Are you a machinist? Where do you live? Someone may be able to direct you to a better equipped shop who can help you.

Hamilton Ontario. Uncle is a hydraulics specialist/mechanic and can fix about anything so if I'm stumped we usually tackle the problem. If he can't make it then he talks to the machinist who can


That round dust cap is what I removed, to reveal another cover with 2 more holes on it for a pin wrench. I'd need a freewheel removal tool with 2 notches, but specifically made for this model, as the shop mechanic had a freewheel remover with 2 notches but it didn't work.

Frame is all cleaned up, starting to look better.


While my uncle is getting a tool made to disassemble the rear hub, I thought my next goals are seat repair and cables. Starting with the seat.



It still has some *squish* to it, so I don't think all is lost. No cracking in the leather except for a small tear near the tip of it. How does the shape look? It seems to still have the proper shape. As far as restoration goes, I've been reading about various soaking treatments and topical leather conditioners/revitalizers made of unicorn tears and other exotic ingredients....but I'd rather go with something simple. Should I give it a brief soak to re-hydrate? Or warm it a bit and massage in some kind of leather treatment.

You can overhaul a freewheel but most owners just flush them with slovent and then drip oil into the gap between the inner and outer bodies.

Given the age of your freewheel, I'd consider placing it with a modern freewheel. Modern freewheels are relatively cheap and they have ramped and profiled teeth that dramatically improve shifting, particularly under load. These freewheels are generally called HyperGlide compatible, as Shimano introduced them and that was their name for the cog style. To take full advantage, you'll also need a HyperGlide compatible chain. You can get boith for about $25. The only drawback is that freewheels have fallen out of favour and there is limited selection with repect to ratios. You may to order a more expensive model or settle for a low of 28T as opposed to 24T. I'd be checking the chain and cog wear and if they're due for replacement I'd seriously consider the HyperGlide upgrade. The final advantage of going modern is that you would have no problem getting the correct remover.

You may want to try one of the older shops to get the freewheel removed. Perhaps someone like Scattalon? I believe the correct remover is the Shimano Dura-Ace TL-FW10. Maeda/SunTour look like they will work but the prongs are a little wide. The older Bicycle research CT-1 and Kingsbridge 101 also work. I'm told the current Park FR-2 works but I've not tried it. You'd have to be careful using a modified SunTour or any of the non-Shimano removers as they easily slip out of the notchs. The Shimano tool has a retainer ring to hold the tool in place.

Hey T-Mar. Thanks for the response. Removing the freewheel has halted my progress. The chain was COMPLETELY rusted so I cut it off, so I'll certainly be needing one of those. Instead of going through all the trouble of getting the tool to remove the freewheel, I should just have it removed once, and replace it with a modern freewheel. I'd probably settle for a low 28T but I'm not quite sure what that actually is. I'll have to do some googling. So I'll be needing a hyperglide chain and hyperglide compatible freewheel. Making that change, will I need to upgrade anything else? Or should the derailers and crank not have any affect.

So T stands for teeth. Would more teeth not be better? Im guessing thats not the case but just need to understand why

Generally, cyclists want a wide enough range to handle their normal riding and no more. In other other words, if you can get up your local hills with the 24T that is on your current feewheeel, they would not go any lower. However, some like to have an additional, lower "bail-out gear" just in case they run into a steeper hill, are tired, etc. The proponents of "just enough" counter-argue that you have one unused gear which could be better suited to provided smaller gear jumps within the existing range. Both are valid arguments.

The basic theory of gearing is to allow the legs to turn at a steady rate and effort, regardless of the terrain and weather, thus providing a constant cardiovascular load. Theoretically, infinitely variable gearing is the holy grail but that's not currently practical. There's lot of discussion about how many rear cogs are the ideal amount. You'll get answers of anywhere from 1 to 10, with most falling in the 6 -8 range on this forum. In the end, it all depends on your local terrain, weather conditions and level of fitness.

