Are Shimano 11-34 7-speed freewheels gone for good?

On Oct 25, 1:41*am, Chalo wrote:
I recently undertook a search for a new freewheel for a cargo bike I'm
setting up, and much to my dismay it seems that Shimano's 11-34 and
11-28 7-speed freewheels have vanished from the scene. *Other sizes
were looking much scarcer than usual, too.

Does anybody know whether these freewheels or some reasonable
substitutes are going to return to market anytime soon? *I have a lot
of 7-speed freewheel equipped bikes whose wheels are just fine the way
they are, and freehub bodies have a poor life expectancy in my
custody. *I'd rather not revert from 11-34 to 14-28 gearing just to
keep my bikes operational.

Chalo

Nashbar lists a 13-32. IRD also lists a 13-32.

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...A%20Freewheels

http://www.interlocracing.com/freewheels_steel.html

wrote in message
...
On Oct 25, 1:41 am, Chalo wrote:
I recently undertook a search for a new freewheel for a cargo bike I'm
setting up, and much to my dismay it seems that Shimano's 11-34 and
11-28 7-speed freewheels have vanished from the scene. Other sizes
were looking much scarcer than usual, too.

Does anybody know whether these freewheels or some reasonable
substitutes are going to return to market anytime soon? I have a lot
of 7-speed freewheel equipped bikes whose wheels are just fine the way
they are, and freehub bodies have a poor life expectancy in my
custody. I'd rather not revert from 11-34 to 14-28 gearing just to
keep my bikes operational.

Chalo

Nashbar lists its house brand 7 speed freewheel with 13-32. Not
11-34, but pretty close on the low end and the high end doesn't matter
anyway. Unless you're sprinting downhill with a tailwind. IRD also
makes a 13-32 7 speed freewheel.
-----------------

Not exactly. 90 rpm in a 50x13 is 28 mph, in a 50x11 is 33 mph. Big
difference. Lots of use for downhills, especially on a cargo bike.

It's Chris wrote:
What kind of freehub are you using, Chalo? you might try ThirdHand to
see if they have replacement cogs and or bodies that you can piece
together.

I don't use freehubs. Only one of my bikes is so equipped, and it is
out of service with-- you guessed it-- a crunched-up freehub body.
Freehub ratchet pawls necessarily act through a smaller radius than
those of a freewheel, which places them under higher stress. For me,
they break. That one last freehub is a 48 hole unit presumably for
tandem use, and I always used it with a single ring between 36t and
45t, but I still bungled it on a short, steep climb.

Cassettes cost more than freewheels even though they represent a
subset of the parts in a freewheel. That's not a good deal, in my
opinion. The last time I was in the market for a cassette, it seemed
that the price doubled for each additional sprocket in the cluster
(which is a chump beatdown to be discussed at another time).

In the future, when you find a product that suits your need, keep a
weather eye on the market, and stock up at the first sign of trouble for
what you like.

I have years worth of spare BioPace chainrings, UniGlide cogs, tires and
other "Designed for my needs" items that were once available.

I seem to never learn this lesson. I should have stocked up on 11-34
freewheels, 26" Avocet slicks, Sun Rhyno rims, Gusset Jury hubs,
DiaTech freehub bodies, Pro-Stop disc brake pads, Snafu Ultimate
Levers and other 1" brake levers, Revcore Flagpole seatposts,
Bontrager forks, LH/RH threaded hubs, and who knows how many other
useful goodies that have become historical relics. But I always
assume I can buy them any old time until after it's too late.

Chalo

"Chalo" wrote in message
...
It's Chris wrote:
What kind of freehub are you using, Chalo? you might try ThirdHand to
see if they have replacement cogs and or bodies that you can piece
together.

I don't use freehubs. Only one of my bikes is so equipped, and it is
out of service with-- you guessed it-- a crunched-up freehub body.
Freehub ratchet pawls necessarily act through a smaller radius than
those of a freewheel, which places them under higher stress. For me,
they break. That one last freehub is a 48 hole unit presumably for
tandem use, and I always used it with a single ring between 36t and
45t, but I still bungled it on a short, steep climb.

Breaking freehub ratchets is a bummer - shimano hubs aren't up to tandem MTB
use for us. We shall see if the CK one copes.

But I'd not touch a freewheel for the same reason - the torque we put into
it which breaks the pawls would also tighten a freewheel on rather too hard.

Cassettes cost more than freewheels even though they represent a
subset of the parts in a freewheel. That's not a good deal, in my
opinion. The last time I was in the market for a cassette, it seemed
that the price doubled for each additional sprocket in the cluster
(which is a chump beatdown to be discussed at another time).

I just checked one bike shop here : HG50 shimano cassette, 7sp 18 quid, 8sp
18 quid, 9sp 22 quid.

cheers,
clive

On Oct 26, 8:56*am, wrote:
On Oct 25, 1:41*am, Chalo wrote:

I recently undertook a search for a new freewheel for a cargo bike I'm
setting up, and much to my dismay it seems that Shimano's 11-34 and
11-28 7-speed freewheels have vanished from the scene. *Other sizes
were looking much scarcer than usual, too.

