PhilJohnson

I want a little more top end on my Cruiser. I've already put on a 52 tooth front chain ring up front. There is a 14 tooth rear cog on my Shimano Mega Range 7 speed. I was told that 11 tooth cogs used to be available for them but I haven't had any luck finding them. The LBS's all told me that they've been discontinued Any one know where I could get one, heck I'd even settle for a used one at this point. I keep running out of gearing on the flats.

Bill Kapaun

Do you have a cassette or a freewheel?

IF it's a freewheel, you're out of luck.

https://sheldonbrown.com/free-k7.html

DX-MAN

Sounds like you have the old freewheel style of gear cluster on the back wheel; if so, your LBS is right -- no 11T. Your alternative is not cheap -- new rear wheel, new 8-speed shifter for the rear, and that 8-speed cassette. Chances are the rear derailleur will work with the 8-sp shifter.

Bill Kapaun

He would not have to go more than 7 speeds!

ThermionicScott 

If you're running out of gearing with 52/14, that means you must be doing 35 MPH+ on the flats.

My hat's off to you...

PhilJohnson

It's a freewheel. There is a bike junkyard of sorts that I could perhaps hunt one down. Guy has 1000s of bikes. Do I need one off of a 7 speed or are all free wheels pretty much the same diameter regardless of speeds?

PhilJohnson

Ha! Maybe running out of gearing was the wrong term I like a slow cadence when I pedal with a high cruising speed. Always been that way for me. Some folks love to spin, I'm not one of them. I have an old three speed AMF Hercules, the gearing is awesome on that. I'm going for a similar top end on my cruiser if I can.

Jeff Wills

New freewheels in general are hard to find. IRD makes a few that are probably compatible with your setup: https://www.interlocracing.com/freewheels_steel.html

PhilJohnson

Jeff, checked it out, no 11 tooth Lowest is a 13 which I can already get from my LBS. I'm not sure the tiny bit of extra speed would be worth it. I suppose I could go all out and put on my massive 65 tooth front sprocket. That might raise the cruising speed a wee bit. I have a 52t chain ring on top of it in the picture.

Bill Kapaun

It's my understanding that Freewheels aren't made with less than 13T.

You would have to go to a Free Hub & Cassette.

PhilJohnson

The LBS claimed that they used to sell tons of 11 tooth cogs. I'm no expert on the subject so they could have been jerking my chain.

Homebrew01

My old Suntour Winners were 7 speed 12-21

bobotech

Heh. I was building my Redline R540 hybrid the last couple of weeks. While at my bike coop, I needed to get a 8speed cassette. Found a cassette with 6 speeds in it (13t-30t) and then found 2 more cogs in the parts bin for the cassette. One was a 12t and the other was an 11t. My big cog on the front is 52t. No wonder when I pedal going downhill I'm barely spinning. I'm sure as hell not going 35mph but I am spinning really slowly and I like that.

A bike junkyard should have enough wheels where you can find an older 7speed freehub wheel that you can get a cassette for. You could then scrounge up the 11t cog like I did and add it to the cassette.

ThermionicScott 

I'd be surprised if an old three-speed topped out at ~100 GI, like your cruiser -- I think the English ones were more like 75-80 GI. Maybe the Hercules just feels like it's in a really high gear?

PhilJohnson

It's a Strumey Archer AW. According to Sheldon Brown's website it's 133 GI on the highest ratio. I suppose I could take my speedo off the cruiser and put it on the Hercules to find out for sure.

Jeff Wills

Incorrect. The top gear of a 3-speed hub is 133% of 2nd gear, which is direct drive. To find the "gear inches", find the number of teeth on the chainring, divide by the number of teeth on the rear sprocket, then multiply the result by the diameter of the wheel. It should be something like (46/17) x 26 = 70 gear inches. 1.33 times that is 93 gear inches.

