Originally Posted by
SurferRosa
I was a proponent of IRD, but I won't be buying any more of them after two failures. The other was a busted pawl that was far more concerning than a skipping cog.
I will say that IRD did replace one of them for free. I guess I still have that one, and it still works.
Which generation of IRD freewheel broke? It is widely known that the first generation (the Defiant) had flawed pawl springs which snapped. I had one of these. IRD acknowledged the problem and brought out the second generation (the Classica) which is a better version of the Defiant with strengthened pawl springs. I have three of these and haven't had a problem. They disappeared because IRD was having supply problems with their manufacturer according to the IRD distributor (Merrysales). The current generation (the Cyclone) appears to be manufactured in a completely different way than the others and I suspect is from a different manufacturer altogether. So, there are three completely different freewheels that have been sold under the IRD name. Failure on one model does not mean that the other models are no good. Note also that IRD is now offering repair kits for the Defiant and Cyclone series that included new pawls. I am tempted to buy one of these to repair my defunct Defiant.