Cycling UK Forum

Is removing the cassette frequently harmful?

I don't like the idea of cleaning liquids (degreaser type things) being splashed around, near to the hub/freehub bearing and seals. So I would prefer to take the cassette off the hub to clean it. But I wonder if that over time that could damage something else.

Thanks.

I can't see why it should be - it's just sliding on and off splines. Not much stress going on there! Some minor risk associated with removal and re-tightening the lock ring, I suppose ie the more frequently you remove and replace it, the higher the risk of damage, but if you have the correct removal tool and a torque wrench, you should be fine. Others, with more direct experience than me, will be along shortly

LancsGirl wrote: ↑9 Apr 2022, 11:17am Is removing the cassette frequently harmful?

I don't like the idea of cleaning liquids (degreaser type things) being splashed around, near to the hub/freehub bearing and seals. So I would prefer to take the cassette off the hub to clean it. But I wonder if that over time that could damage something else.

Thanks.

Not sure of the answer to your question as has never been an issue for me as I only ever take the casette off when it needs changing.
To be honest, I don't think you need to be getting degreaser anywhere near there anyway.
No need in my view to ever degrease cassettes at all.
Simpler ways of keeping inservice cassettes functionally clean I think.

the only thing/s I ever degrease are chains now and again.

I don't think that you'll cause any problems if you're using the precise tool. If you're bodging it at all then the less often the better.

Jonathan

I understood the degreaser reference to be about cleaning the cassette on the wheel ie without removing it.

I clean my cassettes if I take them off the freehub to swap them out to another wheel. It’s much easier to do off the hub with a degreaser. It’s satisfying to clean all the muck ingrained between the sprockets and having a shiny cassette to look at again.

As it’s a job you’re only likely to do a few times a year if even that, I don’t see any issues with it at all.

Thanks for the replies folks.

Yes, the question was about whether repeated removal of the cassette could be harmful. Not whether using degreaser on the cassette was a good idea.

I've got the correct removal tool, an actual Shimano one in fact. Also a torque wrench. And I'm careful about how I do things. So at the very worst I guess I could "wear out" the lockring/last sprocket combination. A quick search says that both of those together are about half the cost of a whole new cassette. Sometimes the smallest sprocket might wear more anyway (maybe?) and I picked up a spare lock ring for nothing recently from a friendly bike shop. So either way it doesn't seem like a massive concern.

Thanks.

LancsGirl wrote: ↑9 Apr 2022, 12:12pm 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've always felt distinctly unimpressed by how little thread engagement there is on the lockring, it wouldn't surprise me if that let go after repeated disassembly. I've never had any problems cleaning it in situ, but I don't completely drench it, I just brush it with an old Bridget brush dipped in white spirit then run strips of rag between the sprockets.

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)

Dried baby wipes make an excellent cassette cleaner. Pull the baby wipe to stretch it. Twist it to make s thin 'rope'. Place between cassette sprockets and move back and forth. If your cassette is particularly gungy, spraying gt85 on the baby wipe works well.

If the free hub is steel there won't be a problem. If it's a fancy aluminium one the threads may eventually wear if done too often.

Pebble wrote: ↑9 Apr 2022, 1:29pm 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)

That's very useful feedback, thanks.

jb wrote: ↑9 Apr 2022, 2:15pm If the free hub is steel there won't be a problem. If it's a fancy aluminium one the threads may eventually wear if done too often.

Good point, thanks for the advice. The freehub is steel. Lockring too (I think).

If cleaning fluids used on drivetrains caused significant problems with the seals and lubricants in hubs and freehubs, I would expect the problems to be well known by now.

It has frequently been commented on in past threads, in paticular by Brucey, that the plastic spacers in cassettes will compress under the load of the lockring being tightened. This is apparently not usually a problem, e.g. not enough noticeably to affect indexing, but I would be concerned that very frequent removal and re-fitting of a cassette might increase the amount of deformation of the spacers, even despite a torque wrench being used.