I like to look at this as a matter of vintage philosophy, first, referring to let's say, the degree of preservation. The fully preserved or restored museum piece has all of the original parts marked as they would have been (or were) when sold new. This can be somewhat problematic for frame marques that were sold both as bare frames and as fully-built bikes, but some possibilities are certainly impossible, as restorations. For example, a Shimano freewheel would never have been put on a new Alberto Masi in the early '70s. Similarly, the modern practice of chroming freewheels was rarely if ever done in the '70s, at least I can't say I've ever seen one. In any case, few if any such parts existed, and their quality would have been an unknown compared to Regina d'Oro or the Everest freewheels. If the Italian peleton didn't endorse that level of new product design, the American enthusiast market at the time also would not have. For someone intent on maintaining such a fully vintage bike, only an original replacement has complete integrity to the original nature of the bike. That implies a specialized demand, which alone is sufficient pressure to drive up the price in an open market like Ebay.
If one is on the other hand building a currently functional bike based an on-topic frame, such as the Alberto Masi frame or a '50s/'60s Italian stage racer configured as a sport-tour with a triple and indexing, it's another story. First, CR discussions that focus on such a bike would most likely be ruled off-topic, despite the fact that many of us have done such dabbling. But in this case, for whatever parts you have decided to replace with modern, vintage functionality is no longer any issue - you get what fits and works best. I think this loose interpretation of vintage is quite common, which means there is a lot of demand for Shimano, Sachs, and modern freewheels with good tooth designs. The fact that these tooth designs are (at least in my opinion) of better function than the Reginas and pre-Sachs Maillards means the demands are different, but there is still considerable pressure to have suitable 7-speed freewheels on-hand.
The current situation seems pretty natural, to me. But I'd like to see a strong supply of 7-speed Sachs ARIS, myself.
On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 5:53 AM, john eden <flyingporkpies@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> Dear List,
>
> Can you please stop hording the freewheels? If you leave them to your
> children, will they know what to do with them? Release them to the world...
>
> Seriously though, I am trawling ebay for decent freewheels and anything
> with real quality is being sold at crazy prices.
>
> Is it sacreligious to use modern offerings and are modern 5 and 6 speed
> freewheels (shimano, IRD) really that bad? What I would really like to know
> is how, technically, on topic freewheels are better?
>
> Cheers
>
> John Eden, Perth, Australia
>
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--
Ken Freeman
Ann Arbor, MI USA