How To Replace a Cassette Cluster
Applies to most Shimano cassette/freehub combos (not freewheels).
DownloadToday we’re going to replace a common rear cassette cluster. It’s actually quite a straight forward procedure, but you will need a couple of special bike tools for the job: a chain whip and a lock ring tool. Some lock ring tools have a built in handle, but the one we are using today is most common, and requires the use of a large wrench or vise clamp to hold it in place.
Cassette Removal
The first step is to wrap the chain whip around one of the bigger sprockets. This basically holds the cassette body firmly in place while we loosen the lock ring. Next, insert the lock ring tool into the lock ring’s inner notches and place a wrench securely over the hexagonal fitting.
As you can see in the video, I’ve positioned both tools to give me maximum leverage. Now simply push the handles toward each other until the lock ring loosens. Once you remove the lock ring the rest of the cassette should easily slide up and off the freehub body. Since the cassette is removed, it’s a good idea to check the freehub body to make sure it spins freely and is not loose.
Click on this image to visit Sheldon Brown’s page on this topic:
Loading ...Cassette Installation
Installing the new cassette is basically the opposite procedure. Take a close look at the splines on the freehub and cassette. You’ll notice that one of the notches on the body and cassette is wider than the rest. Once the notches are lined up, simply slide on the cassette body, spacer and outer sprocket, and then thread the lock ring into place.
This time we only need the lock ring tool for tightening. We certainly don’t want the cassette coming loose, so it’s a good idea to stand the wheel up, so we get enough downward leverage to tighten it properly. You’ll hear the lock ring ratcheting as it tightens.
Once installed, check again to make sure the cassette spins freely and is not loose. It’s also a good idea to examine your sprocket spacing to make sure all of the sprockets are correctly positioned. If it all looks good then you’re ready to reinstall your wheel and go for a ride!
Related Tutorials
This video is also available on DVD Volume 1
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59 Responses to “How To Replace a Cassette Cluster”
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Keep giving us this type of information. I need all of the help I can get fixing my road bike.
If you could do one on changing a crankset that would be a huge help. Just a suggestion:’)
Oh yeah I love these vids! I’d sure want one on removing the drivetrain/crankshaft. A video on cleaning your wheel bearings would be very nice also!
Thanks, keep up the good work
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, here’s a crank removal/installation tutorial:
http://bicycletutor.com/replace-cotterless-cranks/
Thanks Alex, I hadn’t changed a cassette for 20 years and this helped greatly. It saved alot of fustration.
Well done.
Great advice my brethren, some tipeths on when its time to change out the cassette or thy chain would be useful as well. But the tips are awesome and very helpful to us hardcore cyclist that want to fix our own bikes and save the $$$ for other things. Keep up thy good work ye young man. Ye shall certainly be knighted soon. Sir Pedalpusher of the North.
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This is invaluable, thanks so much, I keep my bike running because of your videos, appreciate it.
This is a great website, and the short videos are very good and simple to understand. Since I have come to the point of having to replace my drivetrain, I appreciate having your videos on hand to guide me through. Thanks! Keep up the great work!!
Charmaine
Alex this is the best information I have gotten on bike work. Have been told Simple Green is a good cleaner. Thank you for all your information.
When should I change the cassette? I’ve put around 5000km on mine. Yesterday I changed the chain and since I’ve been “skipping” a teeth or two sporadically when I put a lot of pressure (uphill, acceleration, wind, etc) and even during normal pedalling. I’ve changed both derailleur’s cables and housing, no go. seems to happen more on the middle rig (I have a granny) and speeds 2 to 6 (1 also, I barely ever use 7 and 8). I’ve read that this symptom (and the fact that I discovered it with a new chain) is often a sign or worn cogs and/or chain rigs but I can’t seem to detect any excessive damage… I compared with a new cassette and mine didn’t seem so bad. Any thoughts on this?
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Considering the amount of mileage you’ve put on your drivetrain, and the skipping you’ve experienced, I’d say the cassette is definitely worn. The chain and cassette wear out together and you usually have to replace them at the same time. As your chain stretches, the gap between the teeth on your cassette spreads further apart.
When replacing a chain, I always test by trying a new chain to see if it will skip (as you’ve already done). Now you just have to replace the cassette and your drivetrain should run smooth. Your front chainrings should be ok, as they wear out a lot slower than your chain and cassette.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for all the great how-to videos. I just switched out the cassette on my 520. ( to give me a better climbing low gear).I knew exactly what tools I needed and what to expect when it all came apart. ( gezz I hate surprises.) I’ve also re-done wheel bearings ( front and back) on my commuter bike. I used your videos for instructions for that task also.
