I helped a friend swap her wheelset this morning from her TT bike to her Road bike. The TT bike wheelset (easton) had a 12-27 (10 speed) that had been put on by a LBS. Her roadbike is an older Quintana Roo 9 speed.

I got out my tools, put the chainwhip in place on the 10 speed cassette, got the lockring tool and wrench set up and applied pressure. Nothing. Strained a little more. Nothing. Gave it all I got. Nothing. I finally got a bigger wrench and extended it with a pipe to get enough leverage to get the lockring off. After removal, I noticed the lockring washer was toast and actually had some metal shavings hanging off it.

This is the first time I've had to struggle like this to get a lockring off. When I install lockrings (Shimano all say 40nm) I tighten with a "moderate amount" of force but nothing so crazy as to cause me to get out a bigger wrench to remove it...and I've never seen a washer so destroyed.

So what say you...

• How fussy are you about tightening your lockring?
• Do you use a torque wrench?
• Do you ever destroy the washer?
• Do you ever replace the washer?