When I started trying to ride up really steep hills, around late 2016, I switched my freewheel from a 14–28 to a “Megarange” 14–34. As I described in an earlier post, in 2017 I switched back to the older one, and added a 24T chainring to get me the low gears I needed.

Things went fine for years, but in 2022 my chain started slipping and I thought wear on the freewheel must be the cause. (It’s possible the problem was actually caused by a seized up B-pivot bolt on the derailleur, preventing the chain from wrapping around the sprockets properly; but I only realized that afterwards …).

I was also curious at that time whether the 126 mm, threaded hubs had a future, and this depended on decent freewheels being available. There are a few options in this respect:

  • NOS freewheels are still around, though the range I want is fairly rare and correspondingly a bit pricey (up to & over 100 quid).
  • Shimano do still make freewheels, though of superficially humbler quality, which are probably perfectly serviceable, though the 7-speed ones that I see are either a 14–28, a few teeth short of what I’d like, or the Megarange with its 24–34 jump, which I also don’t want.
  • One or two other brands also make new freewheels, for example SunRace and Ventura. These might be fine; I haven’t tried one.
  • And IRD have the Cyclone Mark 1, which they say is modelled on the better class of freewheels from yesteryear. It also comes in an evenly spaced 7-speed 13-32, which suited my wishes exactly: using the extra cog to give me one even lower gear (24:32).

IRD Cyclone Mark 1
The IRD sounded best, so I bought one. I’ve been using that for a bit more than a year now and here are my experiences:

The 13 T (instead of 14 T) small sprocket makes a very noticeable difference to top gear and on the Mercian, I’ve correspondingly reduced the big chainring from a 52 to a 48. The 24:32 bottom gear is also very handy, though if I stop while climbing in it, I find it hard to get started again. On one wet steep road, I couldn’t get enough push out of the first half-turn of the pedals to get the other foot up, and I couldn’t scoot hard enough with the other foot to help. I changed up to 2nd gear and then I was able to get going … in the new bottom gear I would be riding at about 4.5 km/h. I think that is really the lowest gear I need.

Then a fun thing happened. One day something started making a clunking noise while pedalling. Rhythmic clunks, gradually getting worse. Later that day, the freewheel fell apart, scattering a fair share of its bearings on the bike path. But this turned out to be an educational episode. Thanks to the Sheldon Brown site, I realized that the freewheel disintegrating is not all that tragic. Unlike all other bearings on a bike, the ones in the freewheel only rotate when they are not under load. If you just screw the freewheel back together, you can make it home. Well, now I know the sound of a freewheel wobbling from one pawl to the other.

Having lost quite a few of the ball bearings, I ordered some new ones and in the meantime dismantled the freewheel and thoroughly degreased it. I then reassembled it as described by the Sheldon page, carefully greasing the bearings but keeping the lockring/cone threads dry, for plenty of threadlocker. It hasn’t bothered me since.

By the way, the tool in the pictures is a Park Tool SPA-2 pin spanner.

A rear bicycle wheel, freewheel side up, in sunshine, a tarmac path underneath. Something is missing from the centre of the freewheel.
Freewheel after its road mishap
A rather dirty metal ring lying on tarmac
The lockring/cone
Lying on newspaper on a table: a 2-pin spanner, a little plastic bag containing many small ball bearings, a white tube of grease, a small bottle of threadlocker with a pointy red cap, a set of shiny chromed sprockets, and a metal ring
Clean, degresed, everything ready
rear side of a freewheel with the core removed. The rear bearing race is filled with white grease and ball bearings.
Inside bearings are in
A hand holding the black core of a freewheel, one pawl is visible and there is a glint of oil on it.
Pawls are oiled
The front/outboard side of a freewheel. Now the core is inserted and we see bearings in white grease packed in around it.
Core and front bearings are in
Two very thin rings of metal on newspaper
Shims are going in
The freewheel is now held by a chain whip set to turn the sprockets clockwise and a pin spanner inserted into the holes in the outer race/lockring.
Lockring/cone tightened down on the shims, with threadlocker
View of the freewheel on the bike, from slightly in front, also showing the derailleur and chain and rear dropout, in sunshine
The Cyclone on New Old Bike
View of the freewheel in the bike from slightly behind, in sunshine
The Cyclone on New Old Bike
Freewheel falls apart, gets fixed

How well the Cyclone does on shifting I am not sure yet. Back when I got it, I simultaneously decided to get a non-Shimano chain, a Connex. And then I started riding the Mercian with the SunTour derailleurs. I mean, shifting was ok but maybe something is missing. The XT derailleurs are reputed to be fantastic. So just a day or two ago I put on a new Shimano chain, and we’ll see if that is any better.

Update: Yes, the shifting is much better with the Shimano chain. To be precise, the comparison is a Connex 808 with a Shimano CN-HG71. The Connex was waxed with Squirt lube and the Shimano is straight out of the package.