How tight should the cassette lockring be?

[DeathMetaLance]

How tight should the cassette lockring be?

1 - Road bike: I had a hard time removing it on my road bike. I eventually got it, but I wasn't sure how tight it should be when putting it back on.

2 - CX Bike: This one is on really tight. I can't seem to get it off. I'm using the proper tools (chain whip, cassette lockring tool). Any tips/tricks to get it off?


Note: I do not have a torque wrench. Answers can be in the form of: not that tight, tight, really tight, gorilla tight.

[Camaleon]

Those answers are so relative and depend on who is tightening it.
Go buy a torque wrench and thigh it to 40Nm

[eurospek]

Mine is on gorilla tight. And always a ***** to take off when needed lol.

[dru]

Man up, it will come off. Make sure you are running a skewer through the tool (if tool has hole in the middle) and cassette/hub and use a big wrench or socket for leverage. I run the whip on the bigger gears to give the chain more teeth to bite into.

[J.B. Weld]

I'd say really tight- there's a reason they make chainwhips and lockring wrenches with long handles. I don't think this is an area where you really need a torque wrench because it would be near impossible to strip out a lockring.

If you have the chainwhip and lockring wrench at 3 and 9 o'clock and stand above the wheel you'll have about 2 feet of leverage to work with and even the tightest one should be no problem to remove.

[David C]

I'd say tight. There is little to no chance for the lockring to loosen up anyway, so don't ram on it and make it a PITA to remove after.

[What&son]

There is little to no chance for the lockring to loosen

Really?

[David C]

Really?

Really.

Come on, not finger tight. but at least using a 1' long wrench and clicking in a few notches till it seems harder to click more than 2 a the time is often enough. trial and error will get you there on how tight you should make it so it's easy to take off and not loosening in the long run. Just tighten it to a good feel, then try to take it off. If you're reefing too much, it means you had it way too tight at first. Unless you use a torque wrench, use your brain and find the middleground. Or just don't even think about it, make it ass tight and just go ride your damn bike.

[wschruba]

Really?

Yes, really. That's why the smallest cog on the cassette and the lockring have mating knurls on them. For SS applications, where you don't have knurled surfaces, make it a bit tighter.

Tighten the lockring until the cassette doesn't move, then tighten it a little more. You'd be surprised that 40nm with a proper (mid-length, ie: large, for a bicycle) torque wrench really isn't that much. Sound effect wise, that's ziiiiiiiiiiiip, tick, tick..tick....tick. Don't over-think it too much.

Anywho, when I tighten/remove lockrings, I use a 1" combo wrench (12" long) and the park tool whip/1" wrench combo tool. Never had an issue except with galled freewheels (obviously, you don't need the whip for a freewheel, just a good bench vise and some elbow grease). The tip to put the whip around the largest/one of the larger cogs is bang on, allows you to put more torque on the splined tool.