Rear Cassette Ceased on? Really?

Tegglington

Hi all,

Me again a follow up to my last post (Spoke Nipple coming out of the Rim!) I took the offending wheel to my local halfords ( I have a bike care plan with them) and they had it over the weekend to take all of my old gummins off of the wheel and put them onto a new one.

the trouble is they cannot get the cassette off, and they have managed to break 3 spokes in the process.

are they missing something? is there a nut they should be trying to take off before they use the cassette tool to take it off? the mechanic said they only option is to get a new cassette, new wheel and a new chain. I cannot afford this.

is there anyway of trying to get this thing off? soak it in something to try and un-cease it? (I have heard coca cola works quite well)

again, any advice is greatly appreciated!

Warren

dicey007

Hi,

Firstly, have they got the cassette lock ring off?

if the answer to this is yes and they still can't remove the cassette then it sounds like it has 'bitten' into the freehub body. However, i have never had one i haven't been able to remove, just need to use your head and rotate the cassette anit clockwise (ie as if you are pedaling backwards) whilst trying not move the freehub body itself. It can be done.

If the anwser is no then they are either not strong enough to remove the lock ring or don't have the best mechanic.

The other thing is, is it definitely a cassette on a freehub or a freewheel?

If it's a freewheel then the best way to remove it is to stick the correct tool in a vice and rotate the wheel (like a steering wheel) to undo it. I have had a wheel with several spokes broken cause me problems but eventually it came undone. If you only have one broken spoke it should have come off realtively easily.

Alternatively seek out you local mobile cycle mechanic he should be able to sort you out, as Halfords don't have the best reputation for fixing bikes.

Hope this helps

Tegglington

Hi dicey 007

Firstly a huge thank you for your reply, glad to know that I'm not the only one who thinks it should be coming off.

I'm not sure about the Lock ring, I'd hope they would have that off before trying.

I have spoken to my bro, who has a friend, who is a bike mechanic, how I didn't know this before I don't know. He is going to take a look at it for me and see what he can do.

Here's hoping I have an answer by tomorrow, if not I guess it's a new back wheel, new cassette, and a new chain.

Expensive stuff!!!

dicey007

No problem,

good luck with it hope it comes off.

t4tomo

in my experience a freewheeel is much harder to get off than a cassette - the vice technique described above works though.

In addition halfords mechanics who know what they are doing are a rare commodity. I observed one alledegly fixing a ladies puncture but struggling to remove the wheel until I suggested he might want to release the brake caliper first.