avhed

Found a close ratio 8 speed freewheel in steel for my early 80s bike.It has a 34.5 mm stack height.
Been hoping for a long time for something other than the Maillard/Sachs/Aris of the 90s. Really like the cog sizes and happy with the chrome look over a vintage look.
Not a high end product from Taiwan, but will settle for this 437 gram freewheel.
Can anyone give me any info on the Golden Sun. Like how long its been made? Does it take a standard ring tool? How will this be for friction shifting? Six speed body? Teeth do not appear to be align like a cassette is for HyperGlide Shifting?


Is the Sachs good for friction shifting with a better cog profile. The Sachs looks of better quality and is only 410 grams.

The Regina Extra is heavy at 490 grams.
The America version in a 13-23 is still heavy at 467.


The Marchisio above is 12-21 @ 379 grams from Italy but I do not know if you can get it in a English thread. Basic cog profile like other Italian freewheels.
The finest may be the Dura-ace MF-7400, weighing in around the Marchisio. Its has twisted teeth for the best old school shifting weight,but it only has an 11 or 12 teeth bottom instead of a 13 I have on the Golden Sun.

seypat

Have the mods move this to C & V or repost your question there. That will get you a response.

Siu Blue Wind

Moved per op request.

clubman 

Looks like a recent product out of China, I don't recall one mentioned on the forum. You may be giving the first review on C&V so get out there and ride hard!

dddd

Not too many will be looking for an 8s freewheel. Shimano's and Suntour's only went to 7s, their 8s clusters were cassettes.

Looks like you found a 13-24t 8-speed, which appears to use the Shimano-style remover tool.

The modern-style cog teeth shapes may cause periodic ghost-shifting when used with friction levers.

davester

Do you have any info on the stack height? 6- and 7-speed freewheels that require 126 mm OLD spacing constitute a significant axle breakage risk due to the location of the drive-side bearings so far inboard. If the 8-speed is even wider it is going to make things even worse.

JohnDThompson 

Yow. It's been years since my children moved out of our home, but the first thing that popped into my head reading the thread title was this:


N.B. @davester's caution above is spot-on. 8-sprocket clusters are one of the reasons we now use freehubs instead of freewheels. Personally, I don't like anything more than a 6-speed freewheel on my bikes.

pastorbobnlnh 

On one bike I friction shift an 8 speed HG cassette and on another a 9 speed HG, both with barend shifters, and don't really have any issues. The 9 speed is a close ratio, IIRC 11-24. The 8 speed is a wide ratio, IIRC 12-32.

You are only talking less than one once of difference in weight between the Sun and the Sachs Aris, so really of no difference.

I've never worked on a Sun (I have worked on Sunrace freewheels). I've serviced 100+ Sachs Aris freewheels (7 and 8 speed models) which have one big difference between them and other freewheels of the 1990s: They use plastic bearing cages which double as seals to keep external contamination from entering the inner body. The seals work really well until someone tries to dig them out with a tiny jeweler's screwdriver or other pointy tool.

The bearing cages/seals also prevent a person from using the "flush and dribble" method of servicing freewheels. Now there is a small hole in the side of the body which can be accessed when all the sprockets are removed. The hole is above the ratchet teeth (IIRC) allowing the flush and dribble method to be used.

However! Heed this warning! Sachs used this hole to inject grease into the freewheel at the time of manufacture. IMO they used too much grease and the type of grease used back in the early '90s has not aged well over the course of the past 25-30 years. It turns into and looks like something akin to rancid peanut butter. This is why many buyers of NIB Sachs Aris end up with an initially inoperable freewheel. I've had Sachs Aris freewheels in the Spa where the owner tried flush and dribble through the hole and it did not work because of the nature of the Sachs grease.

The freewheel needs to be opened up and all that old solidified, imbedded in the pawls and ratchet teeth grease needs to be removed. Once done, and the original grease is replaced (IMO) with synthetic grease, you have one of the best freewheels ever made.

SurferRosa

"Significant," huh?

davester

One person's "significant" is another person's "insignificant." Freehubs were invented because this problem existed, so I would say there's some significance to it.

From a personal perspective, I've been using 6- and 7-speed freewheels for about 20 years. In that time, I've probably broken 5 rear axles, all on the drive side at the inner edge of the cone, usually after riding a pretty rough road. That seems pretty significant to me. I've never broken a 5- or Ultra-6 axle despite many more years of use.

ThermionicScott 

For whatever reason, a lot of e-bikes use threaded rear hubs, leading to a second life for 8+ speed freewheels. They didn't ask us if that was a good idea.

SurferRosa

If it's a significant problem, I'd think there would be more c&v forum threads on the subject. There are relatively none here about it in comparison with what we usually see.

top506

Yes.
I replace several axles a year on low-end ATBs with 130/135mm freewheel hubs.

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SurferRosa

There's not much of that here in c&v. It's probably 95 percent 120-126mm.

top506

Yes, thank you.
Having been here for the past 15 years I am well aware of what constitutes "C&V".
The issue of freewheel hubs greater than 120mm remains.

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