Originally Posted by
mtnbke
Anyone looking for vintage freewheels can not possibly buy a freewheel that shifts as well as a modern new IRD Classica freewheel. I don't care what anyone says and I know people love group correct kit. I've seen 'em all. Suntour, Shimao, Sachs freewheels, Atoms, Campagnolo, Cyclo, Everest, Maillard, Regina etc.
All were good freewheels, even great in their day, but nothing on par to the high bar that IRD has now set with the Classica freewheels. Simply put you can't buy another freewheel of the same quality with the same shifting precision. I don't care what your eBay budget is. Modern crappy Shimano freewheels come close to the quality in the shifting performance, but not quite. Vintage high end freewheels like Suntour come close in the quality category, but don't have the shifting ramps.
End of story, the golden age of the freewheel in terms of performance is actually now:
Classica Freewheels 5/6/7-Speed ? Interloc Racing Design / IRD
Ok we'll end the story if you like, but I don't believe much of what you just wrote myself.
The IRD freewheels sound good, but don't quite have Shimano's years and miles of cumulative reputation at this point.
I have no idea if the design or quality is copied from the 600 freewheels (which were never offered in 7 speed). My Giang freewheel from 8 or 9 years ago (Giang has long been IRD's and American Classic's freewheel/cassette supplier) looks about like what is being sold today, but I wouldn't say that it shifts quite as well as the equivalent Shimano 13-28t freewheel. It's been ok, that's all, but does look very good and has smooth bearings.
They say:
"That's because all the big Asian manufacturers are only churning out freewheels for department store bikes. We made these purposely nice enough to put on a vintage Cinelli road bike, but affordable enough to use as a replacement on cheaper bikes with. The Classic takes design cues from the reliable Shimano 600 series."
Actually, they don't make these at all. Last I heard, they have them made in Malaysia by, you guessed it, a "big Asian manufacturer". I have a problem with the common practice of, for instance, food being sold where the labeling only tells the buyer who the distributor is, so as to camouflage that the candy you buy is made in Mexico, or that the fish you buy is pulled out of polluted waters in China. I don't even want to buy
any food that is made in China, since a country's food supply is a primary matter of national security. And I don't want to pretend that anything else
that is being entirely sourced out is made here in the US.
I'm happy to see that IRD have persisted with their freewheel offerings. The 13-24t five-speed sounds awesome, but some (like the 13-28t six-speed) seem to have ratio sequencing (13-15-18...) that I would find maddening while trying to ride with a fast group, though I guess that I have to admit that Sunrace and Shimano don't even offer a 13-28t six speed any more (Shimano once made some really good ones).
Since I mostly friction shift, I prefer still building up my own 5, 6 and 7s Uniglide freewheels, which seem to offer just the right amount of audible feedback to assure robust transmission under hard-riding conditions.
I have to say I am
still "blown away" by Sunrace's introduction of their 7s 13-25t freewheel, a combination of ratios that I was no longer able to source reliably. I'll post a picture of one (below the picture of the Giang 13-28t).
I'm posting some large pictures here, so sorry if this doesn't agree with everyone's device display!
