gravelinmygears 

When did freewheels switch to the ISO standard? What was the most recent French thread freewheel? Thanks. I'm looking to make a replacement.

pastorbobnlnh 

Maillard continued to make French threaded freewheels into the late 1980s. Do you need a five or six-speed, and in what gearing range?

gravelinmygears 

I currently have a Maillard 5spd 13-22 and would like maybe a 24 or 28. I was hoping to find something modern like the IRD freewheels but I guess that’s not available.

3alarmer

...Suntour made French threaded freewheels, and they show up in the used parts stream here every now and then. I have a couple of French threaded Suntour bodies, but they have no cogs on them at present.

You'd be better off looking for a whole intact used freewheel, but if you cannot find anything, I can send you one. It's just the body, with no cogs. I forget, but I think maybe it's the old style Suntour freewheel that takes the tabbed larger cogs, then two small threaded cogs to hold everything in place. The nice thing abut the Suntour freewheels is that there are a lot of used ones around, so the cogs are more obtainable in various sizes. So it offers a way to customize your freewheel.

If you can find a bike co-op nearby, they usually have a box of takeoffs you can sort through and use. They are usually pretty cheap at co-ops. Ours sells them for a dollar, or two or three.

I'm unaware of anyone making and selling them new. I think French threaded hubs are an endangered species. Pastor Bob is probably your best bet on this.

ehcoplex 

The IRD freewheels are expensive, and at least in my experience, crappy. As suggested above, look for a french-threaded Suntour!

pastorbobnlnh 

I'll be at my storage site during the first week in September and will go on a search for the French threaded freewheels I have available. 3alarmer 's offer for a Metric Suntour Perfect body is very nice and generous! I have a significant collection of Perfect and ProCompe sprockets and spacers.

gravelinmygears post a picture of your current Maillard freewheel. I might have sprockets which fit and will lower your gearing. The nice thing about French threaded freewheels is that the sprockets from their British/ISO or Italian threaded twin cousins, can all fit on each other's bodies. This provides another route to pursue.

jdawginsc 

French thread Atom 77

unworthy1

the most "recent" I'm aware of with FR threads is a Sachs ARIS which was available with 6, 7 and even 8 speeds and maybe thru 1989 (or later).

Caveats: I cannot get into Velobase to confirm any of this (how come?) but I bet pastorbobninh could chime in and would know!

The FR threaded bodies were very rare and seldom seen in USA and could have been discontinued earlier than Brit/ISO threaded versions due to lack of demand.

Plus side: these were nearly "universal" as far as (claimed) being able to index with nearly all the systems available BITD, and certainly with any friction-shifting drivetrain. But IIRC they often needed some fine-tuning at the RD (at least) for that to happen, except maybe when mated to the Sachs system.

Minus side: I'd avoid an 8-speed FW no matter what the brand!

gravelinmygears 

All of this information is so helpful. Thank you. Here is my current freewheel:



Honestly it works fine. I think I would like one more cog but I could ride this forever. I have a triple on the front so plenty of gears. I do have a couple of 80’s Suntour freewheels that I could get cogs from. Is it difficult to change them? Special tools?
Oops. I'm counting 14-26. Ha. It was 13-22 last I looked.

SurferRosa

His security certificate expired. Folks are still using it. For me, I click "advanced" on this page:


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Then click "proceed to Velobase "

gravelinmygears 

I would be interested in finding a Sachs Aris freewheel. Or anything later 80s in 6 or 7 speed. That shouldn't mess things up too much for my Rally derailleur.

juvela

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dentition expanding in the wee hours of the night when no one is about to perceive...

many spouses would argue that frames and cycles do the same thing


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unworthy1

This 5-spd example seems to be an earlier "Sachs-Maillard" iteration before the ARIS innovation (6 to 8-speeds) when all the cogs except for the first had a unique "tooth tip treatment".

Not sure how effective those tooth tips actually were but Sachs believed in them enough to keep making the cogs over many years and thru a couple corporate buyouts.

Finally got into Velobase (Thanks for that tip, SurferRosa!) but could not confirm which came with FR threading or for how long those were "in the catalog", but one poster says:
"These was made till late 1990's and as mentioned was available in 6/7/8 speed configuration. "

unworthy1

They sometimes show up on eBay, but you could try here in C&V with an ISO/WTB post, worth a try.
I doubt I have anything and even less likely with FR threaded body (but I'll take a look).

3alarmer

...all Suntour freewheels are not the same, and all cogs are not universally interchangeable. The earlier ones (and I think my body is one of those....I'd need to dig it out to be certain) took cogs that were tabbed. and slid on without threading on the larger positions, with the two smallest threaded cogs holding everything in place. IN theory, they are not difficult to disassemble, if you have a freewheel vise and a sturdy chain whip with a long lever arm.

