Designers of inexpensive folders can't seem to resist three speed hubs. The price is appropriate to the bike's target range and customers seem unintimidated by them, unlike derailleurs. The only problem with three speed gearboxes is that the control cable won't return all the way to high gear when it is kinked. Modern index cables have the same general syndrome but modern derailleur systems don't smash one's genitals against the bike when they hit neutral. Three speeds do. As long as I'm digressing to the topic of three speeds, that's one important difference between "A" and "B" line classic Raleighs and the "C" series. The nicer ones. like my '53 Sports, Superbes, the "A" Humbers, Lentons, Rudges etc mostly run the gear wire along the top tube, frequently with a brazed-on pulley just under the seatlug. This runs the gear wire along the seatstay which has two positive features. Primarily, changing a flat does not risk catching the gear wire between the chain and chainring. Secondly, and I have done this, one can adjust the gear wire tension without dismounting. It's a reach but it can be done. Seriously, the other cable route (fulcrum on downtube, pulley at the bottom bracket) has cost three speeds, Raleigh and cycling in general more riders than anything else except maybe the hard plastic saddles of the bike boom years. When your average home mechanic pulls out the vise grips for a rear tire change, the bike goes upside down and the gear wire gets disconnected. After botching the patch by using way too much glue and having left the glass in the casing out of pure inattention, the wheel goes back in the bike. At this critical juncture the gallant savior feels pretty good about himself, having conquered all but the last bit of this puncture. Unfortunately with attention drawn to the chain tension and centering the wheel, no one notices the gear wire drooping across the chainring teeth. As soon as a pedal is turned to check the chain, the cable gets mangled under the chain and positive dependable shifting is gone forever.

A foible of the classic Sturmey Archer designs and many other three speed hubs is that the mechanism consists of two internal assemblies geared together in a ratio of 4:3 or 3:4. (Driving direct to the hubshell, second gear avoids the gearing altogether). Low gear is 4:3 or 75% of second and high gear is 3:4 or 33% faster than the middle gear. Because the two assembies are moving at different rates, it would be fatal to the works if something (like the clutch) engaged both parts at the same time. The aptly named Shimano Type F and the "improved" Type FA three speeds do this when they are worn. Pinions and pawls go right out through the hubshell. The obvious answer to this problem occured to William Reilly when he made Sturmeys with a neutral space between second and third. A kinked cable won't dependably upshift because the spring behind the clutch isn't strong enough to pull the kink straight. When the lever is flicked the clutch falls off second and into neutral, the pedals spin free and the rider suffers. A lot.