Keep this one handy ’cause it will save you a trip to the bike store before and after every race. Swapping your cog set from a training wheel to a racing wheel and back again is super easy and something you can do on your own. You’ll need 3 tools and 2.5 minutes. 5 minutes if you want to clean your cog set at the same time.
You can pick two of these tools up at most bike stores. The other is your standard Vice Grip or Monkey wrench.
Tool #1. Chain Whip – Used to hold your cogset in place while you unscrew the lock ring.
Tool#2. Lock ring remover (A.K.A. freewheel remover) No need to get fancy.
Tool#3. A wrench to turn the lock ring remover.
The best angle to get all this going is to be standing over top of the wheel with the wheel resting on your shins, cogs facing out. Put the lock ring remover into the lock ring and put the chain whip on. Putting the chain whip on can be a bit confusing your first time. Your goal with the chain whip is to hold the cogs in place and keep them from spinning when you turn the lock ring. Then simply unscrew the lock ring with the wrench while holding the cogs in place with the chain whip.
Set it up like so – but vertical so you can put some body weight on the wrenches.
Now you can pull off the gears. Unless you’ve got the sweetness that is SRAM Red they will most likely be individual. If they’re not individual you can go a step further (if you want) and unscrew the little pins holding everything together. This makes life so much easier for cleaning.
Putting them back on is easy, simply pretend you’re in kindergarten and line up the shapes and sizes. You’ll notice the inside of each cog has some notches. There will be one big notch that you need to line up with the big notch on your wheel. Apply one at a time with a spacer in between each. Or, if you were one of the few that got a Darth Vader sticker in Kindergarten you can probably hold everything together as one piece without spilling, then transfer the whole shabang.
Tighten your lock ring again(snug, but don’t jump on it) and you’ll be good to go…. adjusting your derailler not included. Questions welcome.
