nels@astrovax.UUCP (Nels Anderson) (08/26/84)
Could anyone clue me in as to the sort of cleaning and lubrication required, if any, by a freewheel? Thanks. Nels Anderson
reid@Cascade.ARPA (08/28/84)
Take the freewheel off the bike and clean it in a good solvent. Some people like kerosene. I used to use lead-free gasoline, but I have recently switched to using carburetor cleaner, which is an outrageously caustic chemical that you can buy in any auto parts store. It works better than gasoline or kerosene. After you clean it you will have to relubricate it. Fanatics relubricate freewheels by taking them apart. I relubricate them by using a little grease injector made by Phil Wood, which forces grease in through the bearings from the back. The grease injector costs $22.50, which is about the same as a new freewheel. If you don't want to buy an injector and you don't want to ake it apart, then use a good teflon spray lubricant and spray liberally on the back, near the threads, trying to encourage the lubricant to get down into the mechanism. As long as your hands are dirty, clean your chain too. Chains pick up a lot of dirt and transfer it to the freewheel. Brian Reid Stanford
jans@mako.UUCP (Jan Steinman) (08/29/84)
> After you clean it you will have to relubricate it. Fanatics relubricate > freewheels by taking them apart. I relubricate them by using a little > grease injector made by Phil Wood, which forces grease in through the > bearings from the back. This, incidentally, makes for an extremely quiet freewheel, great for midnight raids and such without the "buzz... buzz..." normally emitted by freewheels. However, if you live (and ride) in a cold climate, don't try this method. The grease sets up below about 40^F, adhering the pawls. The freewheel then free wheels while you're trying to pedal, turning the most efficient locomotion device into an inefficient stationary exercise device! For cold climates, stick with lighter lubricants, such as the teflon one mentioned in the referenced article. -- :::::: Jan Steinman Box 1000, MS 61-161 (w)503/685-2843 :::::: :::::: tektronix!tekecs!jans Wilsonville, OR 97070 (h)503/657-7703 ::::::
rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (08/31/84)
>Take the freewheel off the bike and clean it in a good solvent. Some people >like kerosene. I used to use lead-free gasoline,... PLEASE let's try to spread the word on this. DO NOT EVER, under ANY circumstances, use gasoline for cleaning. It is more dangerous than you can possibly imagine. Look, the stuff is MADE to blow up; why do you think we use it to run engines? -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...I'm not cynical - just experienced.
reid@Cascade.ARPA (09/02/84)
> PLEASE let's try to spread the word on this. DO NOT EVER, under ANY > circumstances, use gasoline for cleaning. It is more dangerous than you > can possibly imagine. Look, the stuff is MADE to blow up; why do you think > we use it to run engines? > -- Actually, gasoline is less dangerous than many of the substitute solvents. There is a fairly narrow range of air/fuel ratios in which it is explosive. Naturally it needs to be used outdoors, away from electrical sparks and flames, but all solvents need this. Many brands of cleaning solvent that you can buy in automotive stores contain pentane (wildly explosive), cresylic acid (extremely toxic), ethlyene chloride (rampant carcinogen), acetone (wildly explosive), etc. etc. Gasoline can be handled properly and safely. Its biggest danger is probably that people don't treat it with respect because it is such a common chemical. One of the perverse laws of nature is that more volatile chemicals make better cleaning solvents. They dissolve more things and they evaporate faster. Brian Reid Stanford
fred@varian.UUCP (09/04/84)
The previous author on freewheel maintenence makes several
statements that beg for comment:
(1) Kerosene, gasoline and carburator cleaner are not
the best materials for de-greasing bike parts. Esp.
the carb cleaner if its "outrageously caustic" (I
assume you mean "caustic" in the usual sense of
ability to erode material). Many freewheels and
other parts use plastic components that may be
damaged by a caustic cleaner. Look instead for
degreasing solvents. These are non-flamable,
chlorinated hydrocarbons and are sold in large
hardware stores. They are *expensive* but a little
goes a long way. They also evaporate without
residue (unlike kerosene or gas).
(2) I too have seen the grease injector from Phil Wood
and really question its utility. Freewheels should
be lubricated with light oil and frequently, not just
for a once -a-year cleaning. If you have ever disassembled
a freewheel you would see that the very tiny bearings and
races are not appropriate candidates for grease lubrication.
Also grease can clump large bits
of dirt that can jam the pawls and make the freewheel
either too "free" or give you an instant track bike.
I've been training hard
and racing bikes for 12 years so my freewheels take
alot of torture. I've had a couple of the freewheel
bodies for 10 years and have always used light oil only, but
frequently. (Tri-Flow is my current lubricant)
(3) On the issue of disaaembly: there's really no need to
disassemle a freewheel for routine cleaning unless its
sticky or jammed. Even under those circumstances a sonic
cleaner, if you have access to one, may loosen the dirt.
