Bicycle Tutor

Hi all,
New to the forum. Anyways, I am usually pretty handy with bikes however, never ran into this problem before. My son has a mongoose bike and it seems when pedaling hard from a stop or putting a lot of pressure on the pedals the sprocket actually slips a bit. I verified it was the rear sprocket because I took the wheel off and when i spin the sprocket by hand in certain areas it will slip a good 1/8 turn or so. I tried to remove the sprocket but not sure how. I managed to unloosen the inner nut however, a few ball bearings fell out when I back the nut out. I put them back in but not sure at this point how to get the sprocket off. Please advise how this is done, I'm assuming you can buy the sprocket itself to change instead of buying a whole new rim/sprocket. Thanks for the help

(Oct 7, 2010 05:16 PM)jcraft177 Wrote:  Hi all,
New to the forum. Anyways, I am usually pretty handy with bikes however, never ran into this problem before. My son has a mongoose bike and it seems when pedaling hard from a stop or putting a lot of pressure on the pedals the sprocket actually slips a bit. I verified it was the rear sprocket because I took the wheel off and when i spin the sprocket by hand in certain areas it will slip a good 1/8 turn or so. I tried to remove the sprocket but not sure how. I managed to unloosen the inner nut however, a few ball bearings fell out when I back the nut out. I put them back in but not sure at this point how to get the sprocket off. Please advise how this is done, I'm assuming you can buy the sprocket itself to change instead of buying a whole new rim/sprocket. Thanks for the help

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FYI - forgot to mention that the sprocket is stamped Falcon 8HO

Hello jcraft,
Welcome to the forums . From reading your post I would have to say that the component you have on your rear wheel is a freewheel. These typically cannot be repaired from your description. There are two things that have happened...
1st - The freewheel retainer nut for the gears has either came loose or the gears are plain just worn out. (Indicated with the Red arrow) Freewheels have a special tool called a freewheel remover to take off the freewheel as shown in this video.. http://bicycletutor.com/replace-freewheel/ . The yellow arrow shows what the special tool uses to remove the freewheel.

2nd - You removed the inner nut (cone nut) of the axle (shown by the blue arrow) and the bearings fell out. This is an easily fix and actually would not hurt as it is general maintenance to your bike. Watch this video to learn how to complete the process of changing your bearing... http://bicycletutor.com/overhaul-wheel-bearings/ .

If there are more questions please feel free to asked,
Bill

(Oct 8, 2010 05:26 AM)Bill Wrote:  Hello jcraft,
Welcome to the forums . From reading your post I would have to say that the component you have on your rear wheel is a freewheel. These typically cannot be repaired from your description. There are two things that have happened...
1st - The freewheel retainer nut for the gears has either came loose or the gears are plain just worn out. (Indicated with the Red arrow) Freewheels have a special tool called a freewheel remover to take off the freewheel as shown in this video.. http://bicycletutor.com/replace-freewheel/ . The yellow arrow shows what the special tool uses to remove the freewheel.

2nd - You removed the inner nut (cone nut) of the axle (shown by the blue arrow) and the bearings fell out. This is an easily fix and actually would not hurt as it is general maintenance to your bike. Watch this video to learn how to complete the process of changing your bearing... http://bicycletutor.com/overhaul-wheel-bearings/ .

If there are more questions please feel free to asked,
Bill

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Okay, I am assuming it is cheaper to buy the actual tool and replacement sprocket than the whole rim itself. Please advise what you think the cost is for the two. I'd like to try and do myself to get the experience.