This is mostly a rant...
I recently got a set of wheels (free - yay!) and Nokian W240s (free - yay!) which I planned to put on either my Dawes Galaxy (require 27-inch to 700c - so, rear brake fiddling) or my Schwinn Super Sport. I decided on the SS, given that I believed both to be spaced 126mm and the SS would require no brake mods. So far, so good. I managed to get the tires mounted (wheels were kinda skinny, but hey, the prices were right), mounted the front wheel, then went to mount the rear. Dang, it was 120mm (really, more like 121mm). That was strange. I hadn't measured, but the previous wheel mounted carried a Regina Extra 6-speed freewheel, which has normal spacing. Fortunately, no cutting was required, but still, I should have measured, at least once.
Oh well, I cold set the SS's rear triangle, which
wasn't without its share of small issues. Then I got the wheel in place, adjusted brakes and derailleur and
took it out for a spin yesterday. I had left the original freewheel on the wheelset without thinking much about it. It's a six-speed Shimano MF-6208 with a 21T large cog. Except for the large cog, all the other cogs have the little Uniglide twist. My setup (Cyclone GT derailleur, SRAM PC-850 chain) did not like that one little bit. Angst #1. No worries, I just kept it on the 39-21 combination. The Nokian tires provided plenty of resistance to smooth forward motion anyway, so I wasn't encouraged to go terribly fast. (Also, I adjusted the brakes a bit too tight, so they rubbed slightly. I flipped out the qr levers to give me a bit of relief at the expense of slightly less responsive braking. Another good reason to eschew speed.)
After about 11 miles, I got back & tackled the freewheel issue. First thing, remove the Shimano part. Then I figured I would just move the Regina over from the other wheel. No! It's one of those splined Regina freewheels where you need to remove the drive-side locknut to get the removal tool on. Alas, the flats for the locknut are hidden by the outer cog. That would mean I either spin off (at least) the outer cog or loosen things up on the non-drive-side just to mount the freewheel tool and remove the freewheel. Angst #2. I wasn't going to sink that much effort into retrieving the Regina part at this point. I'd already flirted with
shipwright's disease when I decided to spread the rear triangle.
I opted for another freewheel from the bin, a SunTour Alpha six-speed with 24T large cog. I will be back out there once the snow and polar vortex are done with us. In retrospect, I suppose I should have tried harder to come up with a workable rear brake solution for the Dawes.
