How to tell if the cog is cassette or freewheel?

[peloquin]

Hiya
im thinking about changing my wheels to something more bombproof, and cant tell whether my rear wheel is a cassette or freewheel [its a 8speed cogcluster btw...sorry bout the rust ]
thanks in advance!

heres another angle:

 

[Noodley]

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/freewheels.html

 

[gbb]

The easiest way is to look at the rear hub itself.
If there is a bulge on the drive side of the hub , it's probably a freehub.
If the hub is the same diameter each side, you probably have a freewheel.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

i'm fairly sure that's a freehub as most freewheeled bikes seem not to have quick release levers (which is on the wrong way around, at least by convention).

 

[Smokin Joe]

i'm fairly sure that's a freehub as most freewheeled bikes seem not to have quick release levers (which is on the wrong way around, at least by convention).

Quick release levers were round many decades before cassette hubs. In this case it is 99.99999% recurring that this is a cassette as very few frewheels were made in eight speed.

 

[peloquin]

thanks for the replies and cheers noodley for the link, it helped me alot

 

[andrew_s]

As Smokin Joe said, at 8-speed it's almost certainly a cassette.
To be able to actually see, we'd need a shot of the face of the small cog and axle end, that are hidden by the dropout with the wheel in the bike.

A bulge in the hub or not can be misleading, in that some hubs without bulges are cassette.

 

[peloquin]

thanks andrew - i had a look where you said and sure enough i could see a peep of the splined part of the cassette fitting, only like 2mm visable, but now im doubly sure!