The New 600EX rear derailleur and crankset on your Beta should be able to handle a 13-28T, 6 speed freewheel without issue. Threre are three issues compatibility issues between derailleurs and freewheels. First is the maximum cog size, which is 28T for the standard cage New 600EX derailleurs. Second is the chain wrap capacity for the derailleur, which is the difference between the front chainrings (in your case should be 52T-42T) added to difference in thee freewheel (28T-13T). The difference is 10T on the front plus 15T on the rear, for a total of 25T. This is well within the 28T spec for a short cage New 600EX rear derailleur. The last issue is derailleur travel or how many cogs it can traverse. Since you're replacing a standard 6 spped with another standard 6 speed, there is no issue.

T-Mar, we have a problem! lol. So Scattalon was no help, kinda shrugged me off pretty quick with no tips or advice...

Back to the vice! I took off the adjuster and all the little bearings fell out, but thats cool because I wasn't going to re-use that freewheel . That gave me enough "bite" to put the vice on the part that the gears were blocking, and I twisted the bugger off. However, either it happened in the vice or I didn't notice, but...



My options are, factory replacement, compatible other, or a jerry rig type dust cap. Any idea what to do about this? Does anyone know of a does cap thats going to be compatible? I keep hitting setbacks with this lol

That's a plastic cap. correct? if so, I'd just glue it to repair the crack. That'll do the job and you're not going to see it under the freewheel.

I was thinking about just gluing it but its on the opposite side of the freewheel. The one that the freewheel covers up is hidden away and in fine ship but this one is on the exterior on the left hand side.

Update. Rebuilt the rear hub. All went well. Taped the cracked dust cover with duct tape lol. In time it will probably break apart to nothing, at that point I'll use some kind of conical rubber washer as a replacement.

Great LBS ordered me a 6 speed new shimano rear freewheel for about 14$, and the chain will be about the same. Perfectly reasonable.

I bought some new break cables and housing off him as well. Housing is the right size will just take some adjustment to make sure it doesn't put tension on the break when turning. First time installing breaks but I think it went well.

At a FULL 90 degree crank on the handlebars, the rear break cable JUST starts to get a bit of tension from the twist. Is that ok?

Secondly, when applying pressure to the breaks, one side begins its motion towards the rim before the other, is that alright? No matter how much I adjusted anything that was always the case. Its only slight.

Also, when adjusting the break position, it seems to favour towards one side and I cannot get it to stay perfectly centred (difference in the distance between each break pad and the rim) no matter how hard I tighten that centre allen bolt. One side is only slightly closer then the other. Any tighter and I fear I'd damage something, again its only off by a touch. I'll get some pictures of it up tomorrow.

The next step after duct tape, is silicone, LOL. On the brakes, just don't turn 90 degrees, and you should be OK. On the adjustment/centering, I just leave the cable all the ways loose, loosen the fixing bolt (that attaches the caliper to the frame or fork), and then hold the caliper closed against the braking surface on both sides with one hand, & tighten the fixing bolt with the other hand. That takes a little practice, but it's really not as hard as it sounds. You might need to adjust the pads once it's close, then adjust the fixing bolt again, after the pads are dialed in. So yeah, it's almost like doing it twice, but once they're dialed in just right, they'll stop on a dime, with very little effort, so it's worth the time & effort.

lol I was willing to try all sorts of weird things. Beer caps, carved wooden caps, conical washer, I figured the least complicated of the bunch was duct tape lmao…but I may throw a bead of silicone on for good measure

I've run into a small snag that I'll try and sort out later with some penetrating oil. It seams as though after I centre it, and depress the break, one arm doesn't want to fully retract. Its the arm opposite the cable. Now not by much, a a few cm, but thats enough to make it off centre. If I give the arm a slight nudge it pops back to where it should be so I think it could just need some penetrating oil and movement to get it working again.