when I look closely.

I Googled some more and found a couple of old FS ads for old roadsters with AB-8 hubs as well as these SA links for the AB and the AB3, which both are also on Sheldon's SA IGH crib chart:

AB: 1930s wide ratio with drum brake: http://www.sturmey-archerheritage.com/index.php?page=history-detail&id=54

And the AB3: a modern (at least per Sheldon in 2010) iteration: https://web.archive.org/web/20121029092003/http://www.sturmey-archer.com/products/hubs/cid/3/id/18/specs/1

But I think that the stamping reads "8" and not "3" -- again, AB hub, wide ratio, plus drum brake, 1938.

So, over and out.