Photo from the collection of Rustybicycle. If you think you know what this is, post your answer in ‘comments’ section– the answer will be posted there on Tuesday!
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I’ve got one of those, although I don’t remember what it’s called. Bought it from framebuilder Angel Rodriguez, who invented it. It hails from the era of touring, and is used as a portable freewheel removing lever. The long prongs go over the stem, while a freewheel remover tool fits in the section that’s machined away. A skewer is threaded into the hole to keep everything in place. The stem, then, and indeed the whole bike, acts as a lever arm while you twist the freewheel off the wheel.
It still requires a freewheel remover; this only substitutes for the vice or big wrench you’d need to turn it. It’s plenty strong enough, but in practice marred the stem. Spokes weren’t as good in the 70s as they are now and American tourists overloaded their rear racks and so broken spokes weren’t uncommon, and this was pretty handy for remote repairs.
Hi guys – great answers! The answer from Rustybicycle: “This tool attached to the old school freewheel remover (Suntour I think) and allows someone to remove the freewheel in the field without a big wrench or a bench vice. The threaded section accepts the QR skewer to hold it in place.”
