Lightweight Freewheel Recommendations???
 

Hi,
I'm looking for a freewheel for my vintage Alan, and I want to have some advise from you guys (and girls if app ;))
It has Campy Tippo hubs with 126mm rear spacing and non-indexed shifters. I'm thinking of a 6spd standard spaced or 7spd narrow spaced freewheel. The smallest cog 12-13 tooth and the biggest 21-23. I'd prefer Italian makes like Campagnolo, Regina or Everest, but French or Japanese parts may be ok too. But I want it to be on the lighter side; it should not exceed 300gr too much, but should not be very heavy on the price either :) Also shifting and noise are important factors too, but wear is not primarily important as I will be riding this bike occasionally.

Which models should I look for? There are some used Campy SR's recently on ebay, but they hardly end up under $200.. I wonder if they're really worth the money?? Or is there a better bargain for me? Looking for your comments.

Thanks in advance for your help..

Suntour Microlites if you can find one. I sold one about a year ago for $120. They dont last long.

Personally, I'd also be considering the option of a switch to a freehub and a modern titanium cassette. Wear and shifting performance is far better than vintage aluminum cogs and you'll still save about 2/3 of the cog weight versus aluminum. Plus you get the inherent, superior design of a freehub. The only drawback is price, but then again, vintage lightweight freewheels are not cheap either and they are much harder to find, especially in good condition.

Zeus also made a freewheel with aluminum cogs. IMO it was one of the best freewheel designs ever: all the cogs used the same spline pattern and were fully interchangeable, except the final (smallest) which was threaded and held the rest in place. The cogs were machined so that no spacers were needed, either. The body was designed to use either the ubiquitous 2-prong Regina tool, or Zeus' own splined tool (later copied by Regina and Atom, among others).

Of course, they've been out of production for almost 20 years now, but they do turn up on eBay pretty regularly and seem to sell for about the same as the SunTour or Regina aluminum cog units, and usually much less than a Campagnolo unit.

Agreed, the Zeus 2000 was the most intelligent design of the vintage, lightweight freewheels. In addition, it had the longest wearing cogs, though they still wore much faster than steel. But it did have drawbacks. The body would not accept a 13T cog. You were restricted to 14T in 5 speed.To get 13T you had to go 6 speed with the duplex outer cog, resulting in two steel cogs. It was quite also quite a bit heavier, but more durable, than the competition. The Zeus 2000 is ~90g heavier than the Maillard Course 700 in the same cog configuration.

Malliard did make some "Dural" cogged freewheels. A couple of them were sold at eBay rencetly at just above $100, which Ithink were cheaper than what most Italian equivalentsgo for these days). Aluminum freewheel bodies and cogs have definitely been a weenie world item as titanium bb spindles are (very cool but could e scary in use), but it could still be useful for a C&Ver that putting together that sub-17 pound wonder thatall of us can appreciate.

Chombi

Thanks for all the info till now..
It's a pity that I did not know about Zeus; one just passed away from ebay a couple of days ago.
About these Maillard 700; I guess not all of them has Dural cogs, cause I was watching a couple of them and they did not seem to be so much sought after..

It would be much more greater if you are able to give some numbers (weights :D) on these models. I really looked after this info on the web, but couldn't find so much. Maybe I don't know where to look at??

Yes, most Malliard freewheels and cogsets are steel as I have them on my bike and other French bikes I had in the past. I must have been eyeing the same Malliard 700 freehwheel at eBay as you were these past couple of weeks. The one I was considering getting was the 7 speed 13/19 steel "corncob" 700 super compact series freewheel as I already have on my newly restored Vitus Carbone. These compact freewheels meant for 126mm spaced rear hubs are getting scarce, specially at the 7 narrow speed format, and I was thinking of getting it for a spare or to mount on to my other tubular wheelset that I have on my PSV so I have an easier time swapping wheels between the two bikes. I didn't buy it cuase something else just caught my attention instead.


Chombi

Some weights for comparison...
I have a Marchisio 7 speed 15-21 that weighs 272.2 grams, a Campy 6 speed 12-17 at 138.8, 2 Suntour's (7 speed 13-24 and 6 speed 13-24) at 225.2 and 200.6 grams and a Zeus 6 speed 13-20 at 234.3.

Thanks. Those Suntours.. I think they have to have alloy cogs. Which models are they?

All of the FW's I listed have aluminum cogs...The Suntours are Microlites.

My lightest freewheel is the Maillard Course 700 with a 14-18T, 5 speed, configuration, at 134g.

I have raced on many Regina, Suntour and Zeus over the years, none of the lightweights have a long life, the advice of one poster to move over to freehub and more modern titanium cassettes would give more options and better lifetime. for me, I like the long life of a good old steel freewheel or cassette, and if I can remember back that far, the Suntour Winners were about as good as it gets.

Those, and the Shimano Dura-Ace and 600 freewheels were the best on the market for overall quality.

Indeed Regina Superleggera sounds good; and the ratios are in place too ;) Sent you a PM.

And I would not consider any coversion; such advise should not be given in the "vintage" section I suppose :D

Sure it would! Unless it is collectable and your not riding it, but that would be a shame!

Switch to cassette
 

Was there ever a direct converter to screw onto a freewheel hub to take a cassette? If, so, I surely would like to have some.

VeloBase.com has weights listed for some, but not all freewheels.

Somewhere along the way there was....

Freehub converter
 

And Shimano would have been involved do you think? There are separate freehubs easily sold everywhere, it is simply a matter of getting them to match up.