Bicycle Mechanics - Crooked tooth question

Hello there you pedal heads,

I have a problem with the second smallest sprocket on the 8 sprocket magazine on my kona shred. A couple of the teeth are bent away from the wheel and are causing trouble when shifting onto the smallest sprocket. Being a fairly mechanically minded sort, with absolutely no knowledge of bikes, I set about adjusting the position of the rear derailler to compensate for this problem. This unfortunately only led to a case of being denied the largest sprocket and still not having the chain run totally clear of these troublesome crooked teeth. So I now have two situations to chose from - A high gear that clangs and always tweaks out of position with no low gear or a low gear with a high gear that still tends to skip and run rough.

Hope thats enough background. What I want to do is tap tap tap those troublesome teeth back in line with their conformist brothers, but if anyone has an alterior method involving adjusting derailers in some special way or if there are any approved methods of realligning teeth (pliers, hammers i dunno) - i'd love to hear about it.

cheers for your time, if you give me any

J

Hello there you pedal heads,

I have a problem with the second smallest sprocket on the 8 sprocket magazine on my kona shred. A couple of the teeth are bent away from the wheel and are causing trouble when shifting onto the smallest sprocket. Being a fairly mechanically minded sort, with absolutely no knowledge of bikes, I set about adjusting the position of the rear derailler to compensate for this problem. This unfortunately only led to a case of being denied the largest sprocket and still not having the chain run totally clear of these troublesome crooked teeth. So I now have two situations to chose from - A high gear that clangs and always tweaks out of position with no low gear or a low gear with a high gear that still tends to skip and run rough.

Hope thats enough background. What I want to do is tap tap tap those troublesome teeth back in line with their conformist brothers, but if anyone has an alterior method involving adjusting derailers in some special way or if there are any approved methods of realligning teeth (pliers, hammers i dunno) - i'd love to hear about it.

cheers for your time, if you give me any

J

Replace the cog. It's not worth trying to realign the teeth. It may not even be possible. I'm not even sure how you could bend them in the first place.

If you have the tool to remove the cassette, most of them come apart so you could straighten the errant teeth with gentle tapping with a suitable hammer/anvil or a smooth jaw pliers or by clamping in a vise and bending. They are almost certainly steel and should tolerate this well. Cassette removal requires a chain wrench to immobilize the cassette on the freewheel and the tool to loosen the retainer ring which since it is R handed thread tightens in the chain driven direction.
Steve

Yeah dudes, nice one for getting back to me on that,

Unfortunately I have no tools apart from a fairly standard pair of pliers at my disposal - I'll try to get a replacement sprocket and a tool to replacement. I reckon it'll be a good learning experience.

J

Yeah dudes, nice one for getting back to me on that,

Unfortunately I have no tools apart from a fairly standard pair of pliers at my disposal - I'll try to get a replacement sprocket and a tool to replacement. I reckon it'll be a good learning experience.

J

You will need a lock ring tool, a large crescent wrench and a chain whip. Talk to a local bike shop and have them explain how to remove the cassette or go over to the Park tool website. They tell you everything!