went to the bike kitchen last night and installed the cheap Cog and Lock Ring. Was glad I went and didn't try to ghetto ring it all at home (which I could of via cheap universal bike tool + rotafix) I went in, after waiting 2 hours, they give me a helper. I grabbed the grease and greased up my sheettt, grabbed my rear wheel, a chain whip and tightened the cog until my hands were in agony. Found a much nicer lockring tool then I had and tightened the lockring. Then the nice kid who was helping me held the wheel in place and again, I tightened the lockring til my hands were in agony and I'd developed a little crowd watching me as I struggled. Got everything done, went back and threw my wheel on my bike with a 17T Cog. I'm under the weather at the moment so I didn't get to really push myself but I felt a HUGE difference riding. The slight grades around Echo park were much easier to take, to feel I was cruising at a comfortable speed my cadence was much higher and I was able to do a fairly steep hill to the top with a lot less effort.

oh, and I managed to successfully skid for the first time as I rolled up to my house. Told my friend I could no longer drink any of his good beer, its only PBR and skinny jeans for me now. lawl.

If I find myself consistently riding on the 17T i'm going to grab a better cog and lockring and removing them will hopefully not strip my hub. Still feel to under the weather to really ride so next time I do a night ride or really push myself I'll be able to tell if I can get what I want out of this gearing.

Thanks Bikeforums, I managed to wrench it myself, ride it myself and enjoy the **** out of the whole process.