Hi All,

I looked around and I haven't been able to find anything on this, so it's probably not available. But I thought I'd ask.

I have a bike that uses classic freewheel hubs and 126mm spacing. I know that 6-speed freewheels are compatible with Campy 8-speed Ergo spacing. I'm actually running 10 speed Ergo with an 8-speed index gear in it and it works well, except the shifter itself needs to be re-built. In thinking about it, I'm a little nervous about long-term usability due to difficulty in finding parts in the case of breakage or theft. Which leads me to my question:

Does anyone manufacture a freewheel with Ergo 10-speed spacing that would work with 126mm dropouts? I figure it might allow for 7 or 8 cogs on the freewheel and make it simple to find Ergo shifters and such since I'd just need to find 10-speed stuff.

Thanks!

Not aware of anyone making freewheels in 10 speed spacing (EDIT see below), but on Sheldon Brown you can find out about using 8 cogs out of 9 on a 7speed (126mmOLD) freehub.

But then you'd need 9s Shimano shifting. CTC's chart shows a good mixed marriage for C11 shifter, Shimano derailleur, and S9 spacing (or "new Campy 9s shift with an "Old Campy" 9s der)

One problem is that the spacing on 10 speed Campy freewheels is variable or at least the spacers are 3 different sizes.

Thanks for the info. It looks like I'll need to take the plunge on rebuilding my Ergo shifters without a safety net for now.

I recently bought a 10-speed Sunrace freewheel.

Available only with 11-36t ratios, it's a bit of a heavy beast despite having a couple of alloy spiders. Well made though (strong enough for e-bike use).

I was going to remove the 11t and shorten the body so that the lockring would move inward to meet the now-smallest 13t cog.
The lockring threading does extend far into the body, which bode well for my plans.

My freewheel came with a missing thin supplementary spacer between the 2nd and 3rd-smallest cogs, so I returned it. I was also less than thrilled that the large cog didn't sit any further inward than on a standard freewheel with 28t. I was hoping for some relief here that would improve wheel and axle strength, since larger cogs allow the derailer cage to follow the spoke-bracing angle inward.

These freewheels are almost $100, so there's that. But the design is all-new, with the freewheel body actually secured with a larger-diameter locking cone on the non-driveside!

Campy cassette spacers appear asymmetric but the actual cog spacing looks quite symmetric across the range.
Campy 8s lever indexing works well with a modern 7s freewheel or cassette using an 8s-vintage Campag derailer.

The 10s Campag lever indexing will work with Shimano 8s cassette spacing using a Shimano derailer.

The 10s Campag lever indexing will work with Shimano 9s cassette spacing using a Shimano derailer with modified cable anchoring.

Interesting. I looked on the Sunrace website and they have a bunch of freewheels, but they don't specify cog spacing or overall dropout width.
Does your freewheel fit in 126mm dropout width?
Do you know what cog spacing is?

According to the Sunrace site, it says compatible with 10s chains, and on Performance sales site, says index compatible Shimano. But, you are going to need 130OLD to fit it.

126mm is already pretty wide for a hub that uses a freewheel. The strain on the axle makes it prone to bending and breaking. It's happened to me, and I saw it a lot when I was a bike mechanic. I've converted all of my bikes to use cassette hubs. It's just a better system.

Thanks all! I appreciate the help!

One issue with extra wide freewheels is the long unsupported drive side axle, hence all the action now is in freehubs.
The axle support bearing is on the far right end of the driver assembly..


My Touring wheel build in the 80's was around a Phil Wood freewheel hub. they are using very strong axle bearing assemblies.
rather than the 10mm threaded axle wiyh spacers that is common..

5 or 6 by 2 for 10 or 12 speed?

Yes. I want to keep using my vintage record hub and frame set for a 6-speed freewheel, but with campy 10-speed spacing so I could maybe get an extra gear or two. It doesn't look like it's possible though.

You could shorten the Sunrace 10s freewheel by at least 4mm if you have a bench grinder and can fashion a tool for turning the lockring.
You would lose the 11t cog but still have a 13t tallest gear.

Rider weight, riding conditions and even the gearing used will all affect freewheel axle life. Campag's own axles are poorly regarded by some, and there are US-made CrMo replacements available from Wheels Manufacturing for about $15-20.

Such a lockring tool can be made from an old socket, sort of like this: