you might try yellow Jersey (probably best to email as the web site if funky) Suntour Freewheels at Yellow Jersey

other odd place to try is Slough's bike shop in san jose Phone: (408) 293-1616 (no on line presence, call and if they have some thing I would facilitate)

if you find some thing that needs rebuilding check out www.FreeWheelSpa.com The Home of Happy Bicycle Freewheels! - Freewheel repair, service and restoration

and of course ebay NOS duarace $70
suntour winnter 6 speed NOS $60 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Suntour-New-...YAAOSws65TrFbZ

Who here knows the comparative shifting of IRD and the current Shimanos? I haven't used an IRD yet. I went from the old Winners that I loved to Sachs which I found just as good to SunRace, klunky but worked and shifted just fine but had cog choices that drove me a little nuts to Shimano. The Shimano is a very nice FW but the shifting drives me nuts. I have to slow and focus on putting the derailleur in exactly the right place or it will shift when it wants to and go to the cog it chooses. I've had it wander back and forth between two cogs.

IRD claims wavy tooth profiles for better shifting. Is it as "good" as Shimano? (I run 8-speed Campy on my cassette bike and love it. Easy shifts but no surprises. Yes, the occasional shift to the next cog if I really missed, but once that shift happened, it was solid. I love the classic friction shift "dump" that we did all the time in my racing days when we got to a hill. With my Shimano, I have little confidence I can then immediately stand and go. Not what I need for an Oregon gravel bike!

Ben

I forgive you. I deleted my post. It was a bit too pedantic, even for me.

All in good fun, you should've left it on there.

I've not experienced that. It's only been the other way around for me. I'd think for a new chain to skip on old sprockets, the teeth would have to be almost gone. But one day maybe I'll have that happen.

It is very common, to the point of almost a sure thing if you rode a chain long enough after it stretched. The cog won't be almost gone, just deformed with shark teeth on one side.

I guess that's why I have not experienced it. When my chain starts skipping, I replace it before it starts wearing on the cogs. I've never had a freewheel or chain wheel that shows excess wear.

So would it be worth trying just a new chain first? Most of my experience is coming from newer MTBs and I have most certainly worn cassettes past the point of useful in that discipline. I personally have ridden this DA FW very little so I'm not sure how heavily it's been ridden

If a chain were worn to the point of skipping on cog teeth having the same usage, I would be surprised if a new chain on the old cogs was not actually much worse.

With fresh chain on worn cogs, the problem isn't as it first seems. Rather than the rollers being pulled past worn teeth under increased force from pedaling, what is really occurring is that the rollers fail to drop between the teeth because of the hooked corner striking the roller.
The newer chain runs in a relatively "advanced" position on a worn cog, since the driven surface at the base of the tooth has worn away. But since the hooked tip of the tooth has not been worn away, it now strikes the roller, which results in the rollers being fed onto the tips of the cogs, several in a row until slippage occurs.
This is why modestly-worn "slipping" cogs often work fine with new chain after the hooked corners are modified with a 1mm bevel as shown on a single tooth of this cog:

Not my experience. The cogs may be interchangeable, but they don't shift the same.
A couple of years back Pastor Bob and I conspired to build up a 13-24 ultra spaced 6 cog Regina CX freewheel for my all-Italian Mirella (OK, The BB is Phil Wood, but I'm working on it.). I also built up on my own an identical Atom 77 ultra spaced 6 cog 13-24. Same 13-15-17-19-21-24 progression. Both drive trains are Campy NR. I rode both bikes this week after having ridden neither of them for over a year and couldn't believe how much better the Regina shifted.

Top

Never had a Regina CX. So far as I know they were not around long and never popular. Doesn't mean they weren't good, just not that many of them. They were completely different from Regina Extra - BX - Oro. Not interchangeable with Atom or with regular Regina.
Cannot even imagine how an Atom 77 body could be built to ultra spacing.

Even with my Nuovo Record derailleurs, my IRD freewheels shift way better than vintage freewheels (though the NR is still late-shifting on the small cogs...only a miracle could fix that. I haven't tried a Shimano freewheel and the cassettes I've used are on bikes with completely different mechanisms and indexed shifters, so not really comparable.

3alarmer, that was good advice. Maybe we shouldn't tell everybody!

