People here tend to exagerate the troubles with freewheels. They act like it requires hours a day of maintenence and they are so complex with so many moving parts, that you'll spend half your life keeping them in working condition. Except for a few people who might have had bad luck, its mostly a load of BS. BMX freewheels do not require much maintenence, and if they did, don't you think the BMX industry would do something about it?. I've been using them since I was 6 years old (I'm currently 34) and never had a problem with a single one of them, and I've been riding in the rain and snow with them regularly, ever since I had a paper route starting in the 6th grade. My current SS is a moutain bike that only gets ridden on mud, dirt, snow and salty slush. The Suntour and ACS freewheels (flip flop hub) on there have survived thousands of dirty miles. Freewheel bearings can get gritty inside, but the freewheel mechanism only spins when you are coasting, so the amount of internal wear and tear is pretty minimal, compared to, say, an unsealed hub, which spins constantly. However, I suspect those people reporting early freewheel death were running their chains too tight, so as they coasted they were literatlly grinding away the inner workings.