Peter Bridge wrote:
> And if there aren't two or three such lucky spokes? This idea assumes a
> lot of hopeful serendipity, including the ability to get multiple
> drive-side
> spokes (which may not exist at all), clamped in a vice, to pull equally.
>
> I have successfully removed freewheels, using only off-side spokes, I
> believe three times over the decades, from hubs brought to me by people
> who had cut
> their hubs from their rims w/o removing the freewheels. Not theory, shop
> experience. Perhaps I was lucky; perhaps the freewheel threads were well
> lubricated. Your mileage may vary; my mileage was excellent.
Serendipity in action, no less, as I was only trying to salvage the freewheel, yet the hub came out fine.
Having heard a resounding thud from the plastic bin, I turned and looked to see who was replacing a probable Ashtabula triple crank, but no, it was only a hub and freewheel, freshly cut from it's rim. I spotted the Suntour 7sp freewheel and decided it had a use, but how to free it from the hub? I first concluded that the black Mavic hub wouldn't stay put in the vice with all the torque that would be needed to remove the freewheel from this MTB hub, so I interrupted everyone to share my dilemma. I was thinking of just stripping the cogs off the fw body, but even that seemed too likely to break the last of the remaining good whips. It was suggested to just clamp the spokes, and with some experimenting with the wrench angle I got the hub shell to stabilize atop the vise and apply whup-ass torque. Even with the spokes seeming to stretch with increasing torque, the freewheel did break free without cracking the flange, and it was really on there. I'd expect most freewheels from a road bike to break free much easier than this one, I was starting to doubt that the freewheel remover would hold up. I probably should have kept that hub.
David Snyder
Auburn, CA USA