Freewheel questions
 

So I'm thinking that the freewheel is going to need to be replaced on my Miyata (I just had the RD and chain replaced) and I was looking into doing it myself, since it seems straightforward enough. I was just curious if there was much of a difference between freewheels. Can I just buy a reputable brand off amazon or ebay? Is there somewhere else you might recommend?

For the record, I've got a 5-speed freewheel on 27" Araya rims. Can I just stick pretty much any 5 speed freewheel on there?

There are several varieties of freewheels, various manufacturers,
with each their own remover..
do you want to collect them all?
probably best to have a shop take off the old one,
[rather than buy a removal tool used only once]
and then buy the remover for the one freewheel you buy.

why do people here hate, and want to avoid, walking into a bike shop? :twitchy:

For all practical purposes all all freewheels are pretty much interchangeable. There were a few different foreign freewheel threads years ago, but very few of those came to the USA, so you can ignore the issue.

Just but any decent 5s freewheel and you'll be fine.

I don't mind walking into a bike shop, I just wanna know how to replace a consumable item. Plus, the sweat equity makes me smarter.