i think yall misunderstand. it's not about whether nor not the lockring is there. it's about the method of tightening on the cog (which, incidentally, might make the lockring moot--though don't get me wrong, i'm all about redundancy in machines) that i'm asking about. damn, some of yall on this board are snarky. what's up with that?

flythebike, thanks for some very worthwhile imput (compared to most of the others who've posted).

as for wangster, the reason why your response wasn't helpful to me is that it gave me an imperative without offering any reason or understanding. it wasn't helpful. your second post was more helpful.

and for the people who (sarcastically?) are waiting for me to die or get real banged up, notice that i never said i was doing this to my bike. i've got a lockring. i'm just curious about the setup.

look, on the internet, it's real easy to come across as an @sshole, cause you're not talking to people, you're talking to faceless words through a computer screen. but being an @sshole is still being an @sshole, and let's try to minimize it, hey?