I got a used CX bike and rode it for about two years. Recently I saw that the cassette had a lot of play. I dismantled it, cleaned it and put it back together. I torqued it with 40Nm, as required, but it sill has some play. I noticed before that the sprocket wheels have quite some play on the freehub body, when not locked (see: https://imgur.com/a/wom2GxC).
So now I’m wondering, is my cassette or freehub body worn? I read that some say to get a new lock ring and spacer, could this help?
Or am I overreacting and everything is ok for a 5 year old bike?
Thanks for your help 🙂
Here some more details:
Shimano GRX RD-RX812, Direct Mount, 11-Speed
Shimano CS-M7000, 11-42T
Wheels CUBE RA 0.8 CX
How much play in the cassette is ok? (CS-M7000)
byu/derphile inbikewrench
by derphile
7 Comments
Your rear hub is likely HG road which is longer than HG road so to use a mtb cassette you will need a 1.85mm cassette spacer.
Cogs moving independently like that means the lockring has bottomed out but there is still space in the free hub. You need to add a small cassette spacer behind the cassette.
In some cases there is a spacer that goes on before the cassette that allows everything to be squeezed together when you torque the locking. Another possibility is that the teeth of the cassette the interact with those on the freehub body dig in and over time could allow for some play. FYI, your link isn’t working
11-spd cassettes larger than 34T use HG8/9/10 freehub spacing. If being fit onto an HG11 freehub body, you’ll need a 1.85mm spacer underneath the cassette stack.
How much play is acceptable in a cassette?
Zero. If any of the sprockets move independently, it’s a problem, and will eat the freehub body and negatively impact shifting.
No play
Like the others said you might need a spacer. The only other thing I can think of if the spacer doesn’t do it is a lock ring washer. Sometimes the washer gets crushed from over torquing but most of the time it was never on the cassette.