Re: [CR] Exploding SunTour Freewheels; was: Cinelli B lore

(Example: Framebuilders:Alex Singer)

Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:01:16 -0800 (PST)
From: "Dr. Paddle" <drpaddle@yahoo.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR] Exploding SunTour Freewheels; was: Cinelli B lore


As well as being apalling, those SunTour freewheels were depawling. I had one on my '50s Follis tandem, upgraded to a mix of mid-'70s touring gear, for a ride in about '75. We rode to Border Park, along the Mexican border in southern San Diego County. My comely stoker and I were the last of the group to leave the isolated park. As we rolled off, we found the freewheel fouly flipping forward (take that, alliteration man!). No fall, but stuck miles from a phone, miles from a shop, and dropped from the group. "Hah!" laughed I in the face of adversity. Pulling a pair of needle-nose from a subsaddle bag, I bent and worried three or four pieces of lashing from the barbly-wire border fence -- the only international divider at the time -- then used them to bind the large freewheel cog to the spokes. We rode out gently on a fixed gear.

Kevin Montgomery San Diego, California USA Where such a fix would no longer be possible along the towering steel fences and racing patrol vehicles