SS question - casette destruction

Ok so I have the house to myself for an afternoon's quality study and I
make the fatal mistake of "a quick look" at Sheldon Brown's single speed
page. The next thing you know the house stinks of citrus degreaser and
there's a 6 speed casette sitting where the text book should be. So
here's my two questions which hopefully nobody will answer till after
I've actually done some study.

1, The bike to become the SS has a standard freewheel roadie hub and
casette. Do I need to replace the casette with something that has one
sprocket only, or can I remove the sprockets from the casette and
rebuild it with spacers where the unneeded sprockets were?

2, How the hell do you take apart a casette? Given Sheldon says "You can
often get a suitable number of spacers by taking apart a couple of
discarded, worn-out cassettes" I'm assuming you can take them apart but
I'm wondering how destructive you have to be about it.

DaveB "high on citrus fumes"

Wrong terminology, I should have said I have a freewheel (Suntour) not a
casette. So how much does that change things?

DaveB "busy studying - yeah right"

DaveB wrote:

Ok so I have the house to myself for an afternoon's quality
study and I make the fatal mistake of "a quick look" at
Sheldon Brown's single speed page. The next thing you know the
house stinks of citrus degreaser and there's a 6 speed casette
sitting where the text book should be. So here's my two
questions which hopefully nobody will answer till after I've
actually done some study.

1, The bike to become the SS has a standard freewheel roadie
hub and casette. Do I need to replace the casette with
something that has one sprocket only, or can I remove the
sprockets from the casette and rebuild it with spacers where
the unneeded sprockets were?

I don't know the answer to that one.

2, How the hell do you take apart a casette? Given Sheldon
says "You can often get a suitable number of spacers by taking
apart a couple of discarded, worn-out cassettes" I'm assuming
you can take them apart but I'm wondering how destructive you
have to be about it.

Wrong terminology, I should have said I have a freewheel
(Suntour) not a casette. So how much does that change things?

No destruction should be necessary. I have an old dismantled
5-speed Suntour freewheel in my hand. You could once readily
buy individual Suntour sprockets to replace worn ones. On the
5-speed at least, the 2 small sprockets screw on, and the other
3 are on splines (and held on by the 2 screwed-on ones).

The screw-on sprockets get tightened by peddling force, so you
need to be forceful to take it apart. I use an old chain
wrapped around the large sprocket with the ends anchored in a
vice to hold the freewheel. Then unscrew the smallest sprocket
with a "bike hand" (piece of chain attached to a lever).

You may need to put a piece of pipe on the "bike hand" for extra
leverage. As a last resort, you can rotate the sprocket off
using a hammer and a soft drift (like a piece of hardwood).
But be aware that _too_ much force applied this way onto
individual teeth can snap them off.

John

DaveB Wrote:
Ok so I have the house to myself for an afternoon's quality study and I
make the fatal mistake of "a quick look" at Sheldon Brown's singl
speed
page. The next thing you know the house stinks of citrus degreaser and
there's a 6 speed casette sitting where the text book should be. So
here's my two questions which hopefully nobody will answer till after
I've actually done some study.

1, The bike to become the SS has a standard freewheel roadie hub and
casette. Do I need to replace the casette with something that has one
sprocket only, or can I remove the sprockets from the casette and
rebuild it with spacers where the unneeded sprockets were?

2, How the hell do you take apart a casette? Given Sheldon says "Yo
can
often get a suitable number of spacers by taking apart a couple of
discarded, worn-out cassettes" I'm assuming you can take them apar
but
I'm wondering how destructive you have to be about it.

DaveB "high on citrus fumes"

dont they all just fall apart into their separate pieces once pulle
off the cassette body? (campy do...)
some older cassettes are mad of 'groups' (for want of correct term
comprising 2-3 cogs. is this what you have neded up with?
If yuze got the roight tool to undo the ockring thingy you should jus
be able to slide the bits off.
i see a trip to LBS for you to get appropriate tool and extra spacer

--
flyingdutch

"DaveB" wrote in message
...
Ok so I have the house to myself for an afternoon's quality study and I
make the fatal mistake of "a quick look" at Sheldon Brown's single speed
page. The next thing you know the house stinks of citrus degreaser and
there's a 6 speed casette sitting where the text book should be. So
here's my two questions which hopefully nobody will answer till after
I've actually done some study.

1, The bike to become the SS has a standard freewheel roadie hub and
casette. Do I need to replace the casette with something that has one
sprocket only, or can I remove the sprockets from the casette and
rebuild it with spacers where the unneeded sprockets were?

2, How the hell do you take apart a casette? Given Sheldon says "You can
often get a suitable number of spacers by taking apart a couple of
discarded, worn-out cassettes" I'm assuming you can take them apart but
I'm wondering how destructive you have to be about it.

DaveB "high on citrus fumes"
well you were in the right place, just on the wrong page.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/freewheels.html#replace

DaveB Wrote:
Ok so I have the house to myself for an afternoon's quality study and I
make the fatal mistake of "a quick look" at Sheldon Brown's singl
speed
page. The next thing you know the house stinks of citrus degreaser and
there's a 6 speed casette sitting where the text book should be. So
here's my two questions which hopefully nobody will answer till after
I've actually done some study.

1, The bike to become the SS has a standard freewheel roadie hub and
casette. Do I need to replace the casette with something that has one
sprocket only, or can I remove the sprockets from the casette and
rebuild it with spacers where the unneeded sprockets were?

2, How the hell do you take apart a casette? Given Sheldon says "Yo
can
often get a suitable number of spacers by taking apart a couple of
discarded, worn-out cassettes" I'm assuming you can take them apar
but
I'm wondering how destructive you have to be about it.

DaveB "high on citrus fumes"

1a. No......
1b. Yes.

Pull apart cassette/s. Choose sprocket size you want. Put spacers
chosen sprocket back on. Take some time here to get the chain-line a
straight as possible. You may need the smallest sprocket (ie, 11 or 12
as well as the lock ring to hold everything in place properly.

2. Some cassettes use small allen keyed bolts (~2mm) or hex bolts
while some are riveted together. Undo bolts o
drill/dremel/crowbar/angle grind the rivets.

You will need more than one cassette worth of spacers to fill the ga
from the missing/redundant sprockets.

Enjoy the SS :-

--
Bikesoiler

i see a trip to LBS for you to get appropriate tool and extra spacers



I thought I had the appropriate tool, it's called a 600mm pipe wrench
(that oughta have those anti-multigrip people cringing). But alas still
couldn't manage to get a combination of that, some old lengths of chain
and a vice to have much impact. Amazingly after that the sprockets still
look ok. Looks like a discussion required on BR tomorrow.

DaveB

Soiler/Dutch/Gags are any of you BR'ing tomorrow? If so I might bring
the bloody thing along for closer examination.

DaveB "with no option left but to study"

DaveB Wrote:

i see a trip to LBS for you to get appropriate tool and extra
spacers



I thought I had the appropriate tool, it's called a 600mm pipe wrench
(that oughta have those anti-multigrip people cringing). But alas
still
couldn't manage to get a combination of that, some old lengths of
chain
and a vice to have much impact. Amazingly after that the sprockets
still
look ok. Looks like a discussion required on BR tomorrow.

DaveB

Are you sure it's a cassette & not a cluster?

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/freewheels.html#replace


--
Bikesoiler

DaveB Wrote:
Soiler/Dutch/Gags are any of you BR'ing tomorrow? If so I might bring
the bloody thing along for closer examination.

DaveB "with no option left but to study"

genvale for moi

D"ooooooh. no hill!"Dutc

--
flyingdutch