JehD

Where I ride I'm either crawling along at 4-5 mph and the 34 tooth 1st and 24 tooth 2nd work pretty well. IF I'm on the pavement and its flatish 3-4-5 work pretty well but if there is a down grade 6-7 just don't seem to be enough so I found this.

DRIFT MANIAC E-Bike Freewheel 7 Speeds 11-28/11-34T Teeth EPOCH

THe Old gear was 34-24. 22-20-18 16-14
New Gear is. 34-24 21-18-15 13-11

This should give me what I want. Ideally maybe an 8 speed would be better but I would need a new shifter as well. It seemed a little pricey vs a Shimano but at $30 not out of he ballbark. Anyone have one of these guys Thoughts, comments criticism?

Discuss.

tallbikeman

I notice your old lowest gear is 14 tooth sprocket. I wonder if you bought the new cassette with the 11 tooth sprocket. I have found that sometimes the smaller sprocket brings the chain closer to the drive side chainstay. This can cause the chain to bounce much more off that chainstay. This gradually knocks the paint off and in the case of an aluminum bicycle can start sawing the chainstay. A lot of derailleur bicycles have some sort of chainstay protector. This is the only caveat I could think of for changing to the smaller sprocket in back. Let us know how it worked out.

JehD

I ended up getting it and its the 11-34. It worked perfectly as there is enough tension in the derailleur to take up the extra slack. If you watch the freewheel it has a little more wobble vs the Shimano but it doesn't effect the shifting at all.

I've ridden it a bit and its quiet and it shifts fine through the entire range without issue.11-34 is quite the spread especially over 7 speeds. I had a Trek DS4 with a 9 speed rear and a triple. Most of the riding I did was in the center ring and having 9 gears was pretty nice. Probably not worth the expense to spec out a 9 speed on a cruiser. In a perfect world with 7 speeds 11 is almost too high so if I could build a freewheel I would prefer 36-32-28-24-20-16-12. It would givee a little lower and a little higher with a more even spread.

Cankles

How's it holding up? I'm considering the 11-28 for a casual road rig in 1x setup. I see no need to spread the drops if I can get 11-28 range on a 7s. 11-34 is probably not necessary for me.

JehD

Its worked really well for me. I like/need the extra low 1st as my knees are bad and the spread for the rest world well. The freewheel is not Shimano quality but I haven't had issues in shifting or had any skipping.

OldCruiser

You can pickup a new rear wheel for around $100 that will take a cassette instead of a freewheel. This would allow you to build that perfect gear combination.
But you’d have to find the right cassettes to disassemble to put back together the way you want .
I wish I could find a reasonable 650b rear wheel that takes cassettes. I’d swap out the one on my Specialized Roll .

restlessswind

Bought one and they work great. My wife has a townie go 7 and the 14t wasn't high enough for the assistance. The 11t really made it all better. Now Radbikes uses them as OEM

Doc_Wui

I installed the 11-28's on two 20" folders, Both bike wore the pawls out around 3000 miles. Mine went first, and when my wife crossed 3K miles the following year, her freewheel started to spin free too. I replaced with a second DNP in both cases. We needed 11T with those tiny wheels.

On the other hand, I still run a 14-28 with a 52T front on my Walmart cruiser.

1983mercian

What shifter/derailleur/chain combination are you folks using for the Drift Maniac 7sp freewheel? I’m thinking of putting a 3x7 set up on an older road bike.

hopperja

The IRD has excellent reviews. I recently got one and I like it so far. I realize it costs way more than what the OP posted, but you get what you pay for.

https://www.interlocracing.com/shop/...-4672#attr=670

JehD

As far as the rear derailleur it was the stock Shimano Deore though its a longer mtb cage design. Shifter wise Its a Shimano rapidfire and it works perfectly.

I don't doubt thats a quality part but the extra teeth - 34 vs 32 in first make a world of difference. I've had no issues with this over the years, its super quiet and shifts well.