High Gears slipping under load

Are you sure? I can't picture that.. The grooves in the cog don't change.. why wont they slide on the other way? I'm must be being daft.. it's Mondayitis.

hippy Are you sure? I can't picture that.. The grooves in the cog don't change.. why wont they slide on the other way? I'm must be being daft.. it's Mondayitis.

The older cogs have a symmetrical pattern and can be flipped, but anything made in the last few years by Shimano has an asymmetrical spline pattern.

It has equidistant splines except for one thin notch and one wide spline.

You could of course grind out this thin notch and wide spline to make a single very wide notch, this would allow you to flip even modern cogs.

So that's what that thin one is for.. figured it was just done to annoy me when I swapped cogs on the ss :)

There has been a development (of sorts). I did have the right tool to remove the freewheel. The tool I don't have is the older style tool for taking apart the freewheel on my spare wheel:

I need to get the tool as I need to use this cassette for spares*

Anyway I took the one off my racer/roadie/whatever. It doesn't look that worn but I guess it must be:

Should've got a close up shot. But trust me its not that worn
Note the extra cog (8 cogs, only 7 speeds - its from my MTB - see the next sentence)

I also removed the cassette from my MTB (MTB is 8 speed, Roadie is 7). With a bit of chopping and changing (I removed the 2nd smallest sprocket and used the thin spacer from the roadie cog) I managed to frankenstein together a 7 speed from the 8 speed:


Pretty it isn't.

Anyway this was purely for the purposes of testing the theory that the roadie cassette was worn. As you can see from the photos the smallest of the MTB cogs is pretty badly worn (I need to replace the whole thing really*)

It only bloody works doesn't it. It still jumps in the smallest gear but as I said its really badly worn there. The others are fine. I can stamp on the pedals all I like. So tomorrow I'm riding it like that (although not in the tiny cog) and Weds I'll get myself a fresh new rear 7 speed (of course I know I have the tools to fit it too now so shouldn't be too expensive).

I'll be spinning a bit though on the MTB cassette. Should be fun.

As for the MTB I don't want to put that worn one back on so I'm thinking of frankensteining a single speed from that cassette, the old roadie one and the one on my spare wheel (note the *'s earlier in this post). I'll use my rear DR as a chain tensioner. The only reason I'm going SS is I need a new rear shifter and they aren't all that cheap (LX ish standard). Plus I need a new cog and, well to be honest I just want to turn my MTB into a BMX for grown ups (albeit with sus forks).

My questions so far is how the hell do I remove these pins from the cassette once I've taken off the one or two loose cogs:

sorry should've got a better shot.
I'm guessing I just have to drill them out or something (no drill though - I'll probably buy some kinda metal file instead). That or I'm just gonna have to get some PVC piping.

I do have another wheel that has the same freewheel system as my roadie and MTB but I can't get it off for the life of me. It's gone a little bit rusty (God knows why I've still got it). I've had my torque wrench on it up to the maximum pounds per foot. I'm thinking its oxidised (the cap is metal too). To be honest I don't care I should've thrown it ages ago, now I've got an actual reason (I won't throw it - I'm a hoarder!!!).

BillB Can you strip the rear cassette down and re assemble it with the cogs flipped round so you are now driving against the other (un-worn) side of the teeth. Quite a bot of hastle but if you don't want to spend any money it may work.

The other problem with this is that the last (smallest) cog has a rough surface that grips against the screw in cap so if you reversed it it wouldn't grip... or something. Nice idea though. I love ideas that involve me not spending any money.

I drilled those pins out. Some cassettes are screwed together.

The freewheel will come off.. they always do.. usually after you've lost a litre of blood from slipping with the wrench or punching the wall in frustration..

The pins are tiny setscrews on of mine, you need a small allen key to get them out (once you have found the heads under all the greasy crap!).

EDIT: as for the rough surface for the and nut bit to grip, I reckon a bit of the weak threadlock (green one IIRC) would hold it fine if you flip the cog, to be honest I'd just tighten it up really fking tight and not worry about it much.

BillB The pins are tiny setscrews on of mine, you need a small allen key to get them out (once you have found the heads under all the greasy crap!).

No allen key heads. They're just pins. Probably quite a cheap cassette.