A freewheel consists of either a single sprocket or a set of sprockets mounted on a body which contains an internal ratcheting mechanism and mounts on a threaded hub.
Threaded rear hubs were available in different thread patterns depending on the country of manufacture, French and British threads being the most common. British C.E.I. (Cycle Engineers Institute) thread was adopted as the international standard and is now known as B.S.C. (British Standard Cycle). It is a standardized right-hand thread (1.375 x 24 TPI) onto which a standard freewheel is screwed. This allows different brands of freewheels to be mounted on different brands of hubs.
Cassettes are distinguished from freewheels in that a cassette has a series of straight splines that form the mechanical connection between the sprockets and the cassette compatible hub, called a freehub, which contains the ratcheting mechanism. The entire cassette is held on the hub by means of a threaded lockring. Some cassette systems from the late 1980s and early 1990s use a threaded small sprocket to hold on the larger splined sprockets. Cassettes resemble freewheels when installed, but are clearly different when removed as they do not contain a freewheel's internal ratcheting mechanism.
