As per my usual, I am just getting caught up on last weeks emails. This regards Suntour freewheel gears.It has been my experience that it is cheaper to pick up an entire freewheel to scavenge for gears, instead of buying a specific cog.Sometimes they are attached to a wheel hub sometimes off the wheel.There are so many bikes equipped from the seventies and eighties with Suntour/Maeda freewheels.Suntour/Maeda freewheels meet the threshold of ubiquitous. Translate ubiquitous as a synonym for cheap.I have also picked up freewheels in a lot(an auction term for a unspecified number grouped together for sale,) as well as actually finding them in vacant lots around town.I have used them for freewheels almost exclusively because, I like to set up my own gear splits.Back in the day; a ten speed usually had at most eight actual gears because of the awkward big-little and little big chainlines andalso do to duplication of ratios. I often found seven to be quite
common as a number of usable gears, not counting the extreme big-little/little-big above. Thus I set up freewheels to attempt to get nine actual different usable ratios. This was practical when using long cage derailleurs.I favored using a fairly convention split with a very large low gear for that occasional time you needthe extra grunt for a steep hill at the end of a ride.happy trails from, John Strizek Sacramento California, USA