Fifty Plus (50+) - a first for me---broken freewheel

It’s a beautiful Friday afternoon-- I’m on the single speed mountain bike, on the trails between Reston and Great Falls Park. About a half mile from the only highway crossing, I hear something break as I am going over a small hill. Suddenly, my pedals go ‘free’. I spin and the wheel doesn’t move. Essentially, I am free-wheeling in both directions (Exactly the opposite of my fixed-gear bike). The freewheel was damaged internally. I walked to the highway and called one of my riding buddies who came to the rescue. He drove me to the LBS and that is when I had to make a decision. The prawls in the freewheel broke. I was told this is fairly common on BMX-style freewheels. However, if I wanted one guaranteed not to break, I could get a Whites Industries freewheel—which, although much more expensive, is much better made. Decision time-- $10 for a ‘cheapie’ like the one I broke, or $90 for the good one. I slowly mulled things over… I got my bike for a ‘steal’—having paid only $150 for it… If I bought the $90 freewheel (plus a new chain), I would almost double my investment—but it was a $500 bike to start with, so I was still ahead. Also, I am planning to do the Shenendoah Mountain 100 race in August—on the single speed—don’t want it to break again there, where I could be 10 miles from an aid station. On the other hand, $10 sounds a lot better… I mulled it over a bit and then decided to go with the best. So now I have a new freewheel on the bike, and it is bombproof.

I know—I could have gotten the freewheel at around $50-60 if I had gone mail order, but it was there, I needed it, and I am supporting my LBS, which is important, as I have had two close out before my eyes… of course the two with the best customer support and service…

Train safe-

Good decision, IMHO.

You will feel better (and SAFER) on your riding.

With the amount and type of biking you seem to do, I say the investment was well worth it.:thumb:

You coulda got 2 of the cheap ones and always carried a spare and the tools needed to swap them out. That's what a real cheapskate would do.:lol:

+1 for the White Industries freewheel.

I just got tired of the clunking sound or the feeling that there was sand in my bottom bracket with the ACS and Shimano freewheels. The WI is very smooth and has a nice buzzing sound at speed, plus it's bomb proof.

I had a cheap BMX freewheel that worked fine, but I took it off and put on a fixed gear instead. Now the freewheel can't break (just sitting there, collecting dust).

Of course, this is on a road bike, I wouldn't ride fixed off road . . . or at least not on single track!

Rick / OCRR

Fortunately, the only freewheel failures I have had were lockups -- which are dangerous enough, rather than free-spins. So much for the single-speeders' claim that their bikes are so much more reliable than their derailleur-geared counterparts.