A-bike rear wheel problems

[rna2]

Hi,

I bought my a-bike a few weeks ago and the bearing from the rear wheel just jammed, probably because of too much strength in paddeling. Know when ever I ride it when I let go of the pedals, they rotate the same as the wheel so I think the problem is the bearing. I´ve already disassembled the rear wheel but I can´t remove the bearing from the wheel. If somene could send me instructions on how to remove it or images or video on how to remove or dissasemble the whole rear wheel I would appreciate it.

Thanks

[newcross]

Hi, please bear with me not answering your question straight away. I want to check some more things with you to identify which part of your A-bike is causing the trouble.

when I let go of the pedals, they rotate the same as the wheel

With rear tyre sitting still firmly on the ground, Can you rotate the pedals backward freely?

In other words, can you go downhill with your feet on the pedals, but without pedaling? or Can you rotate the pedals backward when your A-bike is going forward?

If you cannot do any of these above, that's because of FREEWHEEL and not rear wheel.

Please let us know.

[rna2]

yes, i can´t ride my bike with my feet on the pedals because that breaks the bike. How does freewheel work, can you send me schematics or sometinhg to help me out?

[newcross]

mmm, okay so it is freewheel problem afterall then. In that case, try searching this forum by keyword "freewheel" can give you some info to start with. By searching "post" can give you more search result than just searching "topic".

http://www.abikecentral.com/forum/search.php

As far as I recall, most of people with freewheel problem contacted their supplier for help. Some replaced the broken freewheel to new BMX compatible freewheel by themselves, but none of these people provided any detailed report of how-to-do-it.

If I can find some time and right tools this evening, I might try to replace freewheel and make a report, but I cannot promise anything at the moment...

[rna2]

hi,

Yes my problem is really from freewheel, I can´t disassemble it though. If I can get it open I think I´m going to find a lot of damage inside. Do you think I can get new parts from any bicycle store? I hope I can solve the problem. Thanks for your help.

[newcross]

You can get new free wheel from some shops, online shops and eBay. A-bike uses so-called 'flip-flop size' free wheel, and it's 14T. They are usually used with BMX.

ACS claws 14T is priced about £20.
AC888 is another product some uses as replacement, but there are many cheaper ones too. It's for you to choose.

If you are asking to any shop to do the work, the best bet is bring your new freewheel with you and the whole freewheel unit taken from your A-bike. Then go to somewhere who can deal with BMX, then ask them to replace the freewheel.

Alternatively, you can just send the faulty freewheel unit to your supplier then ask them to send you a new one. In this case, you get a same old chinese made no branded freewheel.

If you wish to replace it by yourself, you need to get some tools.

Park Tool FR8C - Freewheel Remover: BMX 'flip-flop' double sided
http://www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk/page. ... duct=57698


or something similar to removing and putting back freewheel.

and,

Bearing remover (preferbly separator kit) to err.. remove a bearing, which we need to remove in order to access to the freewheel.

I found myself not being able to do this job, because my cheap bearing remover (from eBay for £3) didn't fit!!! Now I need to order bearing separator and use it as remover.

[Oleg]

Hello!

I am sorry for my silence.

I am happy now for my new A-bike but also i am trying to repair my old bike, but is not achieve a success. A-bike freewheel is a good quest: when i solved the one problem another immidiately appear.

The first problem - is to repair to bearing (1), the second - is delete freewheel because they have no special hole for removing. So I disassembled it. When i disassemble it I saw the strange painted area inside (in fig. No.1). I am afraid that is threadlocker. I was trying to use long alligator wrench for remove freewheel but it is no success. (newcross had the same problem with screw)

I sent the private massage to Leonardo but he has not experience at freewheel removing. Another user qlantisw wrote in this forum that removed freewheel but he do not replay me.

When I disassembled my old freewheel I understood that the root of my freewheel problems is spring ring (2) that hold lock elements (3). This ring was deformed so one lock element does not work thus another lock element was suffered great effort and damaged freewheel shell (see foto in my old post). Next step was backlash appearing and the small ball of freewheel bearing was caught by lock element and fixed it.

My advice is: disassemble and assemble freewheel. Very probably that it will be work.

NB! Please disassemble freewheel in bag. In freewheel bearing there are one hundred ball so without bag I can lose many balls.



Fig1. Threadlocker (?) in marked area



Fig2. 1-bearing; 2- spring ring; 3 - lock element;

[newcross]

Sorry guys. here is a correction for my previous post. this tool works with those compatible freewheels, but DOESN'T FIT to A-bike original freewheel!!! so, cannot be used to remove the old one.

Park Tool FR8C - Freewheel Remover: BMX 'flip-flop' double sided
http://www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk/page. ... duct=57698

[newcross]

The A-bike original freewheel should be removable by catching the two slot, which is visible in oleg's photo (righit relow the bearing 1). I have no idea which size of freewheel remover we should use... does any one know?

At the london meet, The designer, Alex K. told me it should be easy to remove, but a chinese assembling worker seem to have different philosophy on this to put so much threadlock there!!

Oleg, thank you for uploading your interesting photos!!