I have a favorite in the 600 and Z model UG (Uniglide) freewheels in the 13-28t, six-speed flavor. These fairly-wide ratios still take very little away from my best sporting pace on the road, unlike the familiar 14-28t five speed.

These freewheels friction-shift using modern chain better than anything I've tried, and don't ever self-shift or "hunt" between gears like modern, ramped cogs often do. I feel like I can fully trust their drive, even during my hardest efforts, unlike with the modern ones as was mentioned by 79pmooney.
And yet these 6s freewheels are still very common to find, and so often fit on 120mm hubs with perhaps only 1-2mm of spacer/washer added to the driveside axle spacing. No frame work needed! Campag hubs used driveside axle spacing that was more fully optimized for particular freewheel widths, so with these one has to add more driveside spacing to the axle. But plenty of Normandy-hubbed and other 120mm wheels held up fine with that redundant length of axle exrension that nearly accommodates a standard six-speed as is, since these hub's makers couldn't always know in advance whether the bike would perhaps have a claw-mount retaining nut in the way.

Shimano's 7-speed UG freewheels with good-sized cogs are far less common to find, but are a great find in 12-26 to 13-32t for sporting-effort riding in the hills.

Worn-out cogs are identifiable upon sight, the teeth look asymmetrical and with a sharper "top left" corner at the top of the driven side of the teeth. These pointy corners, once beveled slightly, leave the cog ready for a second life of hard use.
Teeth that are fully tomb-stoned to one side are usually wasted from use with a severely-worn chain, and are unsalvageable.

Usually the crustiest bike shops have boxes/bins/drawers full of assorted old freewheels to chose from at often-low prices.

Don't think of it as a freewheel unit, think of it as a freewheel assembly.
The cogs are disposable, wear items, to be maintained (if desired) per dddd's recommendations, and finally discarded and replaced when no longer maintainable.
A good freewheel body, e.g. any vintage Suntour or Shimano, and probably the others as well, though I have little first hand experience with the European brands, should have a long if not infinite life, albeit with a Pastorbob-style spa treatment when and as needed.

The Shimano freewheels in current production are of high quality. The selection of sizes is limited, though.

I thought once you were deep enough into vintage bikes, freewheels found their way to you whether you liked it or not! I had one of those newer Shimano 14-28 freewheels thrust into my hands for FREE at a recent swap meet, and it was zero-miles as far as I could tell.

I sent a care package full of freewheels to Pastor Bob.

Did you (or [MENTION=42162]pastorbobnlnh[/MENTION]) take any pictures? I was just in the Box of Crap thread and want to see this.

P.S. I finally decoded the "nlnh" part -- that was driving me nuts!

I should have taken pictures but didn't.

I'm using an IRD 5speed on the Peugeot and it shifts nicely. I did have a problem with a loosening lock ring that was finally fixed with a bit of loctite. I'll probably buy another and more closely watch my chain this time. (4000 miles and all of a sudden it went to 100% gone.)

The Chinese freewheels do have pretty soft metal for the cogs so the effects of a worn chain are definitely magnified...

I presented the good Pastor with a bucket of freewheels a few years back.

Top

So the IRD and Sunrace FWs wear quickly, is that what you're saying?

I've used a few of the newer Shimano 14-28 6-spds. I have only two issues with them, neither terrible. The sprockets do seem to rust quickly if ridden in the rain. The bearing races seem to be not as even as they ought to be. The result can be a click on every revolution as the wheel rotates under pedal force. While freewheeling you jsut hear whatever soft wheezing it makes anyway. Hesitate just a bit on the pedaling to let the inner and outer sections be in a different relative position and the click may stop. It's not a problem because the bearings aren't rolling when it's under pressure and there is no pressure when they are rolling. Just a bit annoying.

Thanks for all the mentions! [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION], [MENTION=43632]top506[/MENTION], [MENTION=251447]ThermionicScott[/MENTION] (NLNH= New London, New Hampshire--- where I live), [MENTION=184345]old's'cool[/MENTION], [MENTION=61707]squirtdad[/MENTION], [MENTION=110545]qcpmsame[/MENTION], and probably more on the first page. I appreciate the !

I've been amazed by the freewheel work I've received over the summer. Usually it slows to nothing after the winter and spring and everyone is in full riding season, and doesn't start back until late fall when the bikes receive their winter storage maintenance.

The Chimano TZ-20 is absolutely the bottom of the barrel. Don't waste your $9.99.