The opponent - a Regina Extra 2 prong 5s
The reason: broken drive side spoke.
The bike: 1973 Holdsworth Record, in a complete teardown and rebuild.
A previous owner had attempted to remove this one before, as the slots were already mangled.
Round one - chisel the pieces off, soak in PB Blaster, get the remover to seat properly, attach skewer, place in vice, turn.
Result: Break my cheap cast vice. First tool down & out. Freewheel still stuck.
Round two - use a wrench with a cheater pipe.
Result: continued shredding of the removal tangs, just enlarging the slots, now about triple the original width. No movement.
Round three - time for destructive phase. Get out the chain whips. The first cog comes off, but with difficulty and too much force.
Result: first victory
Round four - second cog. Need a cheater bar, but I eventually win.
Result: this round to me, two in a row
Round five - third cog. Cheater bar again, and have to repair one chain whip after it snaps a link. But cog eventually unscrews.
Result: third one for the good guys.
But then round six - fourth cog. One tooth breaks off cog 4, one tooth bent on cog 5. Both chain whips break a link and have to be repaired. Nothing budges.
Result: I wave the white flag. FREEWHEEL wins.
I cut all the spokes, remove the internals, and now I have find a hub & lace up a new wheel, plus obtain a freewheel, two things that weren't on the to-do list.
That's my story of a wasted afternoon.
Lost to any components recently?