I went over to my L.B.S. and asked the young guy behind the counter if he could swap some cogs from one freewheel to another (I brought them for him to see).
He told me that freewheels sprockets are "integral" and there-fore not removeable.
I told him they were threaded. He looked at me without responding. I left.
Do you ever feel like you are in the Twilight Zone?

198

You would've been fully justified in backhanding him.

Operative words…."young guy". He just don't know no better.

In my small town we only have one LBS now - thankfully it is a good one. They have a young mechanic who shares my interest in classic bikes. The owners appreciate my business (their prices are often less than internet when shipping is considered), so I give them a lot of it.

Borrow the chain whips and do it right in front of him, his mind will be blown

there is also the possibility that he did not believe what he was saying and just did not wish to deal with the request.

Improper upbringing. I have seen this before.

"Borrow the chain whips and do it right in front of him, his mind will be blown"

I sent him an e-mail with pictures of dis-assembled freewheels.
He said he was wrong and offered to do the job, but the chainwhips
are only ten bucks at bikewagon, so I'll do it myself. Serendipity,
I guess.

198

You mean, like the prevalence of younger people saying "no problem", when you tell them "thank you"…
instead of something like "you're welcome. "

Or when a teen cashier slaps change in your hand saying, "here ya go".

I think he was kind of a "carbon snob", Olds. A lot of these kids seem quite angry about having to work in a bike shop and seem to be quite defensive about their limited scope of knowledge.

root, I know what you mean. However, they have changed "no problem" to "not a problem". Elton John once said that "sorry" is the hardest word. Billy Joel once suggested that "honesty" is the loneliest word. I think "I don't know" is the hardest to spit out. If a mechanic doesn't know how to do something, then I wish he would not feel compelled to make up stories and
excuses. Just say, "I don't have any experience with these." But then again, how did he get his job? Who was over-looked when this guy was hired? It really makes me angry, because to tell the truth, I'd like a shot at his job. I may not know everything, but MY MIND IS IN A POSITION OF LEARNING.

198

I had an encounter like this last summer when buying a chain for the Colnago. I told him what I needed and things went off the rails from there.

This thread contains a toxic amount of "old man/get off my lawn smell".

It smells more like "old man/get away from my bike" to me.

I expected this thread to discuss alternative options to a failed attempt removing a FW from it's hub. How wrong I was.

Hopefully the cogs of your two freewheels are interchangeable. Not all of them are the same.

I have one Suntour freewheel that refuses to come apart; either the Park chain whip(s), Suntour vise holder tool, or the cogs themselves will break first. I stopped before any of those things were damaged, so I'll never know.

I was expecting something like this:

Sorry to disappoint, Lest. Maybe I should have named it: Non-existing Freewheel Cog Thread(s)

I think it should be "sh*t young bike shop employees say."

That's a good one. I'm with the young guy on this one.
**********?

That just might be an interesting thread, NL.

I'm glad to hear the young guy admitted he was wrong though and offered to make it right.
Hey....no problem.

Reminds me of the time I was repping for a parts company and one shop requested something unusual at the time, a bolt-on steel-rimmed rear cassette wheel. Did not see many of those at the time so I asked to see what was wrong the original and they brought out a wheel with a freewheel body on it. A young guy in the shop had unscrewed the cogs from a freewheel, leaving the freewheel body on the wheel. I said that he just needed to put the cogs back on and use the proper tool to unscrew the freewheel. "Yeah, freehub," was his response. "No, freewheel." We went back and forth like this for a little while. The guy had never seen a threaded hub.

Some have lock rings, and don't require chainwhips.

I'm not sure there are any standards. Try to stay within a single brand.