2014 plastic freewheel interior view

mstrida posted it already here and thanks to ilciavo I’ve got recently these new wheels in hand.
I was surprised once more; the thing inside is nothing else than a - slightly modified - common pulley :astonished:



So we have here in principle again the old Strida front freewheel technique

  • an usual part was combined with proprietary parts -
    and I’m quite unsure:

Is this a step forward or backward?
What do you think?
:question:

Hmm difficult to say :unamused:

I don’t know about the first plastic freewheels, but from my experience, the weak points of the aluminum freewheels were:

  • high drag when coasting
  • accelerated wear of the teeth when riding often on dirty road
  • water ingress in the freewheel mechanism

Is the freewheel mechanism still the same: has any seal been added?
Is a plastic pulley more wear resistant than an aluminium one?

It might just be a way to reduce the machining cost of the metal pulley :confused:

I didn’t disassemble the freewheel any further than shown, so I can’t be quite sure.
But for my opinion it’s exactly vice-versa:
At the older aluminium freewheel there is a seal clearly visible (the grey rubber or silicone ring)


but at the newer plastic one there’s just a gap.


Good question…
In fact I thought the higher wear of plastic was the reason to switch to aluminium back then.
Anyway we’ll find out the answer in future…

Friction is a good portion lower compared to plastic and there are much more “clicks” needed for full round, to be correct 60 instead of just 20 at the aluminium version.

You hit the gist of the matter with your final sentence I’m afraid of :confused:

Well that silicone seal was for sure not present on mine:

The ring on the pic is a metal spacer.

That’s pretty amazing :open_mouth:

I’ve used for the images above freewheels which are newer than that on both of my bikes, but the ones which are mounted are also equipped with this sealing. The only difference is the color; the older ones are black.
(And of course I can’t assure that they are also present on the inside of the freewheels, I’d have to unmount them before.)
These sealings were also the reason why I didn’t let anodize the outer rings, the risk to loose them due to the acid pretreatment was too high.

The advantage I see with the new (3rd gen) freewheel is that you can replace the outer plastic part when the teeth are worn out. I hope distributors will sell just the plastic part.

I thought the aluminum freewheel was better than the plastic 1st gen but like the plastic freewheel the entire part has to be replaced.

BTW BSA, I used a couple of your photos of the freewheel and posted it our club’s facebook group with credits to you.

Exactly that’s the point, but this will depend more on Ming itself, respectively their supplier.
I’ll try to clarify…

I’m glad that you found it useful and many thanks for telling/crediting.
If you need higher resolution, detailed cutouts, other parts pics or anything else - just pm me (forum mail can’t handle attachments) :wink:

By the way, do you know the small ball bearing size? Dia 3mm or 3.175mm ( 1/8")?