Dahon Getaway freewheel

[chriscross1966]

I've a long-term project kicking around to do something dafter than usual to a Brompton frame I have, to whit, build a drop-handlebar racer from it... I've managed to source a lot of bits for it, but this morning I saw something that might shortcut a bit I've got looming in front of me like the iceberg in front of the Titanic, namely, finding a way of getting a gear cluster onto it... and then this morning whilst waiting for the LBS to open I saw a possible get-out-of-jail card in the form of a Dahon Getaway Mk1... it was a tatty relic, but it was running derailleur gears on what appeared to be a five or six-speed freewheel, and a sensible sized front chainring... now the Getaway is a 16" wheeled bike and it didn't look stupidly undergeared when the owner rode off on it, so does anyone know where I might be able to get that model freewheel from?.... At the moment I'm pretty much resigned to making my own freehub/freewheel in order to fit bits of a Shimano Capreo cluster to the hi-flange Campagnolo hub that I have, but if there's a freewheel that goes down to a 10 (9 would be better) then that would be brilliant... anyone know anything useful about spares for Dahons, google had a bad signal to noise ratio when I tried...

 

[MichaelW2]

How do the over locknut distances compare?

 

[chriscross1966]

I can work round that, at the moment the issue is gearing a derailleur system to work on a 16" wheel within the constraints of a normal pair of front chainrings. TBF it looked like 135 or similar on the Dahon, but it had tons of wasted space in there, I've figured out I can get the Campy rear hub down to something I can spread a steel rear triangle to with enough space for 5 or 6 sprockets, and though I'm aware I lose the Hyperglide effect of the Capreo if I start skipping some of its sprockets, its possible that all I'll do is take the bigger rings off the end of the cluster, I'll still be building a freewheel /hub hybrid to screw onto the Campy hub, that or remachining the hub boss to use the Capreo cassette, but I doubt there's enough space to get the whole Capreo cluster in even a stretched Brompton frame and I can't afford the option of the Kinetics or Vostok 135mm rear triangles for this bike.... If I could put Campy cranks on an ATS Speeddrive bottom bracket then I'd do it that way,

 

[TheDoctor]

A quick Google throws up a 7 speed DNP Epoch 11-28 freewheel on eBay.
I know Moultons had 9 or 10T top sprockets in the dim and distant, but they're like velociraptor poo these days.
Assuming you use a 53T chainset, that's a top gear of, erm, around 78 inches.

 

[chriscross1966]

Interesting, dunno if there is space for it but will find out. Stronglight make Campy rings up to 60t so even running 25*349 tyres I'd have a top gear north of 80 inches, probably plenty enough given my fitness levels :-)

 

[Chriscycle]

I bought a 5 speed derailleur Brompton a few years ago..it was sold by Tony Hadland of the Moulton book fame..a friend of his converted it..It used an old 126mm OLD hub with a 5 speed freewheel..The chap who made it had secured a rear derailleur with a claw fixing at the top to the rear dropouts with 3 small bolts..It was extremely well made..Biggest problem though is you have no chain tensioner when you fold it..So every time you fold it the chain comes off or if you unfold it the chain comes off..Makes the whole thing a bit pointless having a Brompton that you cannot fold without the chain coming off..My advice ..don't waste your time unless you can fit something like a Birdy bike has to stop the chain coming off..But then the rear derailleur is almost touching the ground..Why not just go for a 5 speed hub gear or even an 8 speed Sturmey..There is a Brompton clone you can buy in the far east called a MIT V8 which costs about £600.which has a 7 or 8 speed derailleur .but I am not sure how tthat folds without the chain coming off.

 

[chriscross1966]

I've got a Brompton with an 8-speed Sturmey hub, and one with a 5-speed Sturmey and one with an 11-speed Shimano Alfine... I fancied building one with a deraileur (and the rest of the Campy grupetto) and I'm aware I will need to sort out some form of aux chain tensioner arrangement... the end result will be a full (or as near as I can manage) Campy Brompton with folding Cinelli drops, low-profile racing tyres and a Selle Anatomica saddle...... painted Bianchi green and with the word "Brompton" done in the Bianchi font.... WABOL I should annoy not only the hardcore Bromptonistas, but the Bianchi adn Campy tifosi will be chasing me to the windmill with burning torches and pitchforks...

 

[TheDoctor]

Campag Brompton in Celeste?

Seriously, though, that sounds like an interesting project.
I can't actually see the point, but "Because I can!" has always struck me as a perfectly valid reason for doing something.

 

[chriscross1966]

Campag Brompton in Celeste?

View attachment 367692

Seriously, though, that sounds like an interesting project.
I can't actually see the point, but "Because I can!" has always struck me as a perfectly valid reason for doing something.

I've got an 11-speed Brompton with carbon wheels (TBF, carbon nearly everything) and I've almost completed a 5-speed NiTi Black Edition with an 80T chainring and full Jagwire Elite Link cables, Nitto bullhorns and FSA crank and TT brake levers... "because I can" gets a lot of traction with me... then I need to bolt the 8-speed back together to test the suspension grease nipple modification as much as anything, then it will be onto the Campag Celeste...

 

[Cycleops]

... WABOL I should annoy not only the hardcore Bromptonistas, but the Bianchi adn Campy tifosi will be chasing me to the windmill with burning torches and pitchforks...

I'm willing to bet your bank manager will be amongst them too.

 

[chriscross1966]

I'm willing to bet your bank manager will be amongst them too.

Given that I've managed to accumulate the Campag grupetto whilst wheeler-dealing on ebay I don't think he'll be too bad about it, the brompton chassis going under it was a fixer-upper I picked up pretty cheaply, so it needed new crank, wheels, brakes (saccoons....eek!) etc... major "real" expenses are likely to be the paint and decal job plus the Celeste colour-matched chain I found for it along with enough Jagwire Celeste brake outer..... If you want to fit a Campy headset to a Brompton then keep an eye out for the stuff they made when making mountain-bike stuff.... the one I have is an Olympus, from the crank POV the ultratorques are pretty easy and the non-Record level ones go for sensible money...