Originally Posted by
poke em
I was breaking sticks in half with my Schwinn Caliente, just to test it out. Just the inertia of a spinning rear wheel was enough on the workstand. Mine had a fixed 5 speed cluster, no clutch.
I doubt that it was
completely fixed. The friction of the special FFS freewheel was considerable, and I don't doubt that the moving mass of the chain and so on would be enough to snap a stick, but jamming something substantial in the drivetrain would stop the chain. Schwinn and Shimano would not have left themselves open to that sort of liability.
I was a Schwinn mechanic during that time (1979-1984). I got to put together dozens of FFS bikes and all of them came with this FFS freewheel. I also got taught how to remove & install the FFS freewheel on the Ashtabula crank- it took a special tool to remove it whole.