Changing from Freewheel to cassette

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stevetailor125

Active Member
Hi my hybrids rear wheel has just buckled, it's a flywheel 7 speed but I was wondering about changing the wheel to cassette. Is there any advantage and apart from buying a 7 speed cassette is it a straight swap, thanks
 
Availability of cassettes is better IME.
 

Herzog

Swinglish Mountain Goat
Is there any advantage and apart from buying a 7 speed cassette is it a straight swap, thanks

You'll need to buy a new hub, and have the wheel rebuilt (assuming the wheel isn't too badly damaged).

Advantages of a cassette: replaceable freehub, greater choice of gearing, generally stronger, and I'm sure there are others.
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
The one big advantage of cassettes is the ease of changing. Freewheels can be a bugger to remove.
 

RecordAceFromNew

Swinging Member
Location
West London
To add to the comments above:

AFAIK freewheel cogs can't have less than 13T, while cassettes can go down to 11T.

Unless you have quality rim/spokes at present it might be false economy to have them rebuilt with a new hub. Wheels are often sold for less than the sum of their parts and rebuild labour cost.

If your existing wheel has a 7 speed freewheel, depending on its vintage your frame "might" have a distance between rear dropouts of 126mm. Generally modern road freehubs are 130mm and mtb freehubs are 135mm so worth checking. Steel frames (unless they are exotic ones) can usually be spread without problem, but alloy frames should not be spread by very much at all.

Assuming it is Shimano, a (4.5mm iirc) spacer is needed between a 7 speed cassette and a modern 8/9 speed freehub.

Freewheel/hubs are usually heavier whether they have solid spindles or otherwise. Casette/Freehubs are generally lighter and most come with hollow spindle and quick release.
 
OP
OP
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stevetailor125

Active Member
Thanks everyone, got a good deal on a pair of shimano wheels and a 7 speed cassette, only thing is the old Ridgeback is starting to look to good to ride :biggrin:
 
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