balindamood

I know this battle has been fought and won/lost 20 years ago, but here is my situation.

I have an '85 touring bike which I use in the summer for a variety of un-supported (i.e. fully loaded) excursions. Though the 36-spoke sealed Sansin hubs/27" Araya rims are fine (approx 12000 miles), it is time for me to move to 700C (which fit even better than fat 27's). I have two options:

1). Relace the existing rims and re-lace the freewheel rear hub to some NOS Super Champion 700C rims which I have been holding onto for this project...or:

2). Relace the front, but swap the rear wheel for a NOS 40-spoke Deore XT / Wolber Mod 58 rear wheel that uses a 7-speed free-hub I built this fall, also as a canidate for this project. (yes, both are rather rare ducklings)

I have used freewheels for years (upgrade from 6 to 7 speeds), but they are getting increasingly hard to find, particularly in touring ranges. However, I am not sure how a free hub will compare. 7-Speed clusters, though not easy to find, can be easily made. Anyone have any strong opinions one way or another??

redxj

7 speed Freewheels and cassettes are still made today and are easy to find. That should not be a deciding factor. A quick look at QBP's catalog lists 7 seven speed Shimano Cassettes and only 3 seven speed freewheels. The main difference is going to be overall strength of the rear wheel. A freehub wheel is stronger with the bearing evenly spaced on the axle. I have seen a huge amount of bent or completely broken axles on a freewheel hub (I work at a LBS), and zero broken axles of a freehub wheel. I vote go for the stronger setup of the 40 spoke Deore XT to Wolber wheel.

nun

I generally agree, but 7 speed freewheel isn't as bad as 8. If you want nice freewheels check out those made by IRD

cycle_maven

If your frame is steel, you might have to cold-set the frame to get the new hub to fit in the dropouts- XT hubs are 135 spacing and your freewheel hub is 126 mm. If your frame is aluminum, stay with the freewheel.

rodar y rodar

+1 Steel frames are very easy to respace- I did mine following Sheldon`s instructions in about a half hour. Never tried aluminum, but the word is to leave it alone.

If it were me, I`d just get a whole new wheelset with freehubs. You can use the same wheels on another bike later if you keep the originals. Yeah, there are still freewheels available and they work well if you can find one in the range you want, but there are so many 8 and 9 speed cassettes easilly available for all kinds of ranges that I see no reason not to go that route. Personally, I`d shy away from 40h unless you really need a super tough wheel because ofrim availability. There are more 40h choices for 700 than there are for 26", but I had such a devil of a time replacing the 40h rims on our 26in tandem that it really makes me leery of using them where they can be avoided.

escii_35

Heh,

Walk into a big box store and check out all the 7 speed free's. I can see why they get a bad rap now days. Myself I went with a phil 7 speed freewheel. Phil bling for 160 bucks vs 400+ for a free hub. Every day I look at the wheel and chuckle boutique hub and rim with walmart gears.

12-28 x 48-36-24 for gearing is fine with me.