I like my local BS and my BM is really great. But… I sure like just getting parts from there and doing this all myself.
Thanks again.
Jacques
I think xSmurf’s problem is the middle chainring. I have ‘94 LX components with a lot of miles on them. I had the exact same symptoms after replacing the chain on my bike. I forget how I diagnosed the problem, but what I needed was a new middle chain-ring. I’m still running the original cassette and the original big and little chainrings. I commute 12 miles a day on this bike and it still shifts exceptionally well.
@Paul: I believe those symptoms can be cause by either a bad cassette or bad chain-ring. It’s really hard to know unless the teeth are clearly damaged. My problem stopped the second I changed the cassette. AFAIK, the cassette will need replacing twice for every chaing-ring replacement. I commute ~15miles a day and do so year round (we have *rough* winters). I had put about 5000km when this happened.
I am new to cycling and thought this job looked too complex as I had no idea on how to go about it.
It’s easy once you are shown exactly what you need to do.
Thanks for sharing.
@xSmurf: Glad the problem was resolved, didn’t mean to lead you in the wrong direction, it just sounded like the exact symptoms I experienced. Also, at the time my middle chain-ring wore out I was using that bike almost exclusively for technical off-road stuff, maybe that abuse goes through chainrings faster than cassettes. I don’t know how I do it, but I haven’t worn out a cassette yet(I have stripped out a White Industries rear hub though, I’m on my second), maybe it’s my riding style as I’m constantly shifting to keep my cadence fixed and rarely stand out of the saddle or ‘94 components are of much higher quality than current offerings (I have ‘94 Shimano groups on two bikes, including a Tandem). I haven’t commuted through a winter yet, but I’m planning to this year in Boston. I’m already thinking about what I’ll need equipment-wise (My commute is ~12 miles a day, 6 each way). Just ordered a new cassette, thanks.
Hi,
I happened onto your website and want to thank you heartily for it. The advice and the clear straightforward presentation are stupendous.
Question: changing the cassette: does it require any interior oiling during cassette mounting, assembling etc?
Thanks,
eugene
Thanks Eugene,
No, you don’t need any oil or lubrication to install the cassette. All of the lubrication takes place inside the freehub body.
Ta very much! Now I have to mission out to find spokes then the tools, see I am cycling accross canada, I have a huge load on the back and popped 2 spokes and more will follow, typically they both went on the cassette side, given I was a bmxer in another life I never had to get that off…till now,
Again thank you. I can carry on down the road now
The videos were very helpful, also so I could ask the right questions at the bike shop. Question, can you install a 8 or 9 speed cassette on a hub which originally had a 7 speed installed? Any help would be great. Thanks.
Jason Farquhar
Thanks Jason,
Unfortunately you can’t install an 8 or 9 speed cassette on a 7 speed hub unless you change the freehub body and axle unit. Then you’ll also have to re-dish the wheel.
I love your tutorials. Things are explained logicaly and quickly!
Could you do a video on replacing individual cog rings on a cassette? Do you need 2 chain whips in order to do it?
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Thanks Sharon, I’d be happy to cover that topic… Freewheels sometimes use two chainrings, but cassettes usually have three tiny bolts that screw in from the back side to hold it all together. I’ll let you know when I’ve got this tutorial posted!
Thanks Bike Guru!
That leads me to another question, how do I tell when the freewheel I am removing needs 2 chainwhips?
Hi Sharon,
You’ll only need two chain whips for older freewheels (like Suntour). Sheldon Brown has written a bit more about it here. Hope that helps
Hi Alex,
Wow, what a great website! thanks so much!
I just swapped out my current, still good cassette cluster onto a new wheel and lubricated the splines. I was just looking through the comments and questions here and see that that was unnecessary. Will this cause a problem? Should I remove the cassette and wipe the lube off, or will this be okay? I used a thin layer of Pro Glide.
Hi Joyce,
While lubricating the splines isn’t necessary, I can’t see it causing any problems so I wouldn’t bother removing it. At the very least it’ll keep moisture out!
Hi Alex ,
My cassette is still loose on the freehub after tightening the lockring as far as i can. I have all nine rings on in the correct order. Where am i going wrong ?
Sounds like there may be a spacer missing. Is the gap between all of the sprockets exactly the same?
Yes, it was the spacer, I didn’t see it at the bottom of the box.
Thanks a million Alex.
Hi Alex. I have a question that I’m hoping you can help me with. I changed my cassette today but since doing so it doesn’t seem to spin very freely. Any ideas?
Cheers
Stuart, it sounds like it might be a problem with your freehub body. If you remove the cassette, does your freehub spin smoothly?
