Changing cassettes

tracto said:

Quick question for you lads, how difficult is it to change the cassette on your wheel? I have two different bikes (with differenet number of gears) and just the one set of racing wheels. Is there a special tool needed to do it? I'm not the best with the whole techie side of things so would i be better just to get the local bikeshop to do it for me?

cheers

It's not hard - you need the right tool for the lockring, and a chain whip tool (you can make one of these, but if you're not techie, best just buy one).
Use the chain whip to stop the cassette turning, then unscrew the lockring with the appropriate tool. Then slide the sprockets and spacers off the hub body. Best to keep them in the same order - don't know about Shimano, but some Campagnolo have specific spacers between specific sprockets.
Then slide the new sprockets and spacers on, fit the lockring (no need for the chain whip on reassembly as the freewheel locks anyway). At this point you should really tighten the lockring to the specified torque using a torque wrench. Most people don't bother, but be warned that if you have it much too loose it'll probably come looser and damage the hub body, and if you have it too tight you risk squashing the spacers slightly, with possible reduction in indexing efficiency.
Oh, first thing to check is that your wheels are compatible with both cassettes!
Should you get the LBS to do it? I'd say nope, or you'll never learn. But you could buy the tools from them, then get them to show you how to do it the first time.

Eastway82 said:

It's not hard - you need the right tool for the lockring, and a chain whip tool (you can make one of these, but if you're not techie, best just buy one).
Use the chain whip to stop the cassette turning, then unscrew the lockring with the appropriate tool. Then slide the sprockets and spacers off the hub body. Best to keep them in the same order - don't know about Shimano, but some Campagnolo have specific spacers between specific sprockets.
Then slide the new sprockets and spacers on, fit the lockring (no need for the chain whip on reassembly as the freewheel locks anyway). At this point you should really tighten the lockring to the specified torque using a torque wrench. Most people don't bother, but be warned that if you have it much too loose it'll probably come looser and damage the hub body, and if you have it too tight you risk squashing the spacers slightly, with possible reduction in indexing efficiency.
Oh, first thing to check is that your wheels are compatible with both cassettes!
Should you get the LBS to do it? I'd say nope, or you'll never learn. But you could buy the tools from them, then get them to show you how to do it the first time.

Thanks a million, doesnt sound TOO complicated, think i might actually give it a shot!

tracto said:

Thanks a million, doesnt sound TOO complicated, think i might actually give it a shot!

Not difficult. As Eastway said, it's a place that I do try to torque it properly whenever possible.

see:
parktool.comreadhowto.aspOpen ↗

for a pretty good tutuorial.