Talked to an old timer at the shop about 7-speed freewheels

He was cleaning a Shimano 600 from '92 and said 'you kids have it easy with cassettes, but you miss the feel of a threaded hub.' It hit different because I'd just spent an hour fighting a stuck freewheel on a beater bike. Anyone still keep a freewheel tool in their main kit, or is that a lost art?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_hayes1817d ago

My grandpa's old Raleigh still has its original Atom freewheel.

blair_dixon17d ago

So that Atom freewheel on your grandpa's Raleigh, is it the 5-speed one with the weird 14-28 tooth range or the older 3-speed hub? A lot of those Atoms were stamped with a date code on the inside of the locking, did you ever flip it over to check? I'm asking because the quality on those really dropped off after the late 60s when they started cutting corners. If it's the earlier one with the oil port and the thick spokes, that thing is a tank. But if it's the later one with the plastic dust cap, it might need a full rebuild soon anyway.