Customer Reviews

Park Tool FR-5G Cassette Lockring Tool with Guide Pin

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Like all Park tools, this one is nicely made and has a good "feel" to it. Unless you're a professional bike mechanic, you probably won't use this tool often--but when you need it, nothing else will work. I may not use it again for years--but it's nice to have it in my toolbox, just in case.

A couple of notes for beginners: you will also need 1.) a chainwhip, and 2.) a big Crescent wrench. I learned this the hard way. If you have all three tools, you can remove your cassette in a couple of minutes. If you don't have all three tools, forget it! (Most people probably already know this, but I guess I was a slow learner!)

This my review for the FR-5G from Park tool.

There is not much to it.It is a very good quality piece. It seems to be machined out of a very high quality steel,stainless or other solid metal ( heat treated maybe). The finish will keep it from corroding for a very long time. The guide pin is removable and screws on and off. It is supposed to work on Shimano, Sram, Suntour, Sunrace, Chris King, etc but I have only tried it with my Shimano Megadrive and works great!


The price might be a couple dollars higher that a normal FR-5 which does not have the guide pin. The guide pin is not necessary and usually the axle skewer can be used as a guide. It is up you which one you buy. I just figured better safe than sorry (in case the skewer trick does not work), plus you get the precision and quality of Park Tool.

I actually have the version of this Park tool with a spindle that goes into the hollow quick release style axle. It removes the lockring that holds the gear rings on the cassette's spline body. You might think you would never want to remove those, but it is a handy thing to do for cleaning grit and gunk from your cluster. Just remove them and soak them in a cleaning solution, rinse, dry, and reinstall. Also, removing the gear rings gives you more room if you need to adjust the bearing cones or allows you to replace a worn ring. But, the back five or six gear rings are riveted together in one piece. This tool did not fit the cheap cassette on my wife's Wal-Mart bike, though. A chain whip or the careful use of a pipe wrench is a necessary auxillary tool to hold the cassette so it does not turn when removing the retaining ring.

I have quit using chainwhips as much as possible. These things can take your eye out if they break on a stuborn hyperglide style cassette lockring. I like the Stein Hyperhandle used in conjunction with the Lifu Cassette Lockring Tool (Icetoolz is a brand used for Lifu made tools for bicycles) - it makes easy work of cassettes with out endangering oneself with by using a medieval instrument of death - the chainwhip. The Lifu has longer splines and the center spike doesn't come loose like the Park version.

If you work in a shop, you owe it to yourself to finding a better tool. For all of the wheel work that I do (replacing broken spokes) - having a higher quality tool makes great sense.

http://www.amazon.com/IceToolz-Cassette-Lockring-Tool-PIN/dp/B0028N57UU/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1279081062&sr=1-2-fkmr0

What can I say about Park tools? They work! They fit! They seem to last forever! Highly recommended! Makes working with your 7-9 speed cassette effortless.

I received my cassette lockring removal tool in it's original wrapper. I noticed that it was a little to easy to slip it into the lockring of my Sunrace cassette to remove it. As I tried to remove the lockring, the Park Tool just clicked as it turned. I thought the factory had missed up the lockring when they tightened it to specs., so I tried what I saw on Youtube and used a bladed screwdriver and a few hammer taps to loosen the lockring. Well it worked. Now I tried to tighten down my new Sram PG-850 cassette and the tool skipped notches like it did before. This tool didn't work in either case. I think there is a bad batch of these coming from the factory that don't do what they're suppose to do. My Park Tool was just a little too small for the lockring and wouldn't work to tighten or loosen the lockring in my case. Hey, it's Made in America so what's going on at Park Tool?

This is a simple tool, but removing the cassette without it can be pure pain. The guide pin helps a bit too. I'm completely satisfied with it.

I have tried this with at least 3 different Shimano cassettes but it failed to fit any of them, I have used the one came with the cheap bike mechanic kit instead. I can probably make it work by grinding the splines a little with Dremel though. Possibly this one is flawed, Park Tool would have replaced it if I had send it back. Probably would if I was living in US.

Well, it was cheap and did the job. I don't know how many people are going to have a 26mm socket lying around to torque the lockring, but you'll need one if you want to do that. The SR-1 Chain Whip tool has a 26mm box end that will work if you feel like rolling the dice. I'd like to have the option of using a 3/8-in. or 1/2-in. square drive so I can directly attach this to a ratchet/torque wrench.

Claimed to be Shimano compatible, too big for my cassette's lock ring, just barely bit in; well enough to put the cassette on, but forget using it to remove one. Maybe mine was just defective as everyone else seems to have had no problem.