Freewheel help

[JoeyB]

Hi,

My Raleigh road bike has a 6 speed freewheel (the shifters click at each gear change so does this mean they are indexed also?)

I have seen some wheels for sale with a freewheel, included is a 5 speed non indexed twist on cassette.

Can I just swap my twist on cassette to these wheels and away i go?

 

[fossyant]

You can swap the wheels over, but the 6 speed indexing won't work - can you switch the shifters to friction (assuming these are down tube shifters).

You may also need to be wary of the axel width - 5 speed will most likely be 126mm, and your 6 speed may be 130mm, although likely to be 126.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Hi,

My Raleigh road bike has a 6 speed freewheel (the shifters click at each gear change so does this mean they are indexed also?)

I have seen some wheels for sale with a freewheel, included is a 5 speed non indexed twist on cassette.

Can I just swap my twist on cassette to these wheels and away i go?

Sounds like your Raleigh shifter is indexed. Most screw-on freewheels are interchangeable although some are hard/impossible to remove depending on the system. Incidentally 5 and 6 speed sprockets generally have the same spacing of 5.5mm.

You must ensure the new and old wheels have the same rim diameter (700c or 27" or 26" etc.) or brakes won't work, then you need to know the distance between locknuts of the new rear wheel - for a 5 speed it can be anything between 120mm to 135mm, and then you need to find out how close that is to the distance between the rear dropouts of your frame - if frame is non-exotic steel then a small difference is ok.

 

[JoeyB]

Wheels are 700c, so no issues there. I measured the distance between dropouts the other day, pretty sure it was about 125mm