Re: Replace SunTour freewheel w/ Shimano?



R

Ryan Cousineau

Guest
In article <[email protected]>,
"Garrison Hilliard" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Strayhorn <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >So the base question is whether this new 7-speed freewheel would replace
> >the older SunTour 6-speed. I'm guessing the wheels are Weinmann or
> >Araya, those seem to be the usual choices for Raleigh.

>
> It won't work if your derailleurs are indexing... SunTour and Shimano used
> different widths between the cogs back then. Now, the real question is
> whether the NEW SunTour freewheels are Shimano-compatible or not!


How new? Suntour, in some iteration did produce some Shimano-compatible
freewheels, but the revived SR Suntour company only seems to make an 8v
freewheel:

http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/standard.xml?vpID=18

I am quite confident that this freewheel conforms to Shimano 8v indexing
specs.

SunRace produces 7- and 8-speed freewheels which are explicitly listed
as Shimano-compatible:

http://www.sunrace.com/productpage.asp?prodLine=M42&category=freewheels

Both of these companies incorporate Hyperglide-like shifting ramps and
Sunrace even offers "Megadrive", a 13-34 7-speed freewheel that imitates
the Shimano Megarange (one really big granny cog) concept.

None of this stuff is rocket science. Grab a 7-speed freewheel and try
it out. In the worst case, you will have to add 6 mm of spacers to the
axle, but I bet it just works. If you need to do so, the 3 mm of spread
required on the frame can be made to happen by either properly
cold-setting the rear triangle, or by just resigning yourself to
slightly spreading the frame by hand every time you insert the rear
wheel. I do this with my Pinarello to go from 126 mm to 130 mm spacing.
That's easier than going from 120-126, but 126-130 is very easy to do.

--
Ryan Cousineau, [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com
Verus de parvis; verus de magnis.
 

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