Repeated cassette removal considered harmful?

[Jamesh]

Sometimes the smallest sprocket might wear more anyway (maybe?)

Thanks.

You need all my old cassettes I can assure you that little one on the rhs has been very lightly used.

I have to say I wear out my big ring and little cassette sprocket....just saying...!

[Mick F]

One.
Unless you use all your available sprocket/chainring/gear combinations, you have too many of them.

Two.
Remove the cassette often. Maybe every few hundred miles. Log your rides. Keep your chain and your sprockets as clean as possible.

Three.
I'll wind my neck in now!

[Jdsk]

Remove the cassette often. Maybe every few hundred miles.

Why do you recommend that, please?

Thanks

Jonathan

[bluespeeder]

I use a thin foil washer under the lockring which came with a Shimano cassette many years ago (I now use Sram). This makes tightening and removing easier in my view as you dont get the clicking on tightening and sudden release on loosening. I dont have a torque wrench so I just 'lean' on it a bit, probably not 40nm but it doesnt come loose. I think the washer helps hold it in place at a lower torque. I believe some of the top end cassettes still come with this but they can be bought separately. May help if you are taking the cassette off a lot.

[LancsGirl]

I use a thin foil washer under the lockring which came with a Shimano cassette many years ago (I now use Sram). This makes tightening and removing easier in my view as you dont get the clicking on tightening and sudden release on loosening. I dont have a torque wrench so I just 'lean' on it a bit, probably not 40nm but it doesnt come loose. I think the washer helps hold it in place at a lower torque. I believe some of the top end cassettes still come with this but they can be bought separately. May help if you are taking the cassette off a lot.

Thanks. Is it something like this?

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cassettes/s ... -11w-0200/

[LancsGirl]

Two.
Remove the cassette often. Maybe every few hundred miles. Log your rides. Keep your chain and your sprockets as clean as possible.

It sounds like you do remove the cassette often. Has that caused any problems at all?

Thanks.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
I would question on why you would remove the cassette so often to clean?
I normally scrape any crud (dry off road use) every few hundred miles.
If its wet oil then use thin strips of an old towel (say 20mm wide and 300 mm long) and work between the cogs.
It will come up really clean after several minutes.
It helps if you remove the wheel first and stand it up say between your legs whilst cleaning (wet) pull rag back and forth between cogs.
Or can be done on a bike stand, easier than bike on the ground.
There will be dropping debis so put something down to collect crud.

Just because its dirty does not mean its badly maintained automatically, but some people won't ride a dirty bike.
I don't ride my good bikes that often because you get them dirty and they need a lot of care to keep in showroom condition.

Build a cheap bike and use that for non sunday rides.

Best practise is to clean up indents on top gear and lock ring and apply small amount of grease so wear is kept to a minimum.

[fastpedaller]

My last cassette was on and off many many times - I kept it going as long as possible (26,500 mile) by reversing some of the cogs and never had any problems (and with totally dismantelling the cassette so as to reverse individual cogs, so was having to tightening it to the full 40nm which seems overly tight to me)

Was that a Uniglide cassette?- If Hyperglide sprockets are reversed they won't work, due to the shape the chain won't engage.

[cyclop]

I,m of the remove and clean school of thought.Once or twice I,ve reassembled,only to find the lockring won,t engage,On careful examination,some spacers have small raised spots that must fit into small holes in the sprockets,also an arrow,am I missing something?

[bluespeeder]

I use a thin foil washer under the lockring which came with a Shimano cassette many years ago (I now use Sram). This makes tightening and removing easier in my view as you dont get the clicking on tightening and sudden release on loosening. I dont have a torque wrench so I just 'lean' on it a bit, probably not 40nm but it doesnt come loose. I think the washer helps hold it in place at a lower torque. I believe some of the top end cassettes still come with this but they can be bought separately. May help if you are taking the cassette off a lot.

Thanks. Is it something like this?

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cassettes/s ... -11w-0200/

Yes, that is it. It should stop wear of the mating surfaces and I find if you dont use this it can require a lot more force to remove than to tighten.

[LancsGirl]

I use a thin foil washer under the lockring which came with a Shimano cassette many years ago (I now use Sram). This makes tightening and removing easier in my view as you dont get the clicking on tightening and sudden release on loosening. I dont have a torque wrench so I just 'lean' on it a bit, probably not 40nm but it doesnt come loose. I think the washer helps hold it in place at a lower torque. I believe some of the top end cassettes still come with this but they can be bought separately. May help if you are taking the cassette off a lot.

Thanks. Is it something like this?

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cassettes/s ... -11w-0200/

Yes, that is it. It should stop wear of the mating surfaces and I find if you dont use this it can require a lot more force to remove than to tighten.

Great, thanks very much for that useful advice. I'll get one ordered.

[LancsGirl]

Hi,
I would question on why you would remove the cassette so often to clean?
I normally scrape any crud (dry off road use) every few hundred miles.
If its wet oil then use thin strips of an old towel (say 20mm wide and 300 mm long) and work between the cogs.
It will come up really clean after several minutes.
It helps if you remove the wheel first and stand it up say between your legs whilst cleaning (wet) pull rag back and forth between cogs.
Or can be done on a bike stand, easier than bike on the ground.
There will be dropping debis so put something down to collect crud.

Just because its dirty does not mean its badly maintained automatically, but some people won't ride a dirty bike.
I don't ride my good bikes that often because you get them dirty and they need a lot of care to keep in showroom condition.

Build a cheap bike and use that for non sunday rides.

Best practise is to clean up indents on top gear and lock ring and apply small amount of grease so wear is kept to a minimum.

Maybe I wasn't clear. I didn't ask how to keep the cassette clean. I asked if repeated removal of the cassette was harmful.

[freiston]

Mine gets removed fairly regularly (2 or 3 times a year maybe) and I have no issues. Whenever I give the bike a decent clean, I might drop the wheels out to get to the hard to reach bits and the underside of the mudguards; I might also remove the chain for a proper scrub and rinse. When I do this, I take the cassette off because it makes it easier to clean it and the wheel. I often combine this with regreasing the rear wheel bearings.

[LancsGirl]

I often combine this with regreasing the rear wheel bearings.

Good point, thanks.

[Pebble]

My last cassette was on and off many many times - I kept it going as long as possible (26,500 mile) by reversing some of the cogs and never had any problems (and with totally dismantelling the cassette so as to reverse individual cogs, so was having to tightening it to the full 40nm which seems overly tight to me)

Was that a Uniglide cassette?- If Hyperglide sprockets are reversed they won't work, due to the shape the chain won't engage.

7 speed shimano Hyperglide seem to work perfectly well when reversed, my 4th gear (the one I use the most) done over 8000 miles forward then about the same reversed, I then salvaged another 4th gear and ran that forwards and backwards.
In total when I finally retired the casstte about 4 of the cogs were reversed. It makes good environmental sense to use things to their max.

I guess if you reversed a cog on a brand new cassette you would probably notice a difference, but if the cassette is already well worn and you just reverse one cog to preserve the cassttes life than I doub't you can tell the difference on a semi worn out cassette.

My bike is 7 speed, maybe it wouldn't work on a state of the art 11 or 13 speed cassette. ?