I bought an echo freewheel and rode with it for bout 2 months and it was ok then sold it to my mate who rode it for another 3 months before it started skipping , when i had it i never took of the locking ring or fiddled with it remotly, when he took it apart, some of the springs and paws were facing in the wrong way ,so he put them in right and has never had one problem with it. I found that quite weird, but anyway take the locking ring of and have a look before u bin it, could have been built wrong by whoever makes them. meh who knows Dom