Five Speed Freewheel On a Choppers US Hub - Walgoose Beast

[HRJG]

I installed a five-speed freewheel on my Beast, yesterday. The rear axle was just long enough to work, with the addition of an extra locknut to space the frame away from the cogs.

I trimmed the dropout away from the derailleur mount, so that the LX derailleur would have room to swing.

An old-school friction shifter handles the gear-changing duties.

I can actually only use 4 of the 5 cogs. If I space the hub to the point that the chain clears the frame on the smallest cog, I will have to find a longer axle. So, I am fine with having 17-20-24-28 tooth cogs, along with my 22-32-44 tooth chainrings.

Time to do some real mountain climbs on the UberBeast...

 

[Bill in Houston]

nice! people may say it's not many gears, but you cover a really wide range of ratios.

 

[hckngrtfakt]

nice! people may say it's not many gears, but you cover a really wide range of ratios.

Just having disk breaks to me is quite the accomplishment, much more having gears ... WOW

 

[alecw35]

I put a 5 speed back wheel in a Raleigh Wildcat BMX. I trimmed the drop out in a similar manner.

I once bought a length of stainless steel threaded rod from a Custom fasteners in Wales, united kingdom. It was threaded in the 3/8th inch BSCY. I used it to replace the axles in a mountain bikes wheels.

Maybe you can get a similar length of threaded rod. Ive seen ebay sellers stock it too

Be warned that theres a few different thread forms, and diameters of threaded rod.

Bike wheel axle cones will not fit on the regular metric or UNF etc size threaded rod, that your likely to find in Hardware stores and Builders merchants.

Its got to be either BSCY, or on some Shimano hubs, 10mm fine thread.

 

[charliechaindrive]

cool! I'm researching on converting my beast to multi speeds. I might half to borrow your idea for the front derailleur mount.

ccd