Hello, I am having trouble getting the cassette off of a wheel that I recently acquired. I am not using a chain whip, I have seen people get cassettes off without them. Specifically, I am having trouble getting the lockring off of the top of the cassette. There is a picture included to show the shape of the ring that I cannot remove, does anyone know how I get this sucker off?

Thank you.

Try park tools website?

With a cassette hub you need a chain whip or similar device to secure the cogs so that you can remove the lockring.

What you have there looks like an FFS (front freewheel) system... do these cogs spin or are they fixed to the hub ?

are you sure this is a cassette hub? this looks like a lockring on a freewheel and isn't designed to be removed. rather, you need the proper freewheel remover to engage the splines visible just above the axle. also, you will not need a chain whip in this case.

@Sixty Fiver - it looks like the freewheel in question is one of those old ones from the late 70's that had a steel barrier beyond the smallest cog, so the chain can't slip off and stick between the dropout and the cog.

The cogset on that is specific to the FFS and is not compatible with standard derailleur systems... am betting it came off an old Schwinn of some type like the Suburban.

The assembly of that cogset is really complicated and if you wanted to take it apart and service it you are looking at a fairly complicated job.

The imprint is faint but am sure this is an FFS... if the OP cleaned things up am sure it says "For Front Freewheel System Only".

Yeah they are fixed to the hub.

under an FFS, are the rear gears fixed to the hub by a sort of spline+lockring, or does hte whole unit screw onto normal freewheel threads? I'd always assumed it was the latter (which would be removable with a single chain whip), but I haven't actually worked on one of those before.

Apparently they screw onto normal freewheel threads. However, a chainwhip wouldn't work because the gears do have a bit of freewheeling ability. It takes a bit of force, but the cogs can be spun backwards by hand.

We had an FFS equipped wheel come into the co-op with broken drive side spokes. At the time we couldn't figure out how to get the gear cluster off, but I did some research afterwards: The axle needs to be removed, and then a freewheel socket will fit in and unscrew the cluster.