flyfisherbob

I am working on a build, and the bike came with campy sheriff star hubs and a six speed freewheel. If I keep the hubs, the wheels will need to be rebuilt, as some previous owner had them radial laced with aero spokes. My understanding is that the allow freewheel is not one of campy's best efforts. Can I fit another, more durable, freewheel on the hub? Or, is the threading incompatible with other manufacturers?

Thanks,
Bob

Choke 

Yes, you can fit another freewheel you just need to make sure that the threading matches. The hub should be marked with the threading.

noglider 

No, you don't even need to worry about the threading. I'd bet they never made that hub in French threading. It is probably English threaded, though there is a small chance it is Italian threaded. If the latter, it's close enough. Really.

icepick_trotsky 

English freewheels fit just fine on Italian threaded hubs. You won't even notice the difference, I bet. Get a modern freewheel from Shimano (or Sunrace if you can't stand the logos). The ramped/pinned cogs make any friction derailleur shift like a dream.

gaucho777 

I'm going to be the contrarian. People are correct that Italian and English FWs are "nearly" identical, but they aren't exactly the same. The prevailing wisdom is that you can use an English FW on an Italian hub, and vice-versa, but you don't want to constantly interchange them. If this were almost any other hubset, I would agree to use whatever FW you have. Since we're talking about sheriff star hubs, however, I recommend preserving the original threads.

flyfisherbob

In that case, is there an Italian threaded freewheel to replace the alloy campy one. An added benefit would presumably be not having to find a freewheel tool, which seems to be rare as a unicorn.

gaucho777 

Do you know for certain it's Italian? Is the FW marked as such? Campagnolo put grooves into their Record hubs to designate threading (no grooves=Italian, 1 groove=English, 2 grooves=French, iirc) but I'm not sure if they did that as well with the C-Record era/sheriff star hubs.

Drillium Dude 

Lots of options out there on Ebay regarding freewheels, Italian-threaded or otherwise. And I'd bet my bottom dollar you could fund at least 4 or five steel versions simply by selling off your Campy alloy freewheel!

DD

gaucho777 

As DD says, you can find Italian freewheels on ebay, though the NOS ones usually have a very high BIN price. Boulder Bicycle had a batch of Italian Regina freewheels for sale early this year (I bought one), but they appear to have been sold out. Sometimes they have stock not on their website, so it wouldn't hurt to send them an inquiry. Or maybe @pastorbobnlnh, the resident freewheel refurbisher & guru, has one for sale?

Btw, what's the gear range on the Campagnolo FW? I've been on the market for an alloy FW with a low cog in the 25-26 range for a weight weenie project. If you don't intend to use your Campagnolo FW and are willing to part with it I'd be interested in taking it off your hands.

JohnDThompson 

My experience with the Campagnolo freewheel is that their aluminum cogs wear better than other manufacturers' aluminum cogs, but they still wear more easily than steel cogs. The freewheel itself is well designed and sturdy, but it does require a special remover with helical prongs. Many Campagnolo freewheels you see these days have damaged remover slots from using the wrong tool; depending on the extent of the damage, this can make removal difficult.

But that said, I'd be more concerned about the radial spokes on those "sheriff-star" hubs than the freewheel. Those hubs are particularly prone to break with radial spoking, and it may be that the flanges are already damaged.

Choke 

The sheriff star hub that I owned was clearly marked as to the threading. It also said "British" on it.

delicious

+1 don't try to remove the freewheel without the proper tool!

flyfisherbob

You guys are amazing! This bike is really turning into a learning experience. So far, and in no particular order.

The hub is British threaded
Gears are 13-24 six speeds
Once I found that my "standard" two prong freewheel tool did not fit correctly, I quit trying. (I was the kid that was always breaking stuff)
Doing some basic interweb research put me onto the problem with radial spoking these hubs, so one short shakedown ride was it. I found the research via a blog from a guy that blogs under the handle "retrogrouch". Is this our own forum retrogrouch?
I had one of "the" local retro shop owners look at the wheels, and he saw no problems. Unless there some very tiny flaws, I think they were shut down before any damage.

The shop owner is working up some options for the bike, and I am waffling back and forth to keep relatively original, or to upgrade as much as I can. I would like indexed shifting, but this seems to only be an option if I drop the campy rd and possibly freewheel. The delta brakes will go, and be replaced with sidepulls, possibly campy. I will need downtube shifters no matter what, as the originals were replaced by old bar end gripshifters (ugly and poor shifting).

Bob

Choke 

Obviously it's your bike and you can do as you please but I wouldn't be so quick to ditch the Deltas. IMO they're good brakes when set up properly and with a pad change. You can fit the newer style holders/pads to Deltas, both the Record and CdA version, without doing any changes except possibly adding another thin washer. You can even use the original flat head bolts which hold the pads on. That change makes a big difference.

JohnDThompson 

The Bicycle Research CT-9 is the most affordable remover tool for this freewheel



Campagnolo Freewheel Remover

jiangshi

Good luck finding one.

smontanaro 

Wow, was the PO trying to break them?

Regarding freewheels, check the Boulder Bicycle website. I just got email from them yesterday about an upcoming big sale of NOS Regina freewheels. Hit this page, then scroll to the bottom.

Last ride 76 

Sure, Everest and Regina both made steel, to stay Italian themed, or Suntour made arguably the best of the time to stay period correct.

I'll be happy to trade you...
Nice to have 1st world problems
Cheers, Eric