Originally Posted by
shryke
Thanks for the help! Another newbie question - is there a standard size cassette lockring tool that works on all cassettes, or are they cassette-specific? I'm guessing the 6-sprocket cassette on my bike is the same age as the bike, so from sometime in the 80s. Would that require a long out of production, hard-to-find lockring tool?
If your bike has 6 sprockets at the rear its most likely a freewheel, not a cassette.
Removing freewheels is a bit more complicated than removing a cassette. There are indeed more types of freewheel pullers than there are cassette lockring removal tools.
Still, a decent shop should have the required tools at hand w/o you having to search high and low for it.
If you remove the wheel from the bike, and post a close-up pic of the sprocket cluster as seen from the axle end, someone here would most likely be able to say what you have and what tool is needed.