Maintence on Mavic 500 hub without Mavic 670 tool I have a beloved but well used front wheel built around an old Mavic 500 hub whose bearings are finally starting to give up the ghost. If you hold the axle and spin the wheel you can feel it grind through a few spots in the rotation as well as hear a nice few clicks as the bearings stick in the cartridge's raceways. I'm pretty convinced they need to be replaced.

There is however a lock ring that is preventing me from getting the bearings out. There is a special tool (the Mavic 670) that looks like similar to a bottom bracket tool except it has six pins that fit into each of the six little holes on the hub's lock ring. I found a few of them on ebay for the reasonable price of $90. Needless to say I would like to try to get the lock ring off without purchasing the "rare and vintage Mavic Key 670 Bottom Bracket and Hub Assembly Tool". 

I gave it a try with a spanner wrench but only succeeded in stripping out one of the soft aluminum holes.

Does anyone know if the lock rings are reverse or regular threaded? Any advice for trying to free them without using Mavic's proprietary tool?
Try carefully using an adjustable pin spanner, or the Park variant. If not, I believe current Mavic hubs use the same pin pattern, so the plastic tools that come with Mavic wheelsets is plentiful and may be strong enough for your use.