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@walm
I am with Hugo - part of the freewheel thread won't be "engaged" as it were with the threads attached to the hub since it will be overhanging the part that usually has a lock-ring on.
Oz - it isn't that the freewheel NEEDS more thread but it is simply a thicker object than a fixed sprocket. (Presumably it would be equally as wide as the sprocket+lock ring.)
Perhaps it's because you need more width when building a freewheel or perhaps they just made them that wide for symmetry with the width of sprocket+lock-ring.
The total thread widths have to be the same otherwise it would bugger up your chain line when you flipped a flip-flop wheel, no?
Nevertheless, it is hardly going to be a world-ending disaster if the thread somehow fails since you would just lose the ability to generate power rather than the ability to stop which is surely more important...