How To Change Your Cassette | Road Bike Maintenance

Switch your gears over with GCN's guide to removing and replacing your cassette.

You might need to change your cassette for any number of reasons; a new set of wheels, a worn cassette, or maybe you're adding some easier gears. Whatever your reason, changing your cassette is a job that you can definitely do at home with the help of just two specific tools – a chain whip and a cassette tool. Cassette tools vary based on whether you're using SRAM/Shimano or Campagnolo, so make sure you get the right one for your cassette.

After that, all the tips you need are in the video. Check it out and feel free to share if you know someone it'll help!

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[apburner]

I love your videos. Very informative. I do wish to point out one minor caveat. I have been a maintenance guy for 40 years just not bike. Mostly industrial. And I see this all the time. You are using you adjustable wrench backwards. When you use it pushing against the adjustable side it will tend to flex and will wear out faster. You also tend to cause rounding of the nut you are trying to loosen.

[patrickmcm]

"adjusting gear ratios... if that's your kind of thing" - love it!! Thanks for a great video

[MarioDeFeliceNetworkEngineer]

Thanks, non-veteran-Si. Years from this video and still helping to mount my cassettes (turbo trainer this time).

[georgetfzhang]

Awesome how to video as always. Just one tip though, it's always good habit to grease the thread of the lock ring since it's a high torque component. cheers

[andyglawe]

Simon just a small detail. Adjustable wrenches are designed to self tighten on the nut if you hold them the right way around. You need to turn the spanner around so that the adjustable part of the wrench is underneath the force you are applying to it thus lessening the chance of rounding off the nut.

[jamspandex]

This is excellent - clear and concise without any unnecessary chat - I salute you sir !

[blabot]

More like Zipp 808 NSFW, because those wheels are sexy as hell.

[sekonic]

Love the way you guys make this process seem so easy!

[jk]

Followed the instructions today and easily swapped a couple of cassettes over - thankyou! I used a torgque wrench to get more leverage - handy also for setting the correct amount of tension when you tighten.

[williamkeys]

Nice video. One thing I would add is to make sure to thread the lock ring on by hand before you take a wrench to it. It's really easy to cross thread and you could ruin an aluminum freehub body in an instant. It looks like Si did hand thread in the video, he just didn't emphasize the importance of getting it right.

[dentatusdentatus]

I noticed you did not use a torque wrench when tightening the cassette. how do you avoid over-tightening without a torque wrench? Is there a way to know if you over or under-tighten the cassette?

[ravennexusmh]

Just built a specific cassette for my crazy neighbor. Wants easy climbing gears but 1t steps on the fast end.
Had a 11-32 and a 12 -25 9 speed around. So ground the rivet heads off did some cog mixing and made him an 11-12-13-14-15-17-21-25-32. Works great

[jrustyshaffer]

You guys are brilliant. Every single video you produce is clear, concise and illustrative. Thank you!

[DeanPorterEsq]

Another informative video, I'm not into cycling as a sport, but always appreciate informativevideos that help me learn.

[PanzerIV]

Finally a good video on Youtube that clearly explain how to do remove a cassette with REAL TOOLS, not some stupid video with suspcicious homemade methods which no way I would attempt on my 5000$ bike.

[huntermediaphotography]

Very cool. Short and to the point. Thank you.

[johnbolt]

Putting the skewer back in to hold the tool is brilliant!

[grahammoss]

I loved the phrase "reassuring difficult to get wrong." I usually find a way!
Bit by bit I'm learning to do more of my own maintenance and ashamed I didn't do it years ago. I changed my first cassette last night following this video, but still - somehow - managed to make a pig's ear of it fitting the smallest cog in a way that it didn't sit right and ripping the thread off the lockring. Simon says: "Simple process"! I re-did it all (twice) and finally got it right, using a spare lockring I happened to have. Still not sure how I messed it up, but I've certainly learned plenty in the process.

[petermacgregor]

You guys make it sound so easy. I actually did it and it was easy- the only negative is you guys will put the local bike shops out of business!

[alexberman]

hi, you said at the end of the video to tighten the cassette fully with the spanner, but how do you know how tight it needs to be? Don't you need a torque wrench? Thanks