Yeah - spacers might do it for him - the last hub I had for my winter beater was probably about 10mm skinnier than the dropout width. If I didn't put the spacers in there, and just cranked it down with the bolts, it would be really tight, but tended to pull out if you really cranked down - it liked to pull out right as you took off from a stop. But that was fix, though free should have the same tendency on the forward motion...