Can a Single Speed Freewheel fit an Old Campy Hub?

[bikeworkshop]

Multi pawl, toothy ratchet is best for flatland Bmx trick riding.
On a race style bike you're going fast enough to pick up straight away.
We stock shimano single speed freewheels.

The fancy ones are nicely engineered though, so an object of desire - and some have weather sealing, good for practical use in the uk

 

[Thame Game]

I've run the 36poe (3 pawl) ENO and the 72poe (6pawl) Trials version. I went back to the 36poe. More drag, more noise for no benefit to normal riding. The Halo Clickster is a similar product, but many of those types go over 90- 100poe, and use 9 pawls My Shimano XT hubs have 20poe, and I think my mavic is 26. Both are 2 pawls. I never even gave POE a thought. Mostly useful for close quarters slow speed stunts.
3 pawls are stronger than 2, but beyond that they work in sets of 3 to provide closer engagemant angles. They don't add strength.

That's great information. My old Mavic 577 have just 2 Pawls. Had them 30 years, still work perfect.
I'm not doing any riding that requires a superfast pickup from the freewheel.
I am modifying a Campag triple chainset to use just the inner (granny) chainring, so I'm hoping the chain line will be fine with that.

 

[Retrorockit]

I took apart some of the cheap freewheels to see what's inside. The pawls have a notch cut through them, they're almost in 2 pieces already. There is a single wire loop that goes around them in the notch. Somehow this wire pressing in forces the pawls out into the ratchet ring. Loose ball bearings with no seals. So any problem with the wire spring disables all the pawls at once. The one I removed from the tandem cranks I used for my project was oozing heavy grease all over the place when new. They need a break in period for the grease to move out of the pawls so it can operate correctly. I took apart several of these. Some from Ebike conversion kits. Materials varied in hardness etc. but they were mostly the same design. I have no experience with them , and hopefully I never will. Better ones I've seen have have wide solid pawls, seals, light oil instead of grease, and individual springs for each pawl. The ENO has wide leaf springs, others IDK. Other brands may be suitable but I needed the the 5 bolt flanged type, and this limited my options. Also I found the ENO I needed being sold at 1/2 price on Ebay. ENO doesn't allow their vendors to discount their products. But this guy was going out of business so no longer cared. English BB spacers are the same size, you can adjust with those if needed.
There may be some very nice European freewheels that I'm not aware of. The cheap oriental ones are crap. The ENO is American over engineering at it's best.

 

[Thame Game]

I will definitely do some research before I commit to my choice.
I have a Campag Chorus screw on hub now, so let's see what happens next...

 

[Y282]

Don't forget a lot of multispeed freewheels can be split open and spaced the same as cassettes can, if you want to get a good chainline without dishing, spacing axles, etc.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/attachments/img_1896-webp.505364/

 

[Retrorockit]

8 Speed chains are designed to run offset all the time. 8-11s chainrings can all run it. Most freewheels too. A little care choosing your parts should make it easy.

 

[Retrorockit]

The Halo Clickster is one of the cheap unsealed freewheels.
Here's a short video showing a few freewheels opened up. He didn't crack the cheap one though.
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1D-j-MeF6Q

 

[Thame Game]

That was a good watch. The Profile and White Industries freewheels are awesome pieces of work, but with prices to match.
I'll probably go with a Shimano or Miche, if they are standard British thread.
The build in its infancy. I've just stripped this for a donor frame and forks...

 

[Retrorockit]

Here is a vid. of the split pawl, single wire spring type I've seen.

Here is one that has 2 leaf spring pawls, so they do exist. But still no sealing.

Of course the ENO springs are Stainless, and those look like brass.
So there is hope of something decent without a huge expense.

 

[Retrorockit]

I found a Sheldon Brown page that has a chart of the various freewheel threads, and the results to expect swapping them.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/freewheels.html