TimmyT 

Hi,
After some searching, it has become apparent to me that ramped freewheels with less than 13t are difficult to come by. The only manufacturer is DNP which makes a few in 11-28, 11-30, and 11-32 flavors. Does anyone have any experience using these? Reports so far have been variable.



https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...s.php?id=49866

TIA,
Tim

Fred Smedley

A seven speed with a 11 tooth makes for to wide of spacing in the gears I most often want to use.

TimmyT 

Yeah, I need the real estate up high. There are a few hills I bomb down. On one bike, I have a 52 - 11 on a 175mm crank for 127 gear inches. The other one has a 52 - 14, 175 mm cranks for 97 gear inches. If I had about 110 gear inches on the bike with the freewheel, I would be OK. Anything above 120 gear inches covers the riding I do.

Oldpeddaller

54 Tooth chainring be any good?

ThermionicScott 

Huh, I didn't know you could even get freewheels with cogs under 13T. You should just build a wheel with a Capreo hub.

- Scott

miamijim

What cadence can you hit with the 52-11? If you can't hit 120 an 11t isn't needed.

top506

Shimano used to make an 11-28. It's been discontinued in the US, but a few years back a Canadian member was able to source a couple for me through the Canadian distribution network. I don't know if they're still available 'up north', though.
I've replaced a lot of lunched DNP freewheels that had shed teeth.

Top

753proguy

Yowsah! That's knee-bustin' stuff.

Back in the day, Suntour did make some 11-tooth Winner seven-speed freewheels. I've seen precisely one sell on eBay in the past ten years. I don't think they made very many at all. I presume that the one I saw was legitimate?

I have a Moulton-modified Regina CX-S that has a ten-tooth smallest cog. The moulton-sourced cogs are rather crudely-made, however.

Nothing like a 10-17 freewheel, though! 10-11-13-14-15-16-17 is the progression. Note that the 14 is the middle cog in a seven-speed!

So much for the old 'fundamental law of gearing' that stated that a 14 was the smallest gear that was possible.

TimmyT 

I only use the 52-11 on downhills for precisely this reason. I spend most of my time in the next lower gear, which is the 13t, I believe. That's on one bike with a Shimano cassette.

The other bike has a freewheel with a 14t as its smallest ring. A 13t (readily available on a Shimano freewheel) gives me an extra 4 gear inches, which means my cadence doesn't drop enough. On this bike a 50-11 would probably be high, too, but I am not familiar with the DNP brand of freewheel.

With the responses given so far (i.e., few have direct experience with this freewheel), I should buy it, roll on it for a few hundred miles, and come to my own conclusion.

triplebutted

I need these for my classic bikes cause I'll be needing a triple up front with a 50 large.

Jeff Wills

I'm pretty sure the 11-tooth 7-speed cogs were pretty rare. For the truly demented, Suntour offered a Winner Pro 11-tooth "Z" cog and 13-tooth "X" cog so you could create a non-Ultra 6-speed freewheel starting with 11. Weird, but I'm pretty sure the parts existed.

Captain Blight

I guess I'd rather spread the load with a bigger chainring than a smaller cog. That said, the biggest I can gear I can pull on the flat in no-wind conditions is a 53-15 and and I can't keep that up for long. 20 years of running around with a beer in one hand and a bong in the other with a cigarette dangling from my lip took its toll.

I can still climb like a motherfather, but I reckon the backside of the slope is for coasting down.

Jeff Wills

Shimano started making 11-tooth cogs common with 7-speed cassettes. 11-tooth 6-speed cogs were more rare, and 5-speed apparently existed, but I've never seen one for real:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/shimano1982/pages/20.html

darinm

I use a 7sp Dura-Ace 11-21t and I've seen them sell on ebay recently

darinm

Edit

I just checked again and I guess I was mistaken about them being on ebay, saw a few 12's but no 11's

Jeff Wills

Yep. Shimano 7-speed Dura-Ace and Santé freewheels bottomed out at 12 teeth. You might be able to get a NOS one from Euro-Asia:
https://www.euroasiaimports.com/produ...-1103p3433.htm
if you want to mortgage your firstborn.

Jeff Wills

Ack! Thbbft!

ThermionicScott 

I'm tellin' ya, use a 9-26 Capreo freehub, and the world will be your oyster.

triplebutted

A 50/11 is a bigger gear than 52/12. But I was very lucky to find an SR 53 110mm chainring on Ebay last night!!! Now I can use easily available 12-? range freewheels.

T-Mar

I stll have a small supply of new, Shimano 11-28T, 7 speed HyperGlide freewheels. I've sent out a few to fellow forum members, in the past.

ACH57

T-Mar, do they take a special thin wall tool to remove? I'm looking for something like this to go on my '81 Centurion Super LeMans with a 46/34 on the front. What are the ratios on the 11-28?

T-Mar

Yes, they use the thin wall tool. 11-13-15-18-21-24-28T.

jan nikolajsen 

To me the biggest reason I went away from the retro goodness of freewheels is the scarcity of 11 and 12T clusters.

When I ride in the mountains with my buddies I might hang on the way up but get dropped like a stone on the descents without something close to 120 gear inches.

ACH57

I don't quite have enough posts to PM so if you would like to part with one maybe you could email me at firehawk108@gmail.com?