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Unless we had an 8 speed freewheel. So many cheap MTBs with 8 speed freewheels used to come in with snapped axles. I replaced many, or just replaced the wheel. Despite me pointing out they'd be far better off spending a little bit more on a freehub wheel and cassette.
I used to think they stopped making them at 8 speed but you can get 9 and 10 speed freewheels too.
tallsam-
So many cheap MTBs with 8 speed freewheels used to come in with snapped axles
I was going to mention the snapped axles, but we were really talking about the freewheel threads, which very rarely gave any trouble. 6-speed road hubs used to break their axles too, although it's worse on axles with nuts than hollow ones with QRs because the compressive preload from the QR actually reduces the peak tensile load on the outside of the axle bend.
gbj_tester
If the freewheel has the same chainline as a fixed sprocket, it can't put more stress on the hub thread. Of course it looks frightening having all that unengaged thread on the freewheel body, but it's not doing any harm. Remember, in the olden days our top sprocket was hanging off the threaded part of the hub by about an inch with no support, and we didn't have any trouble.
