Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart

Long ago when working in the first "good" bike shop I wrenched for we had a customer who cut out the spokes before removing the freewheel. He brought it to us for our help. The boss was very reluctant to try and suggested the customer make a peg spanner that would fit into the Campy large flange's cut outs. He did (he had a buddy at the Kodak prototyping shop) and the freewheel was then easily removed without damaging the hub.

I've seen more than a couple of hubs that had their central barrel section twisted due to no spokes in the drive side flange when trying to remove a freewheel. The last time I removed a freewheel from a spokeless hub was about 30 years ago. The hub was a much loved Phil Wood. I ground down the freewheel core in two spots across from each other, right on top of where the hub threads were. I could just see the alloy thread crests showing when I stopped and cracked off the two halves with a hammer and punch. Took a lot of time, this is the kind of job shops will often not offer during the busy season. In this case the customer was patient and had other bikes to ride till the winter off season. Andy