Hard one to explain but my Giant TCR road bike has an annoying creak and so I took off the cassette which is an ultegra 11 speed (I think) to re-grease the hub and re-tighten it, just in case.Â
Anyway, I noticed when trying to re-fit the cassette it wasn't tightening up. On further inspection there was a very thin, flexible metal kind of ring (not a spacer) embedded on the inside of the end-cap. It was kind of mangled and folded over at the top (I asusme I've clumsily trapped it that way when previously fitting the cassette). I think that was preventing the end-cap being tightened.Â
I took it out and binned it but am wondering if its really needed and what it was for. On the one hand, I can't see a use for it but on the other hand why would it be there in the first place otherwise.Â
The reason I'm asking is that the creak on my bike did not disappear but is now a *different* sounding creak (sigh) so I'm wondering whether the absence of the mystery piece of metal I removed is possibly the cause of the new creaking/grinding sound I can hear. I did make sure to grease the inside of the end-cap itself when re-fitting the cassette.
Gears shift completely fine as before, no adjustment needed. Â
I'll post a pic below...
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Not needed, just useful to allow tightening and loosening of the endcap. Acts as a sort of spring washer ish.
As long as everything is clean and properly lubed/torqued, you can remove it/manage without. I've got a few wheels without one (probably more with one though!)
And you can buy replacements if you want to.
That looks like the thin locknut washer that gets deformed when the cassette locknut gets tightened.
Hmm, the fact you can buy replacements and, as blaggers notes, they deform on tightening makes me wonder if they should be replaced every time like a crush washer. Interesting.Â
Think they are really there to cover the lowest common denominator rather than an essential feature.
Thanks all, sounds like its most likely non-essential then!Â
Guess I'll keep looking for the creak but will rule-out the missing washer as a variable.Â
I'd always assumed they were like those three funny dog bone things you get with 6 bolt rotors. No idea what either is for, but in 20 years of not knowing whether I should bother or not, it hasn't made the slightest difference.
It's a locking washer,is it not?
I have had cassette-hub matches that were a bit of strange fit.
A spacer was too much and had the final cog sitting on the very edge of the freewheel ,but without it the cassette wouldn't tighten up. Ended up machining a spacer in half.
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I've always thought they were there to stop the lockring biting into the cassette to hard to early while you torque it up.
It reduces friction between the cassette and lockring so you're more likely to get a genuine 40nM. If the lockring bites into the cassette, your torque wrench will click before you actually achieved the correct clamping force.
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