kninetik

I recently wanted to swap out my cassette and it was stuck to the freehub. Needed to hammer the cogs off and here is the reason why. My cassette likes to eat my freehub (nom nom nom). The middle cogs are halfway through the slimmest spline.

Anyone else have hungry hungry cassettes?

Psimet2001 

Yes. Virtually all Shimano splines. The steel ones on Shimano branded hubs fare well but are like boat anchors so almost all aftermarket ones are prone to gouging.

FWIW - On a CAMPY - yes they can do it too - I had a rider put a campy cassette on incorrectly. Didn't even know that was possible until I found it. The cogs were buried in the middle of the shallow spline. I had to pry each cog backwards through the entire spline using a chain whip and a screw driver to hold the cassette in place....in a parking lot.....in between races......fun.

...I got a sunburn.

fishymamba

Mine is doing the same thing, I have not checked it for a while, I hope it's not as bad as yours.

Homebrew01

I think American Classic or someone makes little steel inserts of some kind to prevent that.

pdedes

I put those clip kits on all my aluminum freehubs.

gtragitt

Where can you buy a kit? On the American Classic website it appears that you need to purchase a hub.

svtmike

https://www.amclassic.com/store/page19.html

Scroll down to "10 speed clip kits".

kninetik

Do those Clip kits work on any manufacturer's shimano hub or are they specific to their (American Classic) only?

RT

I have never heard of, nor experienced this on any of my bikes. What on Earth is causing a cassette to stick on the freehub like that?

ridethecliche

Torque.

Aluminium being soft.

RT

Jesus H., my guads are not worthy.

Is it worth mentioning the maker of that hub, OP?

LowCel 

I've had to dremel a few cassettes bodies down after removing the cassettes. I'm hoping I have solved the problem by switching to a Red cassette.

svtmike

No, they will work with any manufacturer's Shimano hub. There are some odd cassettes that they don't work with, depending on number of individual thin cogs in the cassette.

svtmike

Or your freehub is steel.

RT

I have considered this, but do not know how to tell. My Forte Titans have several thousand miles on them, but being a low-end (but decent) budget wheel, it may be steel.

mmmdonuts

More tighty on the lockring please.

RT

Indeed. I don't even use a torque wrench and get it right, but then again I may be on steel. Still, if your lock ring is not tight enough, will you not experience play in your cassette?

kninetik

Not worthy of being mentioned!; its just some stock wheelset that comes with a complete bike. Now that someone's mentioned it, my friend's Powertap steel hub has the same mileage as mine yet the hub has no bite marks whatsoever. I also just assumed his guads were not worthy.

I dont use a torque wrench but I tighten the lockring as far as I can by hand. I will find a bigger wrench for the job. However, I'm wondering, if you put enough torque on the cassette, wouldn't it still bite into squishy aluminum?

pallen

I have a DT Swiss and a Velocity Road hub that both did this with very little mileage using Shimano cassettes. The guy at the LBS said that's pretty normal.

LowCel 

My powertap hub did it, a buddy of mine's powertap hub did it, I had a SRAM hub do it as well as a couple of others. I tighten the lockring plenty tight enough so I know that isn't the cause.

fishymamba

I think that might be part of the problem, you need tog get the cassette lock ring pretty tight.

mmmdonuts

It will bite some but a properly torqued cassette will do a better job of distributing the load across all of the cogs because they are under much higher compression. They work more as a unit. Less torque and less compression allow the cogs to bite individually. A one or two piece cassette would also help reduce the gouging.

Or go with Campy. They have much deeper and better shaped splines.

kninetik

Ah! what I meant by hand was that I didnt use any particularly awesome tools. Just a lockring tool, a 6" adjustable wrench and whatever force my arms can generate.

svtmike

Tightening the lockring doesn't cure it, and the max torque spec on the cassette isn't that huge anyway. It's purely a matter of the soft aluminum. AC gets around it now by putting steel edges on their freehub splines.

My PowerTap Pro is immune thanks to its steel freehub; my PowerTab SL+'s are not because of their aluminum freehubs.

The American Classic clips will not eliminate the biting but they do limit it enough that the cogs don't get embedded in the splines.

mmmdonuts

Not long enough to get to proper torque. Get a 12" wrench or socket breaker bar (or cheap torque wrench).