Cassettes that don't eat freehub bodies?

Have installed a permanent and easy fix for the damage issue related to aluminium freehub to steel/nickel cassette marriage. Okay, so it was easy but I am still brilliant (he said modestly).

Tools/resources:
 3 small bolts – circa 2mm wide and 15mm long after cutting off the head (as you get in a plastic multipack at your local hardware store).
 Hardware nail cutter (if necessary, score the bolt with the cutter in pliers and break by bending with the pliers)
 Metal file – to smooth the bolts where broken and smooth off some of the threading so that they insert easier.
 Usual tools for removing a cassette.

Situation
I run Shimano 105 10-speed cassette. Have had no problem with the original Bontrager (‘training’) wheels which have a steel freehub but now have some handmade racing wheels with aluminium (‘aluminum’ for my US cousins) freehubs.

After around 600kms climbing French mountains (Tourmalet et al) I found that the cassette had damaged the freehub. The damage was not in the first 3 (largest) cogs as they are a single unit so pressure on the freehub is spread when in these gears. For some reason the 4th gear, which is a single, also had not done any damage (which is a bonus as it does not have the hole required for the fix as follows.

Gears 5-8 (the ones with the plastic spacers) had all caused damage. Gears 9 and 10 had not caused any damage (it seems that these both have slightly wider connections to the freehub and also there is usually less torque/pressure when on these gears).

Rectification
The main problem gears of 5 to 8 and associated plastic spacers all come with 3 holes in them that line up. So I just used some small threaded bolts that fitted snugly to insert into these holes and effectively made these 4 gears into a single unit.

I had to remove the heads and cut them just less than the full width of these gears and spacers when as a single component.

So now when placing pressure on one of these cogs it will be spread to the others through the support that these bolts provide so I have the freehub splines and the bolts all working as one unit. Sure, the outside cogs of this unit (5 and 8) can still potentially move very, very slightly independently (ie not perfectly as one unit) but the overall support will help and it will stop the cogs cutting all the way through the freehub splines. Plus, the greatest damage was cogs 6 and 7 and as these are in the middle of this new one-unit section of 4 cogs, they will be the most supported. I have not used it yet on the aluminium spline and certainly will be interested in what it looks like in 6 months but I am completely confident that this is a permanent fix.

Oh, and I am sure that some people will wonder about the weight. It is 1 (one) gram. Nuf said.

The fix took about an hour (including after a few trys of other options). To do it again would be 30 mins easy.

We set up free trial days for customers bikes at shops that stock our chainlube.I remove the cassettes and chain and give them a good degreasing before applying lube.Its so frustrating that each bike removing the cassette is such a hassle because of aluminium freewheels.You get a steel freewheel and the cassette slides straight off.
Any update on the bodge???

deffo worth a go, if it saves your freehub body. break out the dremel multi and the araldite

Quote:

not sure whether the fact that it only engages through the end plate is a plus or a minus, since that would tend to concentrate the forces in one place rather than spreading them across the cassette

I'd suggest it's mainly a plus because:
1) the SRAM splines are the same height as shimano 9spd, so the cassettes are a snug fit on 8/9/10spd compatible freehubs
2) the engaging plate is much wider than an individual sprocket is, so less likely to damage the freehub body

i thought the sram red cassette was machined off of a big ol' block of steel. is the back bit aluminium them?

you're right though cat1, it is a thing of rare beauty...

i was suggesting red cause the cassette is a single CNCed piece... not sure whether the fact that it only engages through the end plate is a plus or a minus, since that would tend to concentrate the forces in one place rather than spreading them across the cassette.

... and cassettes from other SRAM groupsets which are also available. Or are you only suggesting Red since the contact with the freehub is through the aluminium end plate, which is therefore the same hardness?

(Always fancied getting a Red cassette, just as an ornament to keep on my bookshelf. It's a work of art.)

I was thinking that with any non-Shimano cassette the problem won't be so severe since their shallower notches will be a tighter fit.

Not having the spacer that the Shimano 10 speed cassette requires might help make things a bit more solid too.

...and SRAM Red of course

we were talking to a couple of people – American Classic had most to say – at the shows about this. Assuming you're running shimano 10spd the problem is that the sprockets have a reduced number of contact points which increases the load on the splines, and shimano have patented the deeper spline profile so other people can't use it. So aluminium freehubs can get a bit gouged

AC's extremely clever solution is to insert a hardened steel strip to take the load. they've patented that though, so no-one else can do that either

most wheel manufacturers who we've asked about the problem have basically the same solution: make sure you do the lockring up really, really, REALLY tight. the more contact you can get between the sprokets the better. Someone else told us that adding some threadlock between the sprockets before you do them up (really tight) can help as it increases friction between the sprockets and spreads the load. not sure about that though.

Prolite used to do a single piece CNC cassette (the Montechiaro) and Token do one too, i think. They don't tend to last as long, or shift as well, as the more mainstream kit though. There's a stronglight one with seven speeds on the carrier (i think) too