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Tried to remove my cassette last night and it's seemingly stuck on pretty tightly - the lockring came off fine as did the two individual smallest sprockets, however the other 9 sprockets are all one piece and won't come off by hand. This is a cheapo Airbike cassette (which I think is made of steel) on a Bitex freehub (pretty sure aluminium). I greased it up pretty well before installation and so I suspect it's a case of hard metal bites into soft metal - rookie error and false economy buying the cheap cassette on my part! In fairness a Shimano in the same ratio was unavailable at the time.
So 2 questions:
1 - how to get it off? Youtube suggests using a pair of chain whips to get the sprockets off one by one, however AFAIK all 9 of the remaining sprockets are one piece. This also means there isn't really anything to get leverage on to try and turn that piece counter-clockwise to get it to un-bite (although I guess I could put one of the small sprocketss back on).
So do I just remove the brake disc and start try and bash the cassette off from the non-drive side? Is this likely to pull the freehub body off and lead to an explosion of springs? Is there any way of getting a freehub off without first removing the cassette?
2- is the freehub likely to be FUBAR due to cassette bites meaning I'll need a new one anyway? If this is the case I may as well just take the wheel to the shop and save myself the hassle.
PS anyone want an airbike 11-34 11speed?
When I took my Ultegra 11 speed road cassette off my Hunt hub the other day it was a bit reluctant to initially come off. I gave it a little tap from the back and that moved it - it had slightly bitten into the freehub but not enough to be an issue with refitting for now. So say that has an anti bite spline (assume made of something harder) but it had still bitten a bit into other splines.
So I doubt it’s just an air bike thing - more a steel cassette / alloy hg freehub thing
2 chain whips put a single gear back on and use that to turn against the block of 9. Then it’s percussive maintenance time.
So do I just remove the brake disc and start try and bash the cassette off from the non-drive side? Is this likely to pull the freehub body off and lead to an explosion of springs? Is there any way of getting a freehub off without first removing the cassette?
That's dependent on your freehub... I know some novatec ones have a grub screw you cant remove with the cassette on for example... but IF you can remove the cassette and freehub together your more likely to save the freehub than just levering it off..
is the freehub likely to be FUBAR due to cassette bites meaning I’ll need a new one anyway? If this is the case I may as well just take the wheel to the shop and save myself the hassle.
Probably saveable with a file... but you won't know till you get it off
is the freehub likely to be FUBAR due to cassette bites meaning I’ll need a new one anyway?
I've never had a freehub be chewed enough to be unusuable. Struggling to imagine what that would even involve.
Brace yourself against the wheel and get your hands under the cassette and lever it, back and forth and it should come off.
If you can get the freehub off, support the cassette on a couple of blocks of wood and give it a few tappy taps with a rubber face mallet.
Then file the burrs down and mentally prepare yourself for having to repeat the process next time.
My new rear wheel has a steel freehub body so I don't have to faff like this in future/readiness for LinkGlide.
My DT Swiss hub does this all the time which is particularly annoying as I have another set of wheels for that bike that I change fairly regularly using same cassette. I now use a wooden drift to whack it from the disc side without even taking the disc off. I did price a replacement steel freehub but it was £75 so I will stick to brutalism.
Take the freehub off the wheel, put it in a soft jawed vice, and tap each of the sprockets back around the cassette to dislodge them from the grooves they've cut in the splines.
After that, freehub down on the workbench and tap the back of the cassette as even once lined up with the splines properly the burrs will probably hold it tight enough.
I've had to use Thor's own hammer to remove a cassette before now (cheaper steel cassettes , ie those without an Alu carrier to spread the contact load).
Then have always filed away the burrs as otherwise its even worse to get back on, amd the time after.
But try the 2 chain whips and reusing a ring you've already taken off to get the worst ones un-engaged from the divots in the freehub body.
i had this on a hope freehub and gave the cassette a whack in the direction of drive/travel(as if your spinning the freehub) with a rubber mallet to shock it forward from the groves it had dug in to the alloy may take a couple of wallops
I did price a replacement steel freehub but it was £75 so I will stick to brutalism.
£50 at SJS. At least it was last week 😉