My unbuilt White ENO hub with the evil 16t cog and the lockring is back on my table. I looked up how to remove a cog from a hub that isn’t built into a wheel, and found a good thread on possible fixes.
Suggestions include:
- “Build half the wheel using the side of the hub where the spoke holes aren’t blocked by the cog.” One guy ripped his Shimano hub in half this way. I think the White Industries hub shell has more torsional strength due to its fatness, but I may save it for a last resort.
- “String some spokes in the hub, using the cog-side spoke holes. If it’s high flange, it should work, be a man.” On this hub with a 16 tooth cog, this method requires bending the spokes almost into a circle as you thread it in, in order to pass the cog. Each spoke would have to be unbent before lacing the wheel. My one test spoke makes this seem like a crappy plan. I do have 11 free spokes and a couple rims, but I’m not excited to pursue this strategy.
- “Make a wooden jig to hold the hubshell in a vice.” I have no vice.
- “Slit the cog with a Dremel cutoff wheel. Buy lots of wheels.” I have a Dremel I’d love to put to use, but I’m afraid. Plan C or D maybe.
- “Strap tool. Strap tools are bad ass.” This seems like a good plan. I may need to buy one anyway. Because it’s a tool. This is Plan B.
- “Go to the bike shop.” This worked for one guy. I love the Bike Peddler, and it’s three blocks from my house. Plan A.
Other things I’m looking at in my workroom (toolboxes stacked on the floor of the shed):
Brake cables… could these be used instead of spokes? Thread them through the holes, wrap them around the hub shell, and affix them to a rim somehow? Run the cable through the spoke holes, and affix them by the pinch bolts to dozens of brakes and derailleurs?
The Bontrager. Put the hub in the dropouts, wrap the chain rotafix-style around the cog, get some leverage on the hub with… another cog on the freewheel side of the hub, and rotafixed with a second chain? My mental picture of this working out has twice as many stuck cogs, and a wheelless hub permanently jammed into frame, tied on with two kinked chains…
Off to the bike shop! Maybe they’ll have a Phil cog-based lockring tool…
Ha! Hahahaha! The bike shop did it. I’ll post pictures to prove it tomorrow.