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Old May 23rd 20, 04:41 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_4_]
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Posts: 10,538
Default Freewheel breakage

On 5/22/2020 7:38 PM, bob prohaska wrote:
Today I encountered a bicyclist whose freewheel had simply let go.
It didn't drive at all, but neither did it make any obviously awful
noises. He'd already arranged for someone to pick him up, so thre
wasn't any point in exploring further, but I was very much surprised.

The freewheel on my bike is coming up on 40 years old, runs quietly
and seems to work fine....should I be worried about it? Never done
anything to it except oil it once in a blue moon.


I'm pretty sure "once in a blue moon" is the recommended oiling interval.

I've had zero problems with freewheels, aside from not being able to get
one off the wheel. (Seriously - I actually bent my bench vise before I
gave up.)

At the start of one multi-day camping trip, my friend's freewheel body
broke and spilled tiny ball bearings all over the road. It was Labor
Day, so everything was closed. We gathered as many bearings as we could
find and used the garage of a kind resident to patch things up as well
as we could.

I used a length of electrical wire the same diameter as the bearings to
support the inner bearing race, and was _just_ able to catch enough
threads to sort of screw the thing together. That gave him a fixed gear
bike with five rear cogs. He carefully pedaled it over 50 miles further
that day, and we luckily found a bike shop the next morning.

--
- Frank Krygowski
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