In practice, those two threaded cogs are often on there pretty tight, and it takes torch heat to free them up for removal.

But when you say "80's Suntour freewheels", those are usually not the cogs I'm talking about. Again, I'll look for the bodies and dig one out for you. But I wouldn't count on the cogs you have fitting these bodies, which IIRC, are the earlier "Perfect" model. And again, IIRC, these are five cog bodies, not six, if that's important to you.

Once you start taking them apart, there is a bewildering array of Suntour freewheel cogs. They changed the design a lot, over the years.

If the freewheel you have is working well, changing it out is something you'd do more out of curiosity, rather than practical effect. If you're curious about freewheels, find some source of cheap used takeoffs, because the used prices on the internet continue to increase, and the stuff I see for sale seems to have no guarantee that one or more of the cogs will not be worn past its replacement date.

3alarmer

...one is a "Perfect", the other is a "Pro Compe". They take the same cogs I described to you, lower three tabbed, last two threaded on. I honestly do not know the difference between the two, or why they have different model names. They are five cog bodies.

pastorbobnlnh 

Let me just mention that the Perfect and ProCompe bodies are 4-tabbed (as are most other Suntour freewheel models). The bearing quality and the finish on bearing races are the major differences between the Perfect and ProCompe models. ProCompe also usually came with gold colored sprockets.

All the Sachs Aris freewheels I've worked on or handled were all ISO threaded. I've not seen an Aris model with French threads. However, that does not mean they don't exist.

Gravelinmygears, I have worked on that Maillard model. IIRC, some of the Sachs Aris sprockets are interchangeable. Also, you might not have enough rear spacing for a 6 or 7-speed freewheel. Do you know the distance between the rear dropouts?

gravelinmygears 

The rear dropouts 126mm apart.

ehcoplex 

More or less on the subject.... Did the Suntour NWN ever come with French threads?

unworthy1

just as a data point: I found a built wheel which has a 6-speed Sachs Aris FW; It's 13-26 and 99% sure this is ISO/Brit threaded. Also I'm not taking it off or offering to sell cause I like these wheels as-is.
Years back I was doing some deal with a C&Ver who has vanished and we were swapping FR wheels but one of us waited for the other to produce a "good" 6-speed FW with this 13-26 range and FR threads. I never got closure but when I finally got this wheelset together (and not FR threaded) I decided to keep 'em and that unfinished swap was over and DONE. I think he got a nice later FR-threaded Atom (?) 6-speed FW from me, and I got nada.

santa fe 2926 

Lots of French threaded 5 speed freewheels on picclick.Fr I have purchased off French EBay many times, no problem, recommended.

El Chaba

By about 1980, most French bike makers were using British threading for freewheels for all of their export bikes. They kept with French threading for the domestic market for a few more years, but by the mid 80s they had gone to BSC for that as well. As individual components, new hubs and freewheels were available into the late 1980s. These, of course, persisted longer as there was still a need for replacement parts, but everybody could see the direction that French threading was going, especially with components replaced more frequently and not directly mounted on a frame. My experience reflects that of Pastor Bob in that I have never seen a “Sachs” bodied Maillard freewheel in metric threading. I have also never seen a Sun Tour freewheel in metric threading in anything other than the lower level “Perfect” model. I assume that this was because as OEM parts if the bike companies were going to spend more money, they just simply specified Maillard 700…( the king of freewheels, IMHO)

zandoval 

Thanks Guys... I didn't know anything about French Threaded freewheels. Went back to Sheldon and got the beef. Always nice to get more data for that Useless Ship File in the back of my brain. On the old French bikes I have worked with the rims, hubs, and freewheels have been in such bad shape I just replaced them with more modern wheel sets.



https://sheldonbrown.com/freewheels.html

JohnDThompson 

I've only seen SunTour metric freewheels with the 8.8.8. "Perfect" and Pro-Compe bodies. There's nothing wrong with those, and sprockets should be widely available from other 8.8.8 and Pro-Compe freewheels (they use the same sprockets), but you'll be limited to a maximum of six sprockets on the body and a 14T minimum tooth count on the smallest sprocket.

pastorbobnlnh 

Success! I located the French threaded freewheels I had in storage. One Suntour Perfect, several Maillard 5-speed, a Maillard Corse, and an Atom. I was not successful in finding the Simplex freewheel that I remember.

I'll be away until September 8th and will bring these back home. If anyone has need of a French thread freewheel, PM me with your email address and I can send pictures.