"I feel your pain". I had two IRD freewheels fail within a few hundred miles. Both from the same source. But after that, I've had one that's gone well over 1,000 miles without a problem. Not saying that's a lot... just that it is obviously different than my experience with the others. So I'm comfortable with the one I'm using now.
Just so you know, though.... for me, neither failed suddenly or even completely. They just started engaging later than they should have, missing at least one or two opportunities (probably more; I just know they didn't engage as they had been when first mounted). On the first freewheel I kept using it until one time it let me spin the pedals a few times round before it finally engaged. Then I switched to a different one. Very soon thereafter that second freewheel failed to engage properly as I was launching to cross a street with bi- directional oncoming traffic. It was un-unerving enough that I switched that one out as soon as I got home (about a mile away). I've kept both on the theory that there's life in them there cogs and I may be able to transplant them to a proven freewheel body at some point. Is it reasonable to think that a *well-built* freewheel mechanism would outlast at least some of the cogs? Those bearings don't really "bear" a lot. And who knows... even the spacers may be useful. Personally, I'm operating under the belief that the M3 IRD freewheels suffer(ed?) from quality control issues and not necessarily from a fundamentally flawed design. While it seems apparent there have been many many more failures than I would like, it also seems that some people have uniformly good experiences (however rare those may be). So I'm comfortable with the one I have now. For now. If it does fail similarly to the others, I'm going to have to find a way to use some other brand. I tried one of the Shimanopore freewheels from RBW, but it didn't fit properly in my drivetrain. It looked like the Harris Cyclery website's suggestion of a spacing washer might make it work just fine. But I'm not going to bother to find out until I have a problem again. I will soon be faced, though, with getting a new rear wheel for a new bike. I haven't really decided whether I'm going to go with the IRD- specific Phil freewheel hub or whether I'll go with the (what I presume to be) "standard" Phil freewheel hub. If I understand correctly, the spacing on the latter would probably allow the Shimanopore freewheel to fit my frame without finagling, at the cost of increasing the dish somewhat. I haven't investigated how much it increases it. (If anybody knows, I'd love to know too!) If it increases it to near cassette levels... well, then I'd probably say goodbye to freewheels entirely. My *main* reason for using them in the first place was that the near-dishless nature made the wheel more robust than a cassette wheel (now... discuss! :)). Distantly secondarily, the front-wheel-ish simplicity of the rear wheel per se appeals to me also; a freehub seems inelegantly relatively complicated. (Again... discuss! :)) (I gave no thought to bikes until cassettes were already the norm; the appeal may not make sense. But it isn't born of retro-grouchy nostalgia.) Oh, and I prefer quill stems primarily because they look better. Way better. Yours, Thomas Lynn Skean On Jun 7, 12:43 pm, Minh <mgiangs...@gmail.com> wrote: > Man i think i'm freaked out enough now by these IRD failures that i > need to swap out the one that i have on my SH before my next camping > trip... > > On Jun 7, 12:47 pm, james black <chocot...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > > On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 03:35, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > > > On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 20:43 -0700, james black wrote: > > >> Why must we dump our freewheels, a technology which in my experience > > >> has always performed flawlessly as intended, just because freehubs > > >> make for better engineering? > > > > One reason might be that freewheels NEVER "performed flawlessly". > > > I understand the advantages of cassettes, but let me emphasize the "in > > my experience" part of my statement above - I have used freewheels for > > years personally without any problems. Freehubs may work better, but > > freewheels have worked pretty well too, at least if you can avoid the > > factors that lead to problems (like crap IRD freewheels, axle-bending > > wide spacing, heavily loaded bikes, etc.). > > > There is also a question of economy. Obviously choosing a Phil or > > White freewheel hub and new IRD freewheels is not a bargain choice; > > but for us bottomfeeders it is still very easy and inexpensive to > > acquire a decent freewheel hub and functional freewheel (either an > > older Suntour or a new production Shimano). I would generally spend > > more on a freehub setup than I would on a freewheel setup (which I > > would choose without reservation if I were equipping, for example, a > > bike with 120mm dropouts and a five-speed cogset). > > > James Black -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. 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