Originally Posted by dennis336

Thanks, guys, for the quick responses. Letting it go was the answer I was hoping for (it'll be a long time before I'll wear out the cassette on this bike). So, if there's little risk to just carrying on, that's what I'll do.

Scott, good suggestion on testing out the torque wrench - I'm not very experienced and I do want to change the cassette on my Trek Domane so I'd like to be more confident of what 40nm feels like. btw, my first instinct, too, was to try removing/loosening the lock ring but was unable to do it and got worried about doing more harm than good trying to undo it all.

Thanks again, really appreciate you all sharing your knowledge and experience!