How to split a rear cassette ?

[BADGER.BRAD]

Hello All,

I have converted my lads school bike to single speed MTB using a miss match of parts from my junk box ( the cheap abused dérailleur caused some horrible auto changing and threw the chain off every other lampost) The next step is to get rid of the unwanted chain-rings from the rear cassette, Has anyone split one of these before ? How did you do it and will two old cassettes provide enough spacers to do the job ? Can you remove all the rings even the biggest one ? The main objective is to make the bike as simple/basic as possible without spending on it.

Sorry about the spelling of the title ? I don't seem to be able to alter it !

Many thanks.

Brad

 

[alecstilleyedye]

if it's a screw on freewheel, it won't split.

if it's a cassette, then it's a maybe. if the cassette splits to individual sprockets then use spacers to replace the removed sprockets. some cassettes are partly fused together, to save weight…

 

[Zoiders]

Some cassettes are in fact are held together with teeny tiny allen bolts that simply unscrew, some are pinned.

Pinned ones you simply have to drill or file the head off the pins on the back of the largest sprocket and they split easily with a flat bladed screw driver if they don't quite seperate cleanly, two cassettes will be plenty for spacers.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Thanks for the info ,I'll have a go at splitting it the weekend. My lad seems to be enjoying it at the moment but his mate did moan about the 11 mph top speed ! Having said that my lad seems to take pleasure in wheeling the thing !

 

[andrew_s]

The Gusset single speed kit is designed for the job. It's cheaper than getting another cassette to obtain the spacers, as well as working better.
A single sprocket may not be held sufficiently solidly by a stack of plastic spacers without the bracing from the rivets and adjacent sprockets.

 

[Cheradenine]

The Gusset single speed kit is designed for the job. It's cheaper than getting another cassette to obtain the spacers, as well as working better.
A single sprocket may not be held sufficiently solidly by a stack of plastic spacers without the bracing from the rivets and adjacent sprockets.

Is the idea not to use cassettes that are too worn for geared use anymore?

A friend has this conversion on his winter bike and the sprocket runs fine with no wobble, the plastic spacers are probably just as strong as the aluminium of a conversion kit.

I am sure your local shop may have a few dead cassettes knocking about for free if you ask.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

The problem with some of the commercial single speed conversions is I would still end up buying parts to replace the front chain set rather than using the one I have, Using the plastic spacers allows me to arrange the rear sprocket to match the front, In my particular case the front is just a cheap 3 speed chain wheel with the rivets drilled out to leave just the one which is fixed in position. All parts were on the original bike apart from the spacers from the old cassette. Of course if I was building up a single speed from scratch rather than just economy I'd go for the commercial one and use a BMX chain rather than one made to derail a problem I found even when the chain was only slightly out of alignment.

 

[Ash28]

I split a cassette by using a dremel type tool with a small grinding wheel to grind the top of the pins that hold it together.