evictionsurplus

Ok Kids,
I promise I have searched the forums and read Mr. Brown's page. However. I am still unclear. Please explain to me the difference between a freehub and a freewheel. Please help me out. I have 30 years of roadbikes I need to apply this info towards. Thanks for any help, seriously.
j

Steev

Did you look at this page from Sheldon Brown?
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/k7.html
Can't explain it any clearer than that.

well biked

A freehub is a separate unit, actually called a freehub body, that has the pawls inside it that go tick-tick-tick when you coast. The freehub body is secured to the hub on the driveside, and is removable, replaceable, etc. The cogset that's used with a freehub is called a cassette, and it has splines that mate with the splines on the freehub body, and the cassette is secured with a special lockring. With a freewheel, the cogset and freewheel mechanism (with pawls that go tick-tick-tick when you coast) are all one assembly, and they simply thread onto the hub together (male threads on the hub, female threads on the freewheel). So a freewheel is removable and replaceable too, but the freewheel mechanism and gear cluster are removed and replaced as one unit instead of two-

ax0n

It's also worth noting that since the bearings are closer to the dropouts on a freehub, they're generally a bit more robust. The wheel bearings on a freewheel hub are all the way back where the spokes are, leaving a long piece of axle to become a lever under stress. It's more prone to being bent when ridden hard, or going over bumps. Also, freehubs are just more substantial, beefier if you will.

Sheldon Brown

I have over 2,000 pages. The one you should look at is:

https://sheldonbrown.com/free-k7

Sheldon "Pages And Pages..." Brown

joseph senger

sheldon browns page are so damn awsome.