How Do Bikes Freewheel

How to upgrade a bicycle from freewheel to freehub and cassette duration.
How do bikes freewheel. If you wore out your sprockets or wanted different gear ratios you could unscrew the cluster and install a new one. Spin the sprockets backwards. This article will review the removal and installation of freewheel systems. This article will show you how to fix a bicycle freehub mechanism that is skipping.
Bicycle freewheel disassembly assembly duration. Remove a bike freewheel. The exterior teeth and ratchet blue are turning counterclockwise while the interior pawl and axle red and yellow are static. I take an old freewheel apart and show you the parts that are inside and talk about how it works.
In 1924 the french bicycle company le cyclo introduced a gear shifting bicycle with a two sprocket freewheel which let riders to go uphill with more ease. Halfway through the direction reverses and the ratchet turns clockwise engaging the pawl which drives the axle and the bike forward. This allowed any brand of freewheel to be mounted on any brand of hub. Almost all bikes made through the late 1980s used this system.
The freewheel is a ratchet a mechanism that allows motion in only one direction. Skipping occurs most often under high loads for example when pedaling out of the saddle. An old style screw on bike freewheel may need to be removed to service the hub bearing to fit a new spoke on the right side of the hub or because the cogs or the freewheel mechanism are worn out. If the tool fittings do not spin with the cogs it is a threaded freewheel system.
In the late 1920s le cyclo began using both front and rear derailleurs in combination with a double chainring giving the bicycle twice as many gears. If the fittings spin with the cogs it is a cassette system with a freehub. Find the tool fitting on the sprocket set. The cogs and ratcheting body assembly called a freewheel threads onto the hub.
A freehub a common hub type for bicycles that uses stacks of sprockets or cassettes the freewheel mechanism is contained within the hub. Rj the bike guy 2 119 955 views. Older bikes may have a large external thread machined into the hub. The ratcheting mechanism comes off with the cogs when the freewheel unthreads for removal.
To determine if a sprocket is a freewheel or cassette system remove the rear wheel from the bike.