Originally Posted by froze

You've had plenty break? What the heck are doing to them? I've ridden over 35 years on 5, 6, and 7 speed freewheels and NEVER had one break even while riding hard up So Cal mountains, or even while racing. When I use to race amoung the few hundred people I knew of, I've only heard of 2 or 3 that ever broke a QR axle just from riding. I had heard of some odd (re: rare) things where a chain got caught between the stay and freewheel virtually locking up the driveline and snapping an axle but usually the chain broke first; or some sort of accident, again rare. These things were used for many years in racing with great reliablity.

Supposely the 7 speed freewheels had some minor issues with breaking due to the overall width being slightly wider then the 5 or 6 put extra stress on the axle; but again I've been riding a 7 speed for about 20 years now and never had an issue nor has anyone I've known using a 7 speed.

Some of later 8 speed freewheels I had heard problems with those, but those never really caught on due somewhat to the mechanical problems, but mostly because by the time those came out cassettes were already taking over.

I detect from your response you really don't know what your talking about and your just trying to sound intellegent. Don't do that around others who've been riding for more years then you have been alive!