Re: [CR]Cyclo Freewheels

(Example: Books:Ron Kitching)

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 21:50:03 -0500
To: Sheldon Brown <CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com>, "Byron Morton" <randonneurextra@hotmail.com>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Harvey M Sachs" <sachs@erols.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Cyclo Freewheels
In-Reply-To: <v04210128b6af47bdcc79@[10.0.1.8]>
References: <F51SzNZb4UA26e2kFCq0000985a@hotmail.com>


Stimulated by Byron's post, I "stripped" my Cyclo-Pans today. It is really an elegant unit, if you cast your mind back to its contemporaries.

Regina, Atom, etc: 2-dog pullers 3 outer cogs threaded on 2 inner cogs threaded on from inside, LH thread. Pawls buried inside, complete disassembly required for repairs - after grinding down dings in the 2-dog body that resulted from torquing on it.

cyclo-pans 4-dog puller 2 outers thread on 3 inners slide on, much more precise fit than later Suntour/Shimano pawls can be access from outside the body. It is peculiar, since the cogs work against "centrifugal" force: they engage by springs pushing them in. In other fw, they are rotating at the speed of the fw.

In short, it was the first step I know of away from the generic freewheel toward a well-engineered product.

Harvey

At 15:26 2/13/2001 -0500, Sheldon Brown wrote:
>At 11:10 AM -0600 2/13/01, Byron Morton wrote:
>>Hello all,
>>Can anyone on the list give any history or general information about
>>Cyclo freewheels? I recently picked up a "Cyclo - Pans" freewheel kit
>>and I was wondering if anyone knows much about these things. The kit came
>>in a zippered blue vinyl pack and consisted of (1) five-speed freewheel
>>body, spare pawls & springs, bottle of oil, removal tool, instructions
>>and cogs ranging from 13T - 24T. Cogs in position 1 & 2 thread onto the
>>body and cogs 3, 4 & 5 slide on. The body is six sided where cogs 3, 4 &
>>5 slide on - unlike SunTour (and Sachs, etc.) bodies that have splined
>>cogs. The pawls and springs can be replaced with out disassembling the fw
>>- they can be accessed by simply removing the cogs from the body.
>>Apparently these kits were available in 6sp as well as "racing (13-24T)"
>>and "touring(13-32T)" kits. I have posted a scan of one of the cogs at:
>>http://www.randonneurextra.com/cog1.gif
>
>The Cyclo "Pans" was very hot stuff in its day. I believe it comes from
>the early '70s.
>
>This was the first freewheel to use splined sprockets, and was very snazzy
>because it was much easier to change ratios on than older all-threaded
>freewheels.
>
>This was a product of the French Cyclo company, not to be confused with
>the British Cyclo (Benelux) company--I don't believe there was any
>corporate connection between the two Cyclos, both of which made
>freewheels. French Cyclo is long gone, British Cyclo was in business up
>until a couple of years ago.
>
>Sheldon "Confused?" Brown
>Newtonville, Massachusetts
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