On Sat, 2011-04-16 at 07:29 -0700, Mike wrote: > I picked up the rando frame yesterday and it's beautiful... > unfortunately I decided to use the new VO high flange hubs for the > wheels. The hubs are actually fine, what's not fine is the damned IRD > 6spd FW. Already the thing is giving me grief! It's not immediately > engaging always. At one point it was even freewheeling in both > directions. No good. And this doesn't instill confidence for me.
I agree. Certainly not something you would want on a dedicated randonneuring frame! IMHO the case for freewheels is getting increasingly harder to make. The best ones are all long gone. Some excellent discussion of freewheels in a recent Velo Orange Blog entry: http://velo-orange.blogspot.com/2011/04/freewheel-testing.html Tom's comment in that discussion is especially appropriate in this context: "Shimano hasn't made freewheels in Japan in almost 25 years. The current tourney 5 speed freewheels are made in china. The tourney 7sp are made in Singapore. Been that way since the 80s. "The average lifespan of a cheapo bike with a freewheel is around 122 miles of usage. Shimano produces their freewheels and other low end components to last 10 times that distance. The low end tourney freewheels are not dura ace level by any stretch and should not be compared to such." After all, what is 1,220 miles in the life of a randonneuring frame? That's less than a month's service, most likely. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