If you do want to disassemble the freewheel, get the
appropriate spanner from your local bike shop to remove
the adjustable cup. In some cases you may have to remove
one or more cogs, also. Its probably not worth it, since,
as noted, you can have an all new freewheel for $25.
Fred Klink
Varian Instruments
2700 Mitchell
Walnut Creek, CA
94598reid@Cascade.ARPA (09/10/84)
> The previous author on freewheel maintenence makes several > statements that beg for comment: > >(1) Kerosene, gasoline and carburator cleaner are not the best materials > for de-greasing bike parts....Look instead for degreasing solvents. I've been a serious amateur bike mechanic for 16 of my 34 years, and I've tried everything, and carburetor cleaner works the best for cleaning a freewheel that you are not going to disassemble. Its chemicals are caustic to skin, but not to metal or plastic. As a matter of fact, it comes in a metal can with a plastic lid. If anybody wants to get into a disagreement about this I will happily go dig out my organic chemistry reference works and post descriptions of the solvents used in these various cleaners and let people judge for themselves. I have done a lot of research on the issue of solvents, and spent many hours studying the chemistry of them, and I have come to the conclusion that carburetor cleaner works the best of any commercially-available preformulated solvent. >(2) I too have seen the grease injector from Phil Wood > and really question its utility. ... I've been training hard > and racing bikes for 12 years so my freewheels take alot of torture. I've > had a couple of the freewheel bodies for 10 years and have always used > light oil only, but frequently. (Tri-Flow is my current lubricant) Ah, we are back to what I think of as The Classic Problem with bicycling information, namely that bicycle racers dominate the information available in the literature. There is so much more to bicycle enjoyment than bicycle racing; bicycle racing is not for everyone. I will grant that bicycle racing places heavy demands on bicycles, and that the technological advances in bicycle engineering have been motivated almost exclusively by demands from the racing (or loaded touring) community. But there are millions of people out there who don't get their jollies out of racing bicycles (as you do) or out of fixing bicycles (as I do), but out of riding them around. If I were maintaining a racing bicycle I would lubricate its freewheel with Tri-flow (teflon in aromatic solvents). I would also not clean the freewheel of a racing bicycle in carburetor cleaner, I would take it apart, clean the pieces in my ultrasonic cleaner, wash them in acetone, dry them, spray them with Tri-flow, reassemble them, and wipe the excess tri-flow off the freewheel with a cloth dipped in acetone. I would do this once every few weeks. But I want the bicycle that I ride to work, that I bomb around town in, that I go for bagels and Chinese food on, to be as maintenance-free as possible. I want to lubricate the freewheel and then forget it for a year. In my first article on this topic I made the assumption that anybody who needed to ask how to clean a freewheel was not a bike racer but a bike user, so I didn't tell him how to prepare a racing freewheel, I told him how to do a low-maintenance easy-effort cleaning job on a commuting freewheel. I've had my Phil Wood grease injector for about a year now; I've probably injected 100 freewheels with it. Most of them belong to friends, to Stanford people who bring their bikes to my periodic bike clinics, etc. I haven't heard a single complaint so far. I was glad to hear from the respondent who lived in Oregon who told me that Phil Wood grease gets unacceptably viscous in the winter, because we don't have any winter around here and I've never discovered that. Brian Reid, Stanford
fred@varian.UUCP (Fred Klink) (09/14/84)
Two brief comments for Brian Reid at Stanford:
(1) Not being a rank amateur on solvents myself (I'm an analytical
chemist), a "degreaser" which is usually tri- or tetra-chloroethane
still seems to make more sense for the commuter-type cyclist use
than an agent that you admit is "caustic to skin". I'd be glad to
further discuss solvent chemistry with you some time.
(2) There are a number of items, likes cars, tape decks and VCR's
that users would like to take care of once and then not "worry with"
for a year. Unfortunately, my experience is that the world usually
doesn't work that way for these items or for bicycles.
Fred Klinkwunder@wdl1.UUCP (wunder ) (09/20/84)
My Suntour "Perfect" freewheel once came unscrewed, dropping all of its 1/8" bearings on the pavement. I bought some new ones, smeared everything with Gunslick, and reassembled it. It was astoundingly quiet when freewheeling. The chain meshing with the spockets made more noise than the freewheel ratchet. In fact, I had to buy a bicycle bell to warn pedestrians (I used to just coast for a moment). Naturally, the bell rattles, so I never have to actually ring it. Anyway, the freewheel is still (three years later) in fine shape, although the ratchet now makes a little noise, instead of none. Not bad for Suntour's cheapest freewheel. Gunslick is a light grease that is packed full of graphite. A small tube will cost you fifty cents at a gun store or hardware store, lots cheaper than the Phill Wood thingo. It is a really neat lubricant for all kinds of weird objects (Kept a hamster wheel quiet for 5 years worth of hamsters with one application). wunderwood