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Old 05-31-21, 07:00 PM
  #13  
3alarmer 
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...there are way more freewheels in the used parts stream with a large of 28, because there were a lot more of them made and sold. Most of the standard bikes that people bought had a 13/14-28, because not everyone was using road race gearing or equipment. As much as I detest swapping out freewheel cogs, the 13-24 and 14-26 ones are now so expensive (and the used ones often have a cog or two with some wear), that I am forced to adapt.

If you have a big enough collection of either Suntour or Shimano 5 and 6 speed freewheels, a well mounted bench vise, a freewheel vise, and at least one chain whip that is bombproof, like the Park one, you can recog them so that the largest cog is a 26, or even a 24. Sometimes it involves some torch heating and ATF/Acetone mixed 50/50. And the cog designs in the various positions for Suntour and Shimano differed over the years. But it's doable if you have a source of the older freewheels at cheap prices (like the co-op suggestion.)

It would be great if someone like Sunrace would pay attention to the needs of people like us, and make new ones in the 14-24/26 range. But I think we don't represent enough market share.

I don't work on the other brands of freewheel, because there are not enough of them around to collect a solid supply of cogs and spacers. And those seem to more commonly come in usable configurations already. But if you're looking at used stuff on ebay, the pricing on used 13-24 and 14-26 freewheels is astonishing to me.
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