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Unpopular opinion: stop overtightening cassette lockrings like they're lug nuts

Had a guy bring in a hub last week with a trashed freehub body because he torqued the lockring to what felt like 80 ft-lbs, you only need like 40 Nm max, has anyone else seen this wreck stuff or just me?
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3 Comments
leodavis
leodavis1mo ago
@the_amy knows, right? Nobody's building a skyscraper, it's a cassette.
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eric_knight7
Yeah I'm gonna admit I used to be the guy who'd crank those down like I was changing a tire on a semi. Thought tighter was always better, you know? Then I stripped a DT Swiss hub shell and had to buy a whole new wheel basically. 40 Nm is plenty, you're not holding a car wheel on, it's just a ring holding a cassette in place. I switched to a torque key and never looked back.
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the_amy
the_amy1mo agoTop Commenter
Still gotta remember that torque specs are usually for clean dry threads too, not greased up or covered in old gritty chain lube. That extra slipperiness can mess with the reading and you end up way over or under what the dial says. Plenty of guys wreck hubs from the other direction too, undertorquing and letting the cassette rattle around and chew up the splines.
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