All mtn 7. Ridden 38 times... And now this..

[Mikerb]

Others have already pointed out that you have an obvious fault with your drivetrain and with that much movement on your cassette it looks to me like you have at least one collapsed bearing either in the freehub or the rear hub or both. Whatever the cause there is now ay you should be riding it like that since it could lead to damage that cannot be repaired without a new hub. It will take less than 10 minutes to strip the cassette and freehub off the rear hub and check what is going on there.

Do I get a prize?
Glad its fixed mate, but now you need to make sure it does not happen again! Most freehub assemblies rely only on fairly feeble rubber seals and some grease to prevent water, dust, mud ingress. The grease on those seals needs renewing fairly regularly for them to be effective and the freehub assembly will certainly need stripping and cleaning if you are riding in particularly wet and muddy conditions. When cleaning a very muddy bike any garden hose is capable of driving dirt into the freehub through the seals if it is directed directly at them. I appreciate your cassette nut had shed its thread but the most likely reason that happened was the hub or freehub bearing seizing.
So removing the cassette and freehub and hub axle in order to inspect clean and regrease everything now needs to be part of your regular maintenance routine.

 

[Tubby G]

Do I get a prize?
Glad its fixed mate, but now you need to make sure it does not happen again! Most freehub assemblies rely only on fairly feeble rubber seals and some grease to prevent water, dust, mud ingress. The grease on those seals needs renewing fairly regularly for them to be effective and the freehub assembly will certainly need stripping and cleaning if you are riding in particularly wet and muddy conditions. When cleaning a very muddy bike any garden hose is capable of driving dirt into the freehub through the seals if it is directed directly at them. I appreciate your cassette nut had shed its thread but the most likely reason that happened was the hub or freehub bearing seizing.
So removing the cassette and freehub and hub axle in order to inspect clean and regrease everything now needs to be part of your regular maintenance routine.

Must admit I’m someone that has never maintained a hub and has just handed bikes to a bike shop in the past for servicing and opened my wallet. However, I’m starting to carry out maintenance myself and finding it much easier than expected. So, for hubs, and removing the cassette, I presume I require a chain whip and a suitable lock ring removal tool, and find some YouTube vids to assist ? Are there any particular tools for taking hubs apart too ?

 

[Mikerb]

Must admit I’m someone that has never maintained a hub and has just handed bikes to a bike shop in the past for servicing and opened my wallet. However, I’m starting to carry out maintenance myself and finding it much easier than expected. So, for hubs, and removing the cassette, I presume I require a chain whip and a suitable lock ring removal tool, and find some YouTube vids to assist ? Are there any particular tools for taking hubs apart too ?

The design of hubs/freehubs varies so finding your set up on YT is a good way to become familiar with how it is stripped and rebuilt. In general though, yes you need a chain whip and cassette nut tool........and a torque wrench. Unless you are going to replace bearings the only other possible specialist tools you will need are cone spanners ( to remove the hub axle on some hub designs). Having stripped the cassette, freehub and hub axle for inspection, cleaning and re-greasing on one occasion you will find that future inspections/servicing takes no longer than 20 minutes and once you have the tools the only other things you need is clean rag and grease, so it costs nothing.

 

[Tubby G]

The design of hubs/freehubs varies so finding your set up on YT is a good way to become familiar with how it is stripped and rebuilt. In general though, yes you need a chain whip and cassette nut tool........and a torque wrench. Unless you are going to replace bearings the only other possible specialist tools you will need are cone spanners ( to remove the hub axle on some hub designs). Having stripped the cassette, freehub and hub axle for inspection, cleaning and re-greasing on one occasion you will find that future inspections/servicing takes no longer than 20 minutes and once you have the tools the only other things you need is clean rag and grease, so it costs nothing.

appreciate your response thanks, I'll be watching some GMBN Tech vids on hub maintenance and start investing in my tool kit

I have a Shimano M6100 on my full suss and a Sunrace cassette on my hardtail. It'll be handy to be able to change cassettes myself too as I'm realising these emtb's eat through components £££££££££££££££££££££!!

 

[Mikerb]

It is the hub that really defines how you do the servicing regardless what cassette is being used. The hub defines what type (s) of freehub it will accept and how the hub axle is secured.