Differences between freewheel & solid HD sprockets?

[GlueKill]

My bad. Totally forgot about this subforum.

I have the freewheel HD axle on my 4-stroke bike. It came with a 44 tooth sprocket, but I live in a very hilly area with lots of stop and go traffic. I have yet to find a long enough stretch of road to top it out. Instead, I just wind up hindering traffic and getting passed in intersections when coming from a dead stop.

The rag joint sprocket that came with my original kit had 56 teeth, and while that was great for acceleration, I'd hit my top speed rather quickly and get passed by impatient drivers in a 35 MPH zone.

I figured a 50 tooth sprocket would be a happy medium. I found one here, but it's solid instead of freewheel.

There is a 48 tooth freewheel sprocket also available.

Comparing the two, it looks like the solid sprocket just has an extra part bolted onto it. Is that wrong? I'd like to avoid the expense of having one custom made if all I had to do was unbolt something to make it work with my axle.

 

[scotto-]

OK, the only difference between the freewheel sprocket and the non-freewheeling sprocket are the size of the center holes and the bolt pattern being that the non-fw has a smaller center hole and 6 bolts that attach it to a solid threaded flange. The freewheel sprocket has a large hole that the freewheel is bolted into with 5 bolts.

My last HD rear wheel came with a freewheel 44T sprocket also. My kit had a 56T sprocket that was for a non-freewheel or rag joint set-up and that was the size I needed so.....rather than take it to a machine shop, I modified it myself using my drillpress. I took the 44t sprocket and centered it on the 56t and traced the bolt pattern and larger center hole with a sharpie (fine felt-tip marker). Then I center-punched the five new bolt holes and all around the large center hole 1/16th of and inch apart. Then I drilled all around the center hole with a 1/16" drill bit and then knocked out center and dressed it up with a Dremel till the large hole was near-perfectly round and fit the freewheel. Then I drilled the 5 bolt holes using the appropriate sized bit after drilling 1/16" pilot holes, avoiding the 6 existing holes as best as possible.

Sounds a bit like a pita, but it's perfectly centered and works like a champ! Saved a lot of money doing it this way, believe me.

 

[GlueKill]

Thanks for the info. I wish I still had the old sprocket, in spite of its one misaligned tooth. However, I chucked the old broken wheel in the yard the night I swapped the tire and tube from it onto the new wheel. By the time I was done, someone had swiped both the old wheel and a broken bike basket from my yard. Lord knows what they planned to do with them. Looks like I'll be custom ordering a sprocket.

 

[scotto-]

That is the most sensible and easy way to do it for sure!

Thanks for the info. I wish I still had the old sprocket, in spite of its one misaligned tooth. However, I chucked the old broken wheel in the yard the night I swapped the tire and tube from it onto the new wheel. By the time I was done, someone had swiped both the old wheel and a broken bike basket from my yard. Lord knows what they planned to do with them. Looks like I'll be custom ordering a sprocket.

 

[Andyinchville1]

HI,

FWIW we can make sprockets for either the freewheel or non freewheel version of the Grubee HD hubs.

Andrew