Cycle Repairing and Adjusting
With a Chapter on building a Bicycle from a Set of Parts

CHAPTER VII Free Wheels and Coaster Hubs The free-wheel clutch is a device which, as all cyclists know, allows the pedals to remain at rest when the rider so desires, while the bicycle itself continues to run. It is by no means a new introduction, and, as a matter of fact, had been extensively tried a number of years before it became—about the year 1900—an almost indispensable fitting. There were two types in general use a few years ago—the roller, or friction, in which a friction roller ascended an inclined plane and wedged or locked a fixed and a loose part together ; and the pawl and ratchet type, in which the drive is communicated in a positive manner, not by friction, but by the mechanical engage- ment of a pawl in the teeth of a ratchet ring. The friction type is still in use on thousands of old bicycles, and in numberless cases has given splendid service ; but its behaviour when worn or when filled up with gummed oil was liable to be erratic, and this led to the friction clutch being almost entirely superseded by the pawl and ratchet clutch. However, some highly successful pat- terns of coaster hubs and variable gear hubs of the pre- sent day embrace a free-wheel clutch of the roller type : and it is to be assumed that good designing, the use of high-grade materials, and the employment of skilled 106