moonlite
Kona Fan
I'm not sure how technically orthodox this is, but it worked for me and I thought it worth passing on. But first, let me say that it should be done with great care, both for the sake of the mechanic's hands and for the health of the wheel.
The background is that I found a nice XT R950 rear wheel for my '98 Explosif which was super-cheap due not only to a stuck cassette lockring, but because the seller had tried to remove it by grinding slots in it, presumably to seat a punch or some similar scheme.
I tried penetrating oil and mild heat, but sure enough, that lockring was not shifting. My efforts in this sort of task are always frustrated by the lack of a proper workbench and vice, and as there's no bike shop in town, I was a bit stymied. And I managed to comprehensively skin a knuckle, drawing oodles of blood, when the spanner inevitably slipped. I really didn't want to dismantle the wheel, as rebuilding it is beyond my current skills.
So I took to the interwebs to see what I could find, and turned up a rather gymcrack technique on Reddit that seemed worth a try. The idea is to isolate the cassette from the rest of the wheel by clamping it to a ladder lying on its side -- in effect, I guess, a super-long chainwhip that's also pretty solid. This is done by lashing the cassette only to the frame of the ladder which is lying on its side. Care should be taken not to involve any spokes in the lashing. The Reddit post recommended using old brake cables, of which I had plenty. The cassette (thankfully not M950) had convenient holes in it that suited this purpose. Tying knots in the cable was a bit of a challenge but I managed to get the cables (three of them) pretty tight using good old reef knots.
Then you lock the cassette removal tool in place with a QR skewer (I used a beefy one from a Tacx indoor trainer), place your spanner or similar implement over the removal tool, and add a breaker bar if you have one and if it's required. I also got a nice pair of work gloves to prevent further injury to various knuckles.
My first attempt failed -- one of the cables came undone when I started really pushing on the spanner (in my case, the other end of my chainwhip, which fit (fitted?) better than a shifting spanner). With some swearing and re-tying, everything seemed a bit tighter and I gave it another shot. Just as my vision started to blur and my face achieved an attractive purple hue, the ring finally moved and in minutes the cassette was free!
I'm not sure if the cassette is going to be useable again, although it doesn't seem to have suffered much to the naked eye. A new lockring is of course required, but those are easy to get. And the new wheel is now in place and working well on the bike!
The background is that I found a nice XT R950 rear wheel for my '98 Explosif which was super-cheap due not only to a stuck cassette lockring, but because the seller had tried to remove it by grinding slots in it, presumably to seat a punch or some similar scheme.
I tried penetrating oil and mild heat, but sure enough, that lockring was not shifting. My efforts in this sort of task are always frustrated by the lack of a proper workbench and vice, and as there's no bike shop in town, I was a bit stymied. And I managed to comprehensively skin a knuckle, drawing oodles of blood, when the spanner inevitably slipped. I really didn't want to dismantle the wheel, as rebuilding it is beyond my current skills.
So I took to the interwebs to see what I could find, and turned up a rather gymcrack technique on Reddit that seemed worth a try. The idea is to isolate the cassette from the rest of the wheel by clamping it to a ladder lying on its side -- in effect, I guess, a super-long chainwhip that's also pretty solid. This is done by lashing the cassette only to the frame of the ladder which is lying on its side. Care should be taken not to involve any spokes in the lashing. The Reddit post recommended using old brake cables, of which I had plenty. The cassette (thankfully not M950) had convenient holes in it that suited this purpose. Tying knots in the cable was a bit of a challenge but I managed to get the cables (three of them) pretty tight using good old reef knots.
Then you lock the cassette removal tool in place with a QR skewer (I used a beefy one from a Tacx indoor trainer), place your spanner or similar implement over the removal tool, and add a breaker bar if you have one and if it's required. I also got a nice pair of work gloves to prevent further injury to various knuckles.
My first attempt failed -- one of the cables came undone when I started really pushing on the spanner (in my case, the other end of my chainwhip, which fit (fitted?) better than a shifting spanner). With some swearing and re-tying, everything seemed a bit tighter and I gave it another shot. Just as my vision started to blur and my face achieved an attractive purple hue, the ring finally moved and in minutes the cassette was free!
I'm not sure if the cassette is going to be useable again, although it doesn't seem to have suffered much to the naked eye. A new lockring is of course required, but those are easy to get. And the new wheel is now in place and working well on the bike!