That's still pretty good for a three-speed on flat ground. If you're mashing that at 80 rpm, you're doing 22 mph. Not bad.

dedhed

https://www.dnp.com.tw/pro2.asp?ID=1&tmpEdtion=English

bottom right

https://ebikessf.com/node/154

PhilJohnson

What can I say, I'm a bit of a noob at this stuff I have a future project planned for that hub. I'm going to use my mega 65 tooth sprocket with it on an old cruiser bike and hopefully have a high speed machine. It's mostly flat around here. If I can't hack it I got some old 700c rims I'll throw on with a 6 speed free-wheel.

Dedhed, thanks for the links. I wish I could just get the individual cog. I was told they just thread on. I'd hate to spend 25 bucks when all I'm after is one little cog. I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Sixty Fiver

The 11-x Shimano megarange freewheels are really hard to find as they came out when most were transitioning to cassette hubs where getting an 11-x is pretty easy and they had a short production run.

Suntour offered 12 tooth cogs for their freewheels (I have some of these coming for some custom freewheels I am building) but for the most part the freewheels you will find on the shelf will be 14-x and if you look harder you may find some higher end 13-x freewheels.

With old SA three speeds there are some limits on what chain ring and cog combinations you can run as some gearing combinations at the high and low end will put too much stress on the hub and could cause failure as it can only handle so much torque. Typical set up is to have a bike running a gearing of 49/65/87 with a little +/- depending on wheel and tyre choices. Many opt to change the driver and add a few teeth to get a better climbing gear and turn the 3rd gear into their cruising gear.

To get my vintage 3 speed road bike to run 133 gear inches up top I would have to mate the 48 tooth ring with a 13 tooth driver and first gear would be 75 gear inches and 2nd would be 100 gear inches. The highest gearing I have run on an SA three speed was 102 gear inches and only did that for some speed tests to see just how fast I could run the hub and any input past 60 kmh in sprints caused it to skip.

Solution here it to find a cassette wheel and then that elusive 11 tooth cog will not be so elusive and you won't have to deal with freewheels that are of lesser quality.

RubberLegs

Might check these folks out, not sure if they are miss-labeling cassettes as freewheels, or if it IS an 8 speed freewheel, they have 11 toothed cogs...DNPs, I have NEVER dealt with them.
https://www.comcycle-usa.com/Ebike-an...oductInfo.aspx

JiveTurkey

That does look like a freewheel and I counted 11 teeth. However, going to 8-speed freewheel isn't wise, given the extra length between the drive-side bearings and dropout. Too bad they don't have one in 7-speed.

Also, looks like a special tool is needed to reach the splines on these freewheels: https://www.comcycle-usa.com/catalog....Descriptions=1

cny-bikeman

Well, you will get your wish for low cadence with a 52/11. Roughly 70 rpm at 25mph, and you are very unlikely to get higher than that speed on the flat at that low rpm. People dont just like to spin, it's simply more efficient, both from the human and bicycle standpoint.

I'm sure you will do what you wish, except that your wish to have a high speed machine will go wanting. You can't go fast just by slapping on a high gear ratio, whether you spin or not, and you are extremely unlikely to ever get in shape to go fast on low revs and grinding gear ratios.

himespau 

https://aebike.com/page.cfm?action=de...=30&SKU=FW4616

You can find them from several sources, often associated with e-bikes. All made by DNP. Some sellers say they work with the shimano freewheel tool, others say you might need a special tool. Lots of reports of them not being all that high quality stamped so some people finding misaligned teeth or teeth warping or breaking. Other people say they've had no problems. I looked into this for a while a year or two ago before just deciding to build a 130 mm x 26" wheel for my old 6 speed mtb that I've converted to a drop bar commuter so I could throw a 12-32 8 speed cassette on there. Well, I decided to do that, but got busy and the rim, hub, spokes and stand are all sitting lonely in my garage while I still ride on with my 6 speed 14-28 freewheel. If you do a little search here, you might find the results of the previous discussions.

himespau 

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...t=11+freewheel

TurbineBlade

11t cogs are easy to find. Flag down a roadie on the bike path and you'll likely get a shiny, completely unused one off their cassette.

For fun, I like to ride micro drivetrains really hard and without proper chain lubrication for hundreds of miles. Then when the 11t starts skipping it's really fun to ride around like an idiot. You have to make sure your ass crack is hanging out though.