Close Menu
    Fixed Gear Bicycle

    Bike help

    View 10 Comments

    10 Comments

    1. ChrysisIgnita on

      It’s not really anything to worry about, the freewheel isn’t completely frictionless when it’s not engaged. In theory it means you’re losing some energy when freewheeling, but it’s not going to slow you noticeably. It doesn’t take much force to spin the cranks.

    2. BlackberryOk602 on

      Any time my pedals have spun on their own it’s because the hubs were mega gunked up. The freewheel is maybe(?) fine it’s probably the hubs bearings themselves. Maybe try a little lube in the freewheel and see if it’s any better

    4. Perpedualmotion on

      There will always be some friction in a freewheel mechanism, in this case yours is enough to move your cranks. Not a real big deal – but you might reduce the drag a bit by carefully putting a couple drops of medium-weight oil into the freewheel (most easily accessible along the outside edge where you see the teeth move and the center stays fixed). Two or three drops, let them sink in for a minute, then rotate your cranks backwards for ten or fifteen seconds to let it coat the bearings. Then see if you get any easier spin.

    5. JonesBoyFan2018 on

      Looks normal to me. There will be a small amount of friction on the freewheel which would cause this.

    7. yezzree on

      Like other people said, it’s normal for all freewheels to some extent to do this because of how the internal ratcheting mechanism works, you can’t get rid of it completely. you can look up how they work on YouTube and get a pretty good understanding of it. That being said, if they get dirt in them really bad or get worn out from a lot of miles freewheels can get pretty gunked up and this type of drivetrain friction can noticibly slow you down when you stop pedaling, but yours doesn’t look that bad yet. If you REALLY want to reduce this sort of friction then you can take apart the whole thing, completely clean, and re grease it, but honestly this is a huge hassle and waaaayyyy more trouble than it’s worth. If a freewheel ever becomes a problem I always recomend replacing them. Most freewheels that come on bikes are super cheap, and even mid teir ones arent that exspensive. if it becomes a noticible issue when riding I would suggest either getting a cheap shimano replacement, or getting an expensive white industries ENO if you want a really high quality, long lasting and efficient one. To be clear, they will all still do this a little, but the nicer you get the less so and they will last longer.

    Leave A Reply