Cassette and Freewheel Tools
Browse used cassette and freewheel tools for sale from riders across the UK. Taking a cassette off needs two tools working against each other — a splined lockring tool in the lockring and a chain whip holding the sprockets so they cannot spin the freehub — while an older screw-on freewheel comes off with a single puller matched to its brand. This category covers both, along with the whips and sprocket holders sized for 8 to 12-speed chain.
Do I have a cassette or a freewheel?
Look into the centre of the smallest sprocket. A cassette shows a lockring with a ring of fine splines around the axle, and the sprockets slide off a separate freehub body once that ring is undone. A freewheel has two or four deep notches instead, the ratchet mechanism is inside the cluster rather than in the hub, and the whole unit unscrews from the hub threads. Freewheels are mostly found on older bikes and on cheap wheels with a smallest sprocket of 14 teeth; almost everything with more than seven sprockets is a cassette.
Which lockring tool fits my cassette?
Shimano and SRAM HG lockrings take a 12-spline tool, the pattern of the Park Tool FR-5.2, and the same splines are used on Centerlock disc rotors, so one tool covers both jobs. Campagnolo uses a different spline count and needs its own tool. Some versions come with a 12mm guide pin that threads through the tool and into a through-axle hub, which keeps the tool square and stops it jumping out — well worth having if your wheels are through-axle. Freewheel pullers are not interchangeable at all; the notch pattern differs by manufacturer, so a puller for one brand will chew the notches on another.
Why do I need a chain whip as well?
Because the freehub ratchets. Undoing the lockring turns the sprockets backwards, exactly the direction the freehub spins freely, so nothing happens until a chain whip wrapped round a sprocket holds the stack against that rotation. Chain width matters: a whip built with 8-speed chain sits too wide to seat properly on 11 and 12-speed sprockets and will skip off under load. Freewheels do not need a whip, since they self-tighten and unscrew against their own thread. Reinstalling is where torque tools come in, as HG lockrings want roughly 40Nm and a hand-tight one will loosen on a climb.
What wears out on used cassette tools?
On a chain whip, it is the chain itself — the rollers wear and the chain stretches, and a stretched whip chain rides up over narrow modern sprockets instead of gripping. Check the chain still sits down between the teeth and that the rivet holding it to the handle is tight. On a lockring tool, look for rounded spline corners and burring on the flats where a spanner has been used, plus stripped threads in the guide-pin hole. Freewheel pullers take the worst of it, because a freewheel that has been ridden for years can need enormous force, and the classic failure is the four drive notches rounding to the point where the tool spins in place.
What should these cost used, and when should I buy new?
Plain steel tools with no moving parts, used a few times a year, so half of new is a fair mark for a lockring tool or a puller in good order. Buy new if the splines or notches look at all rounded — the tool is cheap, and a slip damages a lockring or freewheel that costs far more. Chain whips are the item most worth checking in person, since the wear is in the chain rather than the handle and photographs rarely show it; the rest of the workshop tools here often list them bundled with a lockring tool, which is the sensible way to buy both.