Originally Posted by queerpunk
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.
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Yes, then, we did misunderstand. Anyways, that method of tightening the cog works fine. I have used it. Obviously, you have a huge lever arm (=wheel radius) when you do this, so it would be a bad idea to apply as much force as you would use with a chain whip.
I would not use this technique on a bike with a nice paint job because the chain could scratch the paint on the bottom bracket.