Cassette past its best. Need advice.

[BlackPanther]

On my Ice trice QNT, over the last couple of days I've noticed a rattle which turns out to be the cassette. After removing the wheel, I noticed that all gears 1-6 have play in them both sideways and clock/anti clockwise. For some reason, the lockring is not the standard Shimano one it has only 4 'teeth holes', so my removal tool doesn't work----and I'm guessing the cassette is shot and will need replacing anyway.

2 questions.

1/ Where can I get the right tool? Can find it on t'internet.

2/ The cassette currently fitted is the Ice Custom Capreo 9-32 cassette 9 speed. I need the high 9 tooth, but very rarely drop below 3rd gear, and never drop of the large front chainring, so I really don't need or want the low down gearing. Could I just swap for a 9-26 such as this? http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/shimano-capreo-cs-f700-9-speed-cassette-9-26-prod13432/

It's half the price, and I can't see any downsides, unless you know better.

 

[Tigerbiten]

I had the same loose sprockets on my old Q.
I did well over 2,000 miles on tour like that.
When I had the trike serviced at ICE, they just undid the lock ring and tightened up the outer 3 fixed sprockets to solve the problem before retighten the lock ring.
Never had any more problems with the cassette after that.

I'd contact ICE about the tool to loosen the lock ring.
If they don't have one, they will know where to get one.

The 9-26 is the same cassette ICE start with before they mod it to 9-32, so it will work fine.
But I'd wait until you have tighten up the old cassette before buying it.
If the old cassettes teeth are not worn, then I don't think you'll need it once the old one's tightened up.

 

[Scoosh]

You might also be able to save some weight by shortening your chain by a few links with the 9-26 cassette !

I know I have 2 lock-ring tools, which I believe to be 1x Shimano/SRAM and 1x Campagnolo ...

 

[jayjay]

I had a rattle from the sprockets because I'd had the Ice Capreo apart (its a special spanner) and hadn't given it enough torque when tightening. The rattle may have affected gearchanging and wear, but nothing I noticed, and it went back to quiet when I tightened it again. It has a clicker action behind the locknut to hold it.