coaster brake to freewheel conversion is it possible?

[heartlandcruisers]

I vcould have sworn i have seen this topic before but cannot seem to recall where so i figure i wll ask my fellow rrbers if anyone would know i know y'all will.
is there any way i can convert a coaster brake hub to a freewheel hub without taking the entire wheel apart and relacing it?
i am working on a build and it seems to be a lot cheaper to aquire coaster brake wheels then it is to aqquire a single speed freewheel rim in 26 inch size.
so i was wondering if there is a way i could covert the coaster brake wheel to a freewheel wheel by swappig the cog or maybe removing the brake pad from inside the wheel or would that cause the bike to not pedal as well.
anyone ever done this before or hear of such a method?
thanks in advance
sean

 

[horsefarmer]

When my new departure coaster brake had the transfer spring broken the brakes were inop so I guess it was a freewheel - kinda scary tho - glad I fixed it !
I guess if you pulled the spring you would make what you want out of a new departure coaster brake - the braking is provided by a pack of discs and without the spring they don't function.

 

[CrazyDave]

Hmmmmm, now I am wondering if I could make a bendix kickback hub brakeless and still have the extra gear. Good question Heartland, I am interested in what all the Gurus around here have to say about this!!

 

[Bicycle808]

There's a lot of hack jobs out there, most (all?)of which will end up killing your hub.Lots of info on that via google and at least one youtube, but you will damage the bearings and eventually kill your driver.

For folks who wanna do it "right": There are threaded drivers available used or NOS; you gotta buy one that is compat with whatever hub you're running. Pretty sure they never made a threaded driver for the Bendix kickbacks, which have a different driver than the Bendix singlespeeds. The current-production Sturmey-Archer S2 will give you a brakeless kickback set-up. Personally, i'm a fan of the Velosteel coasters, which have an English-threaded driver and can accept a standard freewheel....

 

[ChimeraCycle]

" Personally, i'm a fan of the Velosteel coasters, which have an English-threaded driver and can accept a standard freewheel...."

So is it possible to run a 5 speed coaster setup with this hub @Bicycle808?

 

[Bicycle808]

you could totally run it as a derailer hub, but there'd be no functional coaster brake, in part b/c the freewheel itself will just "freewheel" rather than engage the brake's clutch cone, and also b/c even if you made a 5speed cluster without any pawls for freewheelin', the derailer itself would get hung-up and trashed whenever you tried to engage the brake. But, yeah, i'm running a Velosteel with a thread-on track cog on my SuperSport right now, and i've toyed with the idea of adding rim brakes and running it as a 5speed, just for S&G....it'd be interesting to just adapt the bike that way without having to switch the wheels...there;s enough space on the hub and between the dropouts to run a 5, maybe even a 6 or 7.....

" Personally, i'm a fan of the Velosteel coasters, which have an English-threaded driver and can accept a standard freewheel...."

So is it possible to run a 5 speed coaster setup with this hub @Bicycle808?

 

[heartlandcruisers]

sounds like it would just be best if i do it the right way thanks guys i knew if anyone had info you guys would i think i will just pony up the dollars and get a correct sgle speed freewheel 26 inch wheel in the long run it seems i would be better off

 

[shwsrvcs]

just take out the 2 pieces labeled #8 and replace with washers that keep the spacing correct and that will give you a psuedo freehub. I've done it 2 times with no issue and it's pretty easy.. found the video on youtube that a kid made on it pretty humorous to boot.

18871_74061dbf43112de7892efbe30ae749a0 by shwsrvcs, on Flickr

 

[Bicycle808]

just take out the 2 pieces labeled #8 and replace with washers that keep the spacing correct and that will give you a psuedo freehub. I've done it 2 times with no issue and it's pretty easy.. found the video on youtube that a kid made on it pretty humorous to boot.

18871_74061dbf43112de7892efbe30ae749a0 by shwsrvcs, on Flickr

What kind of miles do you have on the hubs with these conversions? All the kids i ever knew who tried that blew their hubs up pretty quick.... then again, they may have done it wrong....