Freewheel To a Casette

tobiii95

Hi,
I am just about to start college and have bought an old Puch Prince road bike in order to try and get into working shape for riding it there. It has one chainring and a 5 speed freewheel on the back. However the rear wheel had broken spokes so I have got a new wheel which has a freehub for a cassette and I am now working out what to do. Can I get a 5 speed cassette and put it straight on the new wheel? (I can only find a 5 speed freewheel online so do 5 speed cassettes just not exist?) Or can I fit a 7 or 8 speed cassette? (The bike has a downshifter and a simplex rear mech.) I’m not sure if the downshifter lever and rear mech will give me the range to be able to shift across 7 or 8 speeds. Basically, I’m after any advice that will help me get this serviceable. Sorry if I have got any of the bike terms wrong! Any tips or advice would be welcome,
Thanks,

ugo.santalucia

Your wheel will not fit your bike frame, different dropouts width... difficult to advise what to do... simplest thing would be to fix the old wheel if it makes sense... where do you live?

tobiii95

Yeah your right I just checked. The old wheel is completely knackered. 3 spokes are broken, the rim is badly rusty and so are all of the rest of the spokes so I won't really be able to fix it. Will I have to buy a whole new rear wheel?

tobiii95

So is this wheel compatible then for a freewheel and slip straight in to my bike as it is? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wilkinson-26x1-Alloy-Wheel-Solid/dp/B002UONMCW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345567567&sr=8-1

cycleclinic

Being a 5 speed freewheel the rear OLD is probably 120mm. That wheel in the link will be for a wider rear triabgle. Also it is a MTB 26" rear wheel. a road bike does not use the 26" standard. It may use a 26" inch wheel but of different rim diamter like 584mm/590mm/597mm but not the 559mm bead seat dimaeter that a MTB uses.

Rebuilding the wheel with a new rim and spokes is an option. Spreading the rear triabgle for a 130mm modern hub is another but that carries a riosk and no shop would guarantee that the frame will be fine with kind of spreading. It probably will be O.K. Rebuilding the wheel is the best option. I had a customer do exactly this for an old 5 apeed bike recently.

ugo.santalucia

thecycleclinic wrote:

Being a 5 speed freewheel the rear OLD is probably 120mm. That wheel in the link will be for a wider rear triabgle. Also it is a MTB 26" rear wheel. a road bike does not use the 26" standard. It may use a 26" inch wheel but of different rim diamter like 584mm/590mm/597mm but not the 559mm bead seat dimaeter that a MTB uses.

Rebuilding the wheel with a new rim and spokes is an option. Spreading the rear triabgle for a 130mm modern hub is another but that carries a riosk and no shop would guarantee that the frame will be fine with kind of spreading. It probably will be O.K. Rebuilding the wheel is the best option. I had a customer do exactly this for an old 5 apeed bike recently.

Yes, I agree, it's either 120 or 126 mm, most likely the former. Rebuilding the wheel on the existing hub is the most sensible option, provided the hub is still OK. Unfortunately I don't see that happening for less than 40-50 pounds... which is the reason I asked where you live.
Other option is to measure the dropout distance (120 or 126?) and source something appropriate on Ebay.
If it's 120 you might want to consider a single speed option

tobiii95

Thanks for all the advice. It's just that the old rear wheel is in such bad condition that it is not worth repairing because everything would have to be changed. Is there a cheapish wheel that I could buy as whole that would work for the bike?

rolf_f

Find a used wheel on Ebay that fits the bill and is being sold by someone with very high positive feedback who sells a lot of bike stuff and describes things correctly (this might save you having to have it retrued - "looks straight" usually means it isn't!).

Either way, you should get a wheel delivered for £20-£30 or less.

The lesson is that it is generally cheaper to get a bike that already works than buy one cheaply that doesn't work. But the latter option does teach you more in other ways as well.

tobiii95

where do you live?

I live in Winchester near to Southampton. I am trying to measure the dropout width but I am not sure quite how to do it! I have looked on Sheldon Brown and with that information the measurement seems to be about 123mm which is very frustrating. Any advice on measuring it?? Thanks

cycleclinic

you still have not siad wwhat rim diameter the wheel is! This will be printed on the side of the tyre. It is very important you get the right one as older bikes used a variety of differnt sizes and they had different names to make things more confusing.

Go with the ERTRO sizing, something like 23-622 for a modern road bike tyre. 23 is the tyre width and 622 is the rim dimater. The 622 number could be anything, 584, 590, 597, 622, 630, 635 and many many more.

123mm dropout could be 120mm or 126mm. It is possible it is a hlaf way house alowwing the use of wheels of either standard. Now you have to tell the rim dimension and get looking on ebay/retrobike e.t.c. A post on retrobike to find a wheel will likely turn up something.

ugo.santalucia

tobiii95 wrote:

where do you live?

I live in Winchester near to Southampton. I am trying to measure the dropout width but I am not sure quite how to do it! I have looked on Sheldon Brown and with that information the measurement seems to be about 123mm which is very frustrating. Any advice on measuring it?? Thanks

I was asking as I have a few vintage bits and bops and could botch up a cheap but decent wheel... but you're not local and delivery of large objects is expensive

If you have measured 123 (internal), you should be able to fit a 126 mm hub... look on ebay for bargains and check the size of the rim as well