Shimano Cassettes...rivets.

Catabolic Jones said:

Up until recently, I only had one bike, with a Campy cassette; I've been removing the cogs for quite a while and cleaning them in kero; it's quite nice, as they come apart immediately.

Imagine my surprise when I got a "new" bike with an old Hyperglide cassette (7 speed) and upon removing it found that it is riveted together. Is it safe to remove those rivets? How does one remove them?

Don't remove the rivets for cleaning.
Dunk the segment(s) in kero and use a brush like Park Tool GearClean® Brush GSC-1 to scrape and brush of cogs clean.
The riveted segment(s) are designed to keep the HG cog alignment and orientation. They also help spread the load across a larger portion of the freehub body.
You can safely "drill out" the heads of the rivets and remove them, but I suggest you try the alternat cleaning method first.
Betweeen removal and dunking times, you can give a quick cleaning by "flossing" with a clean rag between the cogs... to prevent that nasty build-up.

daveornee said:

Don't remove the rivets for cleaning.
Dunk the segment(s) in kero and use a brush like Park Tool GearClean® Brush GSC-1 to scrape and brush of cogs clean.
The riveted segment(s) are designed to keep the HG cog alignment and orientation. They also help spread the load across a larger portion of the freehub body.
You can safely "drill out" the heads of the rivets and remove them, but I suggest you try the alternat cleaning method first.
Betweeen removal and dunking times, you can give a quick cleaning by "flossing" with a clean rag between the cogs... to prevent that nasty build-up.

On old 7 speed HG stuff, the rivets or sometimes bolts are just there for convenience.They are not load bearing.Cog alignment is via the skinny spline. Non metallic spacers can be damaged by soaking in the wrong stuff.Persomally I'd just floss em and be done with it.

fair enough, thanks guys.

i shall stick to brushing and flossing, like mom always recommended... :p