Doesn't Harris still stock 11-28?

I remember that they ran out of them about a year and a half ago and
had no ETA. Their site doesn't even mention them now.

On Oct 27, 12:21*pm, "Carl Sundquist" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Oct 25, 1:41 am, Chalo wrote:

I recently undertook a search for a new freewheel for a cargo bike I'm
setting up, and much to my dismay it seems that Shimano's 11-34 and
11-28 7-speed freewheels have vanished from the scene. Other sizes
were looking much scarcer than usual, too.

Does anybody know whether these freewheels or some reasonable
substitutes are going to return to market anytime soon? I have a lot
of 7-speed freewheel equipped bikes whose wheels are just fine the way
they are, and freehub bodies have a poor life expectancy in my
custody. I'd rather not revert from 11-34 to 14-28 gearing just to
keep my bikes operational.

Chalo

Nashbar lists its house brand 7 speed freewheel with 13-32. *Not
11-34, but pretty close on the low end and the high end doesn't matter
anyway. *Unless you're sprinting downhill with a tailwind. *IRD also
makes a 13-32 7 speed freewheel.
-----------------

Not exactly. 90 rpm in a 50x13 is 28 mph, in a 50x11 is 33 mph. Big
difference. Lots of use for downhills, especially on a cargo bike.

You keep telling yourself that.

wrote:

Nashbar lists its house brand 7 speed freewheel with 13-32. Not
11-34, but pretty close on the low end and the high end doesn't matter
anyway. Unless you're sprinting downhill with a tailwind.

We have that exact problem. On a cycling forum we're building a
communal bike from donated parts (it looks better than you might
expect). We had to buy a new freewheel and chain to avoid problems with
it kicking, but the only cheap Hyperglide freewheel we could get is
14-28. The trouble is, we were given a 42-32-22 crankset. Bottom gear
20" (great), top gear 78", which spins out pretty fast downhill.

russellseaton1 wrote:

Chalo wrote:

I'd rather not revert from 11-34 to 14-28 gearing just to
keep my bikes operational.

Nashbar lists its house brand 7 speed freewheel with 13-32. *Not
11-34, but pretty close on the low end and the high end doesn't matter
anyway. *Unless you're sprinting downhill with a tailwind. *IRD also
makes a 13-32 7 speed freewheel.

Most of my bikes have single rings. This is partly because I use BMX
cranks and partly because front derailleurs rank just above chopsticks
in terms of their elegance and effectiveness at shifting chains. If I
assume gearing that gives me a 30" low, then the difference between a
13-32 and an 11-34 is the difference between a 74" top gear and a 93"
top gear. In practice, I can probably make do without a gear in the
80-90" range, but it's still a nice thing to have for running
unladen.

On the other hand, a 13-32 freewheel will feature more uniform steps
between gears instead of a huge jump to the low gear like the Shimano
Mega 7 does. I'd rather have the extra range, but that's not a bad
consolation prize.

Chalo

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:26:29 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Oct 27, 12:21*pm, "Carl Sundquist" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Oct 25, 1:41 am, Chalo wrote:

I recently undertook a search for a new freewheel for a cargo bike I'm
setting up, and much to my dismay it seems that Shimano's 11-34 and
11-28 7-speed freewheels have vanished from the scene. Other sizes
were looking much scarcer than usual, too.

Does anybody know whether these freewheels or some reasonable
substitutes are going to return to market anytime soon? I have a lot
of 7-speed freewheel equipped bikes whose wheels are just fine the way
they are, and freehub bodies have a poor life expectancy in my
custody. I'd rather not revert from 11-34 to 14-28 gearing just to
keep my bikes operational.

Chalo

Nashbar lists its house brand 7 speed freewheel with 13-32. *Not
11-34, but pretty close on the low end and the high end doesn't matter
anyway. *Unless you're sprinting downhill with a tailwind. *IRD also
makes a 13-32 7 speed freewheel.
-----------------

Not exactly. 90 rpm in a 50x13 is 28 mph, in a 50x11 is 33 mph. Big
difference. Lots of use for downhills, especially on a cargo bike.

You keep telling yourself that.

Dear Russell,

I've been plodding along for years with a 53x11.

On the flats up and down the river, I do ~50-65 rpm and 20~25 mph.

On my two-mile downhill, I do 30~50 mph, depending on the wind,
coasting a good deal.

I suppose that I could shift to a lower gear and a higher cadence, but
I'm happy with the 53x11. It's a little like Jobst mashing up climbs
in higher gears than most people use.

I was delighted when I changed from 52x12 to 53x11. Whether it made
any real difference or not, the 53x11 made my downhill _seem_ much
more fun because I wasn't wishing that I could reach for a higher
gear. The point at which I stopped pedaling moved quite a ways down
the hill.

I gather that there's some doubt about whether a higher cadence and a
lower gear (in the range in question) actually produces different
results. Most riders who haven't been told that 90 rpm is de rigeur
settle down to around 60~70 rpm on long rides, but most racers use
higher cadences.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel