For all these years, my transportation has been bicycle. I would say, 20km/12miles radius is my territory. 1 hour more or less by bicycle. If it is for fun or businesses, I ride bicycle pretty much everyday. It is very easy for me to move door to door rather than taking a public transportation or owning a car.
Now I have 2 bikes. One is a MTB from the year 1990. It has got a OS size frame and rigid fork, made of chromoly. My main bike for commuting, touring and of course, mountain biking. The second bike is from 1970’s. It has got a old school horizontal frame and rigid fork of chromoly, but they are for 27″ or 700c wheels. Same as my main bike, it has got a cantilever brake. That means it should have more tire clearance than usual road bikes.
I have been riding this bike for about 8 years or so. My second bike is kind of a Go-to bike. I ride mainly for daily use like grocery shopping. I also bring her to a short trip by RINKO. No matter whatever takes, I just ride.
Then, I am having a time of replacing the free wheels after riding 8 years. As you may know, the bikes from the 70’s got a traditional free hubs. That means you will need a thread-on free wheels not the cassette free wheels of today’s. I have always used a suntour free wheels for other bikes that I used to own, but I tried a current remake wheels.
I could have more speeds but 5 speeds are good enough for a go-to bike, in my opinion. The wide ratio is preferred. The one on the left is from Suntour, and the one on the right is what I got this time. The stuck height are 27mm for Suntour one and 30mm for Surface. You don’t see any big differences but a big difference is the material. I believe the Sunrise one is made of just a steel. Well, it is just 1,600 yen.
The problem is if you have a bike frame from 70’s, O.L.D.is 126mm. Current bike’s are 130 for road bike and 135mm for MTB.
Yes, as you see, this free wheel is for 126mm OLD. Looks like there are 2mm more space to go. I could try 6 speeds, but it depends on the stuck height. Hey, speeds is not about bicycle it is all about riding 4 fun!
5 speeds are good enough for town use. Let’s see how long it will last.
P.S. The company, Sunrace acquired most of the patent from Suntour over the years.
