Sunrace 8-Speed Freewheel

Product Information

While rear indexing is the same for all recent shifters/derailers, Shimano fronts use a different amount of cable pull for drop-bar vs flat-bar controls. So my question is does this have a good chance of working or might there be problems? What pitfalls do I need to look out for? I made a spreadsheet of the gear ratios and they look very good. There is no large gap in the lowest 2 gear ratios and the middle gears that I mostly use are also very nicely spaced (between 11 and 14% gap). Shimano wants you to use one of its standard combinations, and offers a wide-enough choice to suit the needs of most cyclists, but you don't have to if you don't want to! A freewheel that has been ridden for a long time, especially by a strong rider with low gears, may be quite difficult to remove because the threads are so tight. Yes, SRAM and Shimano 8-speed cassettes are generally interchangeable. If you have either SRAM or Shimano components, you can use cassettes from either brand without compatibility issues, as long as you're not changing the whole groupset. 5. Do freewheels wear out?

Long-cage (SGS) derailers have greater takeup capacity, and work with all types of cassettes. Long-cage derailers are commonly called "mountain" derailers currently, though in the past, this style of derailer was known as a "touring" derailer. (The marketeers retired the use of "touring" as a buzzword in the late '80s when mountain bikes became the hot item.) "Road" vs "Mountain" Front DerailersAlthough "Road" and "Mountain" hubs are no different as far as cassette fitting is concerned, they are different in terms of overall spacing. "Road" hubs generally use 130 mm spacing, while "mountain" hubs are 135 mm. Very early Freehubs (sometimes identifiable by the absence of the typical bulge on the right end of the hub barrel) which have non-interchangeable bodies. The Freehub body of these hubs is held on only by the axle bearings, and will slip off once the axle is removed. Are the shims trapped underneath the bearing balls? If so, you will have to remove the bearing balls before you can remove a shim, and replace shims before installing bearing balls. You can remove the bearing balls with a magnet, or turn the freewheel over far enough to spill out the bearing balls, while holding the outer body so it doesn't fall off. Dura-Ace 7800 and 7801 10-speed hubs (and Ultegra wheelsets) with the aluminum Freehub body and tall splines accept only Dura-Ace, Ultegra and 105 10-speed cassettes. Within a given brand/style of rear derailer, all "speed numbers" are generally interchangeable. This applies to all indexable models, basically everything manufactured since the late 1980s. There are a few exceptions:

For perfect matching, you might substitute different spacers, use alternate cable routing, or use a Jtek ShiftMate pulley adaptor. Campagnolo/Shimano 8-speed cassettes have different spacing , so you can't generally get good indexing using a Campagnolo 8-speed wheel with a Shimano shift system or vice versa.

"Road" vs. "Mountain" Cassettes, Derailers and Hubs

SpeedsIn the 1980s, these two approaches were combined to create 7-speed freewheels, with 5 mm ("Ultra") spacing that would fit the same 126 mm hubs as "standard" 6-speeds. From 2004 through 2007, Shimano used aluminum bodies for the Dura-Ace 10-speed model. To avoid this problem, Shimano changed the spline pattern, making the aluminum spline ridges significantly taller for better support. The downside of this is that those hubs will accept only Shimano Dura-Ace, Ultegra and 105 10-speed cassettes. Yes, 8-speed freewheels do exist. One example is the DNP 8-Speed Screw-on MTB Bike Freewheel, which offers smooth shifting, lower noise, and improved performance compared to factory freewheels. 2. Are all 8 speed cassettes compatible? All recent freewheels and threaded hubs, regardless of where made, use ISO threading. The older British and Italian standards use the same thread pitch but a very slightly different thread diameter, and are generally interchangeable. However, for strong riders and on tandems, it is best not to mix and match -- freewheels sometimes do strip the threads of aluminium hubs. A French freewheel may start to thread onto an ISO/British/Italian hub but will soon bind. An ISO/British/Italian freewheel will skim the top of the threads of a French hub and will slip forward if an attempt is made to use it. Do not force a freewheel -- you will ruin the hub.

you don't need to buy the spacer, because you can use the spacer that came between the original flat 13 and the 14.) Derailer cage widths differ, but this is most often a concern when replacing pulleys: the bolts may not reach. The right side of the outer freewheel body looks like this when all cleaned up. A bearing race is visible.The type of grease used is not all that important, but you must use something. The anti-seize compound that is commonly used for spoke nipples also works. Replacement bodies are not available for these early hubs, which can sometimes be identified by the narrow barrel, without the characteristic bulge on the right end. (The bulge is to accommodate the threading for the hollow bolt used on newer Shimano Freehubs) See the photos below, kindly provided by David Landsberg. Not all 8-speed cassettes are compatible. Campagnolo and Shimano 8-speed cassettes have different spacing, so it is generally not possible to achieve proper indexing when combining a Campagnolo 8-speed wheel with a Shimano shift system, or vice versa. 3. Is a cassette better than a freewheel tool? For example, Shimano doesn't make any true "corncob" (one-tooth-jump) cassettes for time-trialists or flatland riders. In 7 speed, the closest is the J (13/14/15/16/17/19/21).

My 1984 Record Ace now has a triple with 26/36/46 and a 10 freehub with a 32 on the rear.Old age does not come alone! The same procedure works for off-brand Freehubs that have a LH threaded fastener accessed from the LH side of the hub, too. It doesn't work with freehub bodies that screw directly into the hub shell. Shimano lists Freehub bodies as a separate part, or you could cannibalize a hub. Wheels with damaged rims and good hubs are not hard to find. Uniglide cassettes are no longer available. If you have a hub that only uses Uniglide cassettes, the best thing to do is to upgrade the hub by transplanting a Hyperglide body onto it.

Part 1

Leave the freewheel in place on the wheel, or screw it onto a wheel, so that you will have something to hold it with. Breaking the freewheel loose from the wheel now with a freewheel remover reduces the likelihood of damage to the inner body if you have to remove it for reassembly. (If you don't have the right freewheel remover, or the remover splines on the freewheel are munged up, it is useful last resort to grab the inner body in a vise to remove it, after disassembling the freewheel.) Shown here is an aluminum body that has suffered this sort of damage. Someone has filed down the burrs to make it re-usable after a fashion. From the combination of widening the cog ratios (from 14-28 to 13-34) and widening the front chainrings (from 24,34,42 to 20,34,42), my potential spread of gears will go from 3.5 to about 5.5 which is about 57% wider range.