Engine side freewheel?

willfargo

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Aug 19, 2011
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Is it possible to get a freewheel installed on the drive side of the the bike? my only worry with these is that if something happens with the chain (comes loose and locks up, breaks and locks up) im going to either come to a skidding halt in the way of traffic, or eat pavement.
 
Just keep your weight on the back of the seat, it's not that bad when it happens, I speak from much experience.

Hurt myself far worse when the normal derailleur chain came off at about 2 km/h, straight into the ground before I could even think about what had happened.

I think there is somewhere, no idea who, that do sell a centrifugal clutch for em, but would that even work if the chain locks up? Chain locking up means that the back wheel is not going to move no matter what, so I think you're better off just being ready for it if it does lock up, and it shouldn't if you have the correct tension on your chain.
 
first of all, why would you want a freewheel on the drive side?
second of all, there are a FEW manufacturers who do make left hand drive rear bike wheels (bmx, 20" rims). sometimes freestyle riders like to have the crank chain on the left side rather than the right.
even if you tried a flip-flop hub, the left side sprocket would be threaded on the wrong way and it would come loose when any torque is applied to it. Most of this stuff that i'm talking about is for 20" wheels.
Even if you did put a freewheel on the left, you would have ot get a pretty big sprocket for the engine because if you run a standard size single speed rear bicycle sprocket, it would be too small. the biggest sprocket they make is like 20 teeth.
so you're gear ario would be really high (10 tooth in the front, 20 tooth in the rear.0
you would have very little power from take off, but your bike would probably get up to 60 mph after a few miles.
explaine better on why you would want a freewheel on the left.
if it's because you are worried about the rear wheel locking up, a freewheel wouldn;t help.
just make sure that your drive chain is aligned right, that your wheel bearings are well greased and adjusted right and you'll be fine.
a rear wheel can lock up if your chain comes off and either ends up in the spokes, or bunches up under the sprocket cover on the engine.
 
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If the chain comes off the sprocket and jams, the rear wheel has a good chance of locking up at speed. If you're lucky, (and aren't caught unaware) you can stay off the pavement.

With a freewheel, when coasting, you're not pushing the motor; it can idle, and you don't have to worry about maintaining fuel to the two-stroke engine (for lubrication) on long downhill runs.

Staton makes left-hand freewheel hubs. They're used with rack-mount centrifugal clutch, pull-start drives, that have an approximate 18:1 gearbox between the clutch and the output shaft. So, the final sprocket reduction is fairly small. His new axle mount drives have a 5:1 reduction gearbox, but use #35 chain between that gearbox and the hub, which allows for a larger final reduction ratio. He also has large sprockets that bolt directly to the existing freewheel sprocket. With a 20T LH freewheel, 4 (or 5) evenly spaced holes on the appropriate bolt circle allows a larger sprocket to be bolted right up.
 
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