IIRC Sun Tour (?) once offered a 14x38 freewheel. The problem with huge range freewheels and cassettes is that they have big gaps between adjacent gears and even 10 and 11-speed cassettes can't compensate. The simplicity of a single chainring gets compromised by lack of intermediate gears. You can't have it both ways
My first "good" bike was a 1985 Bridgestone 400 with a 14x32 6-speed Sun Tour freewheel and a 52/42 SR double crank. The freewheel was 14,16,20,24,28,32. Note the huge gap between the 16 and 20T cogs. I redid the crank as a half-step (46/42) to fill in those gaps but lost too much on top. .
Last edited by HillRider; 02-15-13 at 09:46 AM.