My neighbor bought a 2010 Trek 2nd district (chain-drive), last week. He sideswiped lady in his car and needed fast cash so I bought it from him. This is my first single speed. When I flip it over on its back and spin the rear wheel, there's enough friction to back-wind the cranks. Is this normal. I think it's a Shimano freewheel..dunno. The bike is all stock so it's whatever came with it. I plan on flushing it with WD40 to melt out the old grease and then spinning Mobil, Vactra 2 Through it.
any help would be appreciated

wat.






Sorry, I can't contribute anything productive here.

Those all sound like horrible ideas. Search "chain tension", "chain maintenance", "bicycle grease", "bicycle lube". Then I want a 500 word paper explaining why using motor oil on your bike is bad.

[strike]By the way, a bike in a car accident could be severely screwed up and look completely normal. Take it to a LBS for them to look over before riding.[/strike]EDIT: Reading comprehension fail. Finals week.

it's the freewheel, shimano freewheels are bad. i've been riding one on my cross bike that does the same thing. it's not a huge issue.

spraying wd40(a penetrant) at a bike is almost always the wrong idea. you want to uninstall the freewheel, degrease it, and then repack it with GREASE, not oil.

why were you going to put car oil in a bike part? oil leaks right out and then doesn't do it's job. grease stays where you want it.

and you forgot the most important part of the story...


did the sideswiped lady died?

Is your chain to tight?

I use oil in my freewheels. 5w30, Tri-Flow, something like that.

Factory freewheel grease is a very low tack grease, dunno what a readily available similar product would be.

Isn't finals week the exact wrong time for that to happen?

At least I wasn't strung out on heroin, amirite?

too soon

Yeah, it was totally inappropriate. I was fighting with my wife at the time and I'm really stressed out about finals.

Sorry jimmytango.

The sideswiped lady lived but he broke her windshield and ruined both driverside doors on both cars.
I Put the freewheels in the utrasonic tank under stoddard solvents for 3 min. Then filled her up with Vactra 4. Now its dreamy. Exxon-Mobil makes all sorts of Petroleum products not just car oil...in fact I'd bet some, if not most, "Bicycle" oils are rebadged&rebranded industrial lubricants marked up to be sold in smaller containers....Car oil...hmphh!

I prefer to use WD40 for cleaning out old lubricants because it doesn't leave the metals totally dry like true solvents (MEK, Lacquer thinner, etc.) it's not ideal but if not for cleaning I see no real use for WD40

For the uninformed; Vactra 2 and 4 are machine way oils. Way bars are the precision ground bars on which machine tools move their tables/spindles They are one of the most important parts of a machine tool!!! see below for a cutaway of a way bar and its saddle.
If these weren't protected from water based emulsion coolants or well lubricated your your parts come out schleckt and the machine would be, for all intensive purposes, Garbage.

If you don't yet own a quart or 5gal of way oil BUY SOME!!! given it's not for everything (Vactra 4 has very limited uses because it's SOOO sticky) you'll love it.
Greases usually are packed to keep water off the bearing surfaces or where an oil bath wouldn't hold ( High pressure areas,overheads&strange casting pockets as well as outdoor or open bath areas) and lubricates only after the part(s) in question have heated sufficiently to to melt a portion of the grease into a heavy oil.

CC700, your right but the shimano wheels!, rode a white ind. freewheel and it was much smoother, maybe less paws? dunno. But the Shimano is creamy smooth now so no need to change it out.

I'd never encountered a non-trials freewheel this stiff before, didn't know if it was the status quo for single speeds?
Thanks for what little useful input there was...I really appreciate you guys Not jumping to conclusions and assuming I was a Total jackoff (that's right ddeadserious I'm looking at you)