Hi everyone,
The cassette on my mountain bike is moving a bit. Could this be because I’m missing a spacer, or might it be another issue? And if it’s the spacer, which one would I need?
by OpportunityCurious68
Hi everyone,
The cassette on my mountain bike is moving a bit. Could this be because I’m missing a spacer, or might it be another issue? And if it’s the spacer, which one would I need?
by OpportunityCurious68
4 Comments
Yes, you are very likely missing a spacer behind the cassette.
Or the Freehub body is loose ?
https://preview.redd.it/p7pdzsx8kykf1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=a96a1bab5e7bfff478c28eb9ff0757241d6b3684
This ring is what your are missing.
Likely not a spacer.
This appears to be a 12 speed mountain cassette. Unless this is on a road freehub body then you don’t need a spacer because you’re mounting it on a Microspine, XD, or 9-speed Hyperglide (which is the “standard” for mountain bike Hyperglide freehubs).
Most likely your freehub body is loose and this is usually caused by it not being fully seated. Either one of the pawls got caught on something during installation, or more likely the end cap isn’t installed all the way.
Recheck your freehub body seating, make sure it’s in all the way, and then tap the end cap with a mallet to get it to “pop” in. There’s a rubber gasket on the inside of many end caps that acts as the “lock”. It needs to pop over a lip on the axle to secure your freehub body onto your axle. Sometimes that gasket is a really tight fit (I’m looking at you, DT Swiss) and takes some force to secure. Sometimes it’s looser and the whole freehub body can pop off with regular wheel-off maintenance (Zipp is notorious for this).