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Would This Work As A Freewheel?


Sam Moss

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i found a one way bearing in work and wondered could it be used as a freewheel on a bike.

Who knows what a one way roller bearing is and how it works? heres a link... http://www.stieber.net/

Its basically a bearing that only spins one way, you could say its a free wheel with 'unlimited' engagements.

Im wondering could a freewheel be made the same way that these are made?

im not sure how much force they could take or if they would skip, does anybody know?

This could be the future of freewheels if it could handle the force!

post-21258-0-02434200-1328732976_thumb.p

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Old shimano hubs used this rollerball system. Some people in the depths od eastern europe still use them i believe. Trouble was, they were spongey, and theres alot of force wanting the split the hub shell apart. The ghetto europeans used jubilee clips around the hub body to try and stop the explosion.

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My dad was talking about this as a concept the other day.. seemed plausible. Although silent coasting would suck ass compared to a King :P

I was wondering when you'd pipe up, because I was there when he said it. Might wanna re-ask him though, im pretty sure it was a slightly different theory behind his? I'd have replied sooner but I can't remember the name he gave for it.

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Found this in the G-sport archives. (you have to go part way down the article to get to the bit about the one way bearings) Not surprising George French has already tried it. http://www.gsportbmx.com/2005/01/click-click-click/

Sounds like it would be good for some people on here but maybe not if you like to do roll backs. Now starting to think twice about a hope trials hub for my street bike.

Edited by Chris Borneo
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Found this in the G-sport archives. (you have to go part way down the article to get to the bit about the one way bearings) Not surprising George French has already tried it. http://www.gsportbmx...ck-click-click/

Sounds like it would be good for some people on here but maybe not if you like to do roll backs. Now starting to think twice about a hope trials hub for my street bike.

48-click Profile hubs and similar BMX cassette hubs like that seem to work well for BMXers out there, so I don't think it'll be a problem. Like a couple of George's ideas I'm not really too sure how much I believe that it's actually a potential 'problem' as such. I'd have thought it was pretty unlikely that on every rollback you'd be starting with the pawls at the very base of the ratchet system, so that whole 'time for it engaging' thing doesn't really mean anything. I've never heard of it being an issue for anyone who's used a higher EP hub for BMX anyway...

I've been speaking to a few people in wok about them and they was saying nothing would be wrong with it. One of them is a biker and he said web we Arnt busy we will build a freewheel. Let's see how it goes.

I think RB did their Tractor hub that used a similar-ish bearing system too.

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Andy Ponting has been using a Stealth hub for years. It is weird as it is absolutely silent, but the engagement is unreal, there's nothing else like it. It literally is instant engagement.

From what I saw though he's a rediculously smooth and flowy rider, I'm not sure it'd stand up to full blown tgs or comp riding.

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I think RB did their Tractor hub that used a similar-ish bearing system too.

They don´t,it´s still kind of "pawl" design I would say,just uses cylinders instead of classic pawls,here´s animation http://www.rbdesign.sk/anim.htm .So I think silent cluch and stealth hubs are the closest to that idea if not actually using it.

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one way or clutch bearings, are used alot in the print industry, with which me and the old fella have alot of experience. if a printing machine can handle being stopped from 14,000iph (impressions per hour) to a dead stop when an e stop is pressed, and they dont let go, a 14 yearold jumping up a wall is no where near the amount of load. getting it to fit on the hub is the hard bit, as bearing steel is very very hard, and very hard to work with. in my mind it would work. but i`m not a bloke in the bike industry, just used to be a fitter, and know a bit about bearings.

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Er, actually he was talking about the strength of the bearing itself. It's the hubshell that breaks on these hubs.

Of course the bearings are strong,they are small and made of stainless steel,if someone could make the hubshell from the same material,it might work,but it would weight 2pounds or even more.Stealth hubs aren´t weak or light by any means(500g),yet they won´t last when used for trials.Based on this,I would say this isn´t way to go.

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