7spd, 11t Freewheel
 

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.

http://www.universalcycles.com/image...dium/49866.jpg

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

TIA,
Tim

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

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.

54 Tooth chainring be any good?

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/shimano1982/pages/20.html

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

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

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:
http://www.euroasiaimports.com/produ...-1103p3433.htm
if you want to mortgage your firstborn.

Ack! Thbbft!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Billthecat.jpg

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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?