Success. It took a bit of effort but finally got the other side off. I have no idea what the previous owner was thinking with the massive lump of threaded metal when all that was needed was a bolt. Speaking of which, I'm going to need 2 as one is missing, one is rounded.
Them there's the big gripper locking assembly. One side is not in the best of health, it also has some lay. Pic below. The other side has a nut so assume this is there to allow adjustment to get it all locked together in a sweet spot. It also looks like a bit may have broken off? Can these be replaced?
I have to admit, the previous owner didn't care much for the bike, I've never come across a rear wheel, freehub and cassette so encrusted in thick, floppy grease/oil, and there was so much weird metal twine or some such material wrapped around the axle I could barely get a cassette tool in there to remove it.
It has had some protective outcome, as underneath it all was, after some cleaning, a vcg hope pro 2 freehub. It was black before I hit it with degreaser, but now gold again and not much wear to the alloy splines which was a bonus I wasn't expecting.
Oddly I can't pull the freehub off as I seem to recall being possible, so that's the next challenge aside from trying to sort the big gripper bits and get some nuts for the axle.
Them there's the big gripper locking assembly. One side is not in the best of health, it also has some lay. Pic below. The other side has a nut so assume this is there to allow adjustment to get it all locked together in a sweet spot. It also looks like a bit may have broken off? Can these be replaced?
I have to admit, the previous owner didn't care much for the bike, I've never come across a rear wheel, freehub and cassette so encrusted in thick, floppy grease/oil, and there was so much weird metal twine or some such material wrapped around the axle I could barely get a cassette tool in there to remove it.
It has had some protective outcome, as underneath it all was, after some cleaning, a vcg hope pro 2 freehub. It was black before I hit it with degreaser, but now gold again and not much wear to the alloy splines which was a bonus I wasn't expecting.
Oddly I can't pull the freehub off as I seem to recall being possible, so that's the next challenge aside from trying to sort the big gripper bits and get some nuts for the axle.