Freewheel death: thoughts about compatibility, marketing and the industry's path dependence

The gear race wars of the late 80's early 90's was not a thing of accidental coincidence.  With the "advent" (although going as far back as early 19th century) of index shifting we saw a seemingly unanimous, industry wide adoption of numerous iterations of 6 and 7 speed indexing drivetrains.  From Campagnolo to Sachs and Shimano to Suntour; the message was sent with enough conviction to convince nearly anyone that not only was friction shifting dead, but was the freewheel just as well.  If you wanted to "upgrade" moving forward you were now effectively dictated to a completely new series of standards; each company more or less adopting its own spline patters, pull rates, cog and rear wheel spacing requirements.  Campy would no longer work with Shimano and Sachs no longer with Suntour.  No longer could the DIY mechanic piece together a fluidly functioning bicycle with the bits and pieces in their toolboxes.  Gone were the days where small local bike shops could function without a dealer account with either Shimano or Campagnolo.  The industry wide push toward index shifting was not remotely just about indexing shifting, but moreover about consumer marriage, maintaining the illusion of perceived technological supremacy, planned obsolescence and a subsequently direct trajectory of path dependence.  There was much more money to be made and our drivetrains were the next best and most lucrative thing since the early fitness/green induced 70's bike boom and the dawn of the safety bicycle.

 the 6 speed SIS push triggered the beginning of the end for freewheel production

Some history

Heavy, slow-shifting, obsolete: perhaps thoughts that come to the mind's of many when the word freewheel is uttered in a non-historical context.  Stigmatized into a lesser category of bike antiquity, the freewheel is well seen as a relic-like object in cycling's lexicon.  There is no question that the freewheel realistically began to die off  in the early 90's; forever relegated with the behemoth index/freehub sales inertia that had the big component manufactures never looking back.  Companies like Sachs were the last to hold out into the late 1990's with freewheel production in the struggle against complete obfuscation.  Eventually it became commonplace to find freewheels outfitted on primarily "entry level" and "fitness" bikes that lined the lower tiers of bike shops and department stores.  Only iconoclasts and traditionalists were said to hold onto their freewheel drivetrains and wheels. 

The race toward the "more gears are better" attitude (that exists in an even stronger form to this day) acted as the primary catalyst in the dissolution of the freewheel/friction drivetrain.  With commonly maintained perceptions that freewheels offered racers (and in turn copycat would-be-racer consumers) an inadequate edge due to their lack of ramped/profiled teeth, lower gear count, and ever-so-slightly higher overall weight; what stood as an industry staple for well over 100 years faded into periphery seemingly overnight.  With the now well instilled rational that upgrading to the freehub/cassette and index shifter/derailleur is a must; we began to see the boneyards of bike shops littered with freewheels, freewheel hubs and pre-index compatible derailleurs.  Suddenly decades worth of reliable take off kit that was often better made, more reliable and ultra serviceable was now ultra acquirable.  Next to no one any longer cared for these amazingly long lasting and beautiful parts as they began making their way into the hands of  classic/vintage/retro/DIY bike lovers for pennies on the dollar.  Garage sales, bike swaps, shop boneyards and eventually Ebay hosted what I am guessing (purly spectulation here) might have been the height of used bicycle component sales.

One common bit of industry rhetoric for these quick "upgrades" was that axle breakage occurred due to excessive outboard bearing load and was a prominent factor in many ditching their old freewheel/friction systems.  Although Phil, Bullseye, American Classic, Mavic and others solved this problem as early as the the late 70's with their larger axle diameters and cartridge bearings, one has to question if this was ever really a common issue on pre-7/8 speed freewheel hubs in the first place.  Many career mechanics that I have spoken with throughout the years recall that freewheel axle failures began to occur mostly in conjunction with the gear count hike that followed index shifting.  Innumerable are the bicycles I have seen with 5/6 speed freewheels that have been heavily ridden and still continue to see miles to this day.  From my personal experience as a mechanic as well as many other peers of mine, we usually see only the heavily abused 7/8 speed freewheels on cheap-alloy, threaded-axles suffer from the dreaded fatigue induced cracking.

image from restoringvintagebikes writing about how most freewheels can be overhauled, often new and old.

Why still use the freewheel

With all this having been said the question still begs; why still use freewheels?  More times than I can remember I have answered this question in person which like so many others, has led me to this hopefully well fleshed out blogpost.  The fact of the matter is that my freewheel affinity is in no way an anti-freehub/cassette driven sentiment.  I have owned many bikes that have used 8/9/10 speed freehubs/cassettes but the main reason that I use and will continue to use freewheel/hub and friction shifting stuff is because I do not wish to be eternally interlocked into a product marriage with any one particular company.  I take great care in being able to exercise the creative freedom of utilizing my favorite shifters with my favorite freewheels, hubs and derailleurs.  I love having the ability to take apart the freewheel, its bearings and all its individual cogs; replacing a worn one when necessary (which seldom happens) as opposed to throwing away the entire gear cluster as with almost every cassette.  Being able to use the same chain/chainrings and rear cogs for the equivalent time (my personal experience here) of three 11/12 speed chains/chainrings/cassettes is a huge deal breaker for someone who is not monetarily well off like myself.  Having the ability to put on a new freewheel as opposed to scraping a hub/wheel because a company stopped offering service parts or replacement freehubs is also a luxury.  Really I use all this stuff because it usually lasts incredibly long due to it's not so high strung nature and racing-tight tolerances.  I can run it into the ground if need be with poor lubrication, muck, grime as worn bits often providing positive shifts during continued usage (not endorsing the use of unmaintained drivetrains).  Thankfully there has been a recent resurgence in the interest of freewheels/hubs and friction shifting.  With IRD reintroducing their freewheel lines, Velo Orange/Phil Wood/Dia Compe with their hubs and many index/friction thumbies/barcons/brifters available there are some good options out there for those struggling to locate good used bits.

Gevenalle offers some beautiful friction/index shifter mounting brake levers.

Some questions

I am not and never will be a racer, and will never require the razors edge of performance that gives professional cyclists their marginal this-or-that gain.  My big issue with the aforementioned is that such attitudes and marketing gimmickry have encouraged a world of consumers to prematurely dispose of often amazingly well working, ultra serviceable and reliable equipment in the name of supposed promises of excruciatingly-marginal speed gain, weight reduction and shifting speed.  Does any of it really change our overall riding experience?  Could I still have as much fun on a 100 mile Randonneur inspired ride using friction shifters and a 6 speed freewheel as I would with my bike outfitted with Campagnolo Eps 11 or 12 speed shifting?  Could I still climb a big dirt road up a mountain using a 24 or 26t low gear on a tripple crank with a 30 or 32t rear cog as I might with a 42 or 48t rear on a 1x drivetrain?  The answers to these questions are clearly individual and I would not try to answer them for you or anyone else; but what I would love to do is encourage some introspection and digging into the nature of how and why we have gotten to some of the places of excess waste and supposed obsolesence in this huge bike industry of ours.  Was it always for better and did it always improve out cycling experiences?  Did it lock us into a companies jaws of highly proprietary products marriage? Did it leave our wallets strapped to the point of not having enough time and left over cash to actually go out and ride? Il leave you to answer these questions for yourself; and for me, I' be quietly mourning still dying, ever versatile, ever servicable and ever cross-compatible freewheel.