White Industries Freewheel Bearings

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  • Afternoon all.

    For those amongst you who, like me, favour singlespeed via a White industry freewheel:

    Sideways (WI importers) cycles knock out the bearings for these (61706 2RS for 16t and 61709 2RS for the rest) @ £14 a pop. Also, at the moment there are non in the country and there is a 2 week backorder delay.
    But never fear!

    Midland Bearings (www.MidlandBearings.com) do the same items at £7 a go.

    Half price so save plenty dorra!

  • thanks for info, I have saved this for future use

    I have 3 of their freewheels, the 18t trial ones are fantastic (sound great)

    how did you find out they take that type of bearing?

  • I ordered the wrong one from Tarty Bikes, I have several 16t, and got the bigger bearing for the 17t and above.
    So I measured the ID, OD, and thickness and Googled the measurements:
    And Hey presto!!
    If you use Midland then get an online quote first, as they will give you the trade price. If you phone cold you get the public price (only £2 more but that's a beer!)

  • Always worthwhile getting a price from a proper bearing supplier. The only size I've had no joy at all with is the campy ultra torque bearing which is a weird skinny size, not generally used or available. Fortunately it's quite cheap from campy suppliers.

  • Further to this: if you are changing the bearing be sure to replace the circlip/snap ring.

  • this may be a daft question, but I was considering getting this freewheel due the possibility of servicing etc. However, on my shimano freewheel the teeth are starting to wear out (getting wavy) whilst there seems no problem with the bearings. So obviously changing the bearings on a worn out freewheel is not going to be much use. Surely this must be wrong though?

  • Teeth wearing out before the bearing? Not abnormal. A sign of a good bearing, or you've been running an old chain on a new sprocket and thus you have worn it out quicker than a new chain would have.

  • Had the freewheel less than a year, and have used a few different chains on it in that time all of which were less than a year old too. Maybe the sprocket is poor quality? I'm guessing the sprocket part of a WI freewheel is not replaceable, so can only assume they are made of better quality material than the shimano one.

  • WI outer is replaceable. I did mine 2 weeks back. easy job.

  • Cool, definitely looks like the WI could be the one then. Cheers.

  • Does anyone know if White Industry freewheel outers (the teeth) are switchable?

    For example if I wanted to run a 18t, but have 19t for specific events could I switch just the outers easily enough?

  • You have to remove the freewheel from the wheel to dismantle it so even if it is possible it'd be far easier to swap the whole thing out.

  • So possible, but a hassle. Thanks.

  • Half way down the page, looks like it can actually be done in situ:
    http://freewheelbike.com/articles/how-to...-pg475.htm

  • Yeah. It doesn't look too tricky although a few tools (which I'll need anyway) are needed.
    This is the official version.

    I've read also the Trials (green) internals can be made to work with regular outers. I'll post whatever I find regarding that.

  • Is the bearing numbers list by the OP still current as the WI site says otherwise now..

    And there is a 10mm size difference.

    16T: 6708
    17T-22T: 6808

    61708-2RS - http://www.bearingshopuk.co.uk/61708-2rs-also-known-as-6708-2rs-20478-p.asp £9.30

  • Anyone got more info on this? Don't fancy £16 for the WI bearing when it's available elsewhere for a few quid. Just need to know which one to get?

  • Actually possibly figured it out myself.

    61708 aka 6708 = 40mm x 50mm x 6mm wide
    61808 aka 6808 = 40mm x 52mm x 7mm wide

    Seems to make sense that both bearings would have the same internal diameter as the freewheel centre is universal. Also figures that the bearing for the larger outer rings would have a larger outer diameter. The width less obvious but I guess if the actual balls are bigger in the 61808/6808 it makes sense.

    Bearing codes quoted in the OP are quite different to those that tie in with the WI codes and different to each other too so I presume they are wrong.

  • Bump, my bearing's been gubbed by the winter salt, red 18T so 6808 according to WI website.... So a 61808 from a UK bearing supplier? @M_V

  • I think that was what I'd decided but I never actually got around to doing the job so not able to confirm 100%.

    They come apart dead easy so maybe just worth opening it up and seeing what code the bearing has on it?

    Might be worth just giving the freewheel a strip, clean and rebuild though? I was selling one of mine recently and the bearing felt rough but after I opened it up, cleaned it and dropped some oil into it and put it back together it felt a lot better.

  • I serviced my red 18T WI freesheel two days ago. I bought this: http://www.bearingboys.co.uk/61808-2RS_Sealed_Thin_Section_Ball_Bearing-2091-p

    It is spot on. I recommend getting the Park pin spanner to loosen and tighten the red seal. Also, it was pretty cold when I swapped the bearing out in the garage and it needed some encouragement with a rubber mallet and a socket. If you do it in a warmer room it may be easier?

  • Cheers guys, I would give it further investigation but a Condor salesman sold me the wrong pin spanner (after checking with the mechanic too, should've googled it) so i have to twiddle my thumbs for a couple of days. I replaced my chain today and feel the poor workhorse deserves a spruce up, this bearing feels very gritty but like you say it might just be shit in the ratchet mechanism.

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White Industries Freewheel Bearings

Posted by Avatar for markrjohnson @markrjohnson

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