It spins more with the cassette removed, but nowhere nearly as freely as the one shown at the end of your cassette tutorial.
When the lockring is only on loose, the cassette spins. But once fully tightened it becomes difficult to spin. Could it be that the back of the cassette is tightened so much that it touches the plastic cassette protector?
Many thanks.
It could be that your plastic protector is causing problems. Try removing it and then installing the cassette again. If that is the problem you should take your wheel and cassette to your bike shop to find one that fits better without interfering with the cassette. If you can’t find a replacement, you can go without it as long as the ‘L’ screw on your rear derailleur is properly adjusted so that your chain doesn’t fall off the biggest rear sprocket and into your spokes.
Great website, these tutorials are helpful and thorough enough for the mechanically challenged.
I’m trying to change a cassette and am running into a few difficulties. I’m pretty sure I’m doing everything correct, and even got some instructions from the BS, but can’t seem to get the cassette loose. I’ve had help from a friend whose changed them before, and the thing won’t budge, I even broke some links on my brand new chain whip.
Have you ran into this before? Is there a step I could be missing? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Hmmm, strange. I’d take it back to the bike shop for further assessment, especially if you’re breaking tools.
Hi Alex,
Fantastic videos! Just getting into DIY bike work and you tutorials have helped immensely. Had to replace my chain and cassette in the last couple of days a had a question. Replaced the chain first and sure enough it slipped a tonne on the test ride. Have now changed the cassette as well but the chain still slips. Not to the same extent as with the old cassette but enough that getting up a hill is very painful (and not just because the legs are tired). Any thoughts on what might cause the chain to still slip? I’m hoping its still something I can address before handing the bike over to the shop
Cheers,
Derek
It could be a compatibility issue between your new chain and cassette. Did your local shop recommend that cassette for your particular chain?
They did. That being said a second opinion would be good. What they recommended, and now on the bike, is a LX CS-M580 cassette and a SRAM PC-991 chain. Some searches on the web imply this is okay (unless you look at Shimano’s tech docs o fcourse).
Hmmm, that is strange, as that combination should work. Maybe there’s a stiff link in the new chain?
Do all cassettes lock on the same? Where does the spacer go that you are talking about? Thanks
Al, as far as I know most cassettes have a lockring like in the video. The spacer usually sits under the smallest sprocket. So when installing you would put on the cassette body, then the spacer, then the small sprocket, and then the lockring.
Is it possible to change a normal nut to the rear mountain bike wheel with a quick release nut? The bike trainer only takes quick release nuts.
Thanks.
Unfortunately you’d have to replace the axle as well. It’s often easier to change the entire wheel if you want quick release axles.
@David & Alex: I couldn’t agree here. Changing the axel and spacing is not really any more complicated than overhauling the bearings. It’s a 15 mins job at best and any shop can do it for you. How ever, cheap wheels are… well cheap. If you have a cheap wheel it could be an opportunity to replace or upgrade. If you have a set of double wall, spoke hole reinforced Mavic’s on some Phill Wood hubs… replacing the axel suddenly becomes a lot more interesting.
@Hugo & xSmurf: Here is a video that shows how to check your chain wear.
Hello, Great videos.
I went to the store and bought the chain whip and lockring tool and then realized that my wheel had a axle bolt sticking through (Fixed not quick realeae) and that I had to remove that before I could follow the steps you provide in the video.
Using a crescent wrench, I removed a bolt from the non-cassette side along with another nut that exposed ball bearings. I still couldn’t get the axle to budge.
Any tips on how to remove the axle bolt? Thanks
It can be a bit confusing… you’ll have to remove the freewheel first. Does the tool you bought slide over the axle nuts and fit into the freewheel? It’s possible you have the wrong tools, as it sounds like those are meant for a cassette (in the tutorial text above you’ll see the difference between a freewheel and cassette). I’d recommend the Park FR-1 for freewheels.
Thanks for your reply.
I read Sheldon Brown’s article comparing the two systems and I thought I had splines that were in one of the “cassette” photos and that moved upon rotating the sprocket. According to Sheldon Brown, If the splines don’t move, then it is a freewheel.
However, my wheel is similar looking to the freewheel in your video since the axle protrudes out beyond the sprocket about an inch or so.
I was doing some more reading and one book mentioned removing the axle bolt on the side with the sprocket, which I was unable to do. I think I need to get a vise grip tool from park and put it in a vise to keep the axle bolt from spinning while I attempt to remove that bolt.
I will probably go to a bike shop today and see what they say.
Many thanks for the video. Just a quick q : If I buy a new wheel and a cassette, do I need to separately buy a new lockring ? Or does it come with the wheel or cassette normally ?
Yep, cassettes always come with the lockring!