Building a custom cassette

liversedge

My lad got disqualified in his first race on tuesday because he was under geared :-(

We need to get him a cassette with a small sprocket of 15 teeth and large of 30. As he gets older the lower sprocket can get smaller. He has an 8sp shimano setup with a long-reach derrailleur. We can only block off the first sprocket via the adjustment screws on the derailleur and we need to block off 2 which only leaves him 6 gears so that is a non starter.

Any ideas on where I can get individual sprockets so I can keep reconfiguring the cassette as he gets older????

Alternatively what do other juniors do? The guys at the race where surprisingly unhelpful in this regard - which I thought was a little odd.

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drossall

Could you get a smaller chainring instead? The limit is on the gear, not the number of teeth. Or maybe a 7-speed cassette with a spacer behind?

We used to use special blocks (screw-on freewheels). I've still got the 16-20 block I used in a few junior races thirty years ago...

msb123

you can get them here - http://www.parker-international.co.uk/B ... f956c82a30 - but they are 9/10 speed so putting a six speed cassette together may be a bit of a bodge.

monty_dogcp

I thing you'll find he was over, not under geared i.e. able to run too small a sprocket. What most riders do is use a conventional cassette and then screw down the limit screw to prevent them engaging the smallest sprocket for the race. I know 14-28 cassettes are available - if running Shimano it's quite easy to take the cassettes apart and mix the sprockets to get the right combos.

Ken Night

You can use the Marchisio cassettes in a number of situations-providing you have the right spacers-shiman* or campag

If you'd like a 2nd hand one-I have 11 sprockets 13-30, campag 10spd and 8spd carriers and 10spd spacers-which I bought for a combination of retro build and hilly sportif, but not required as I got some 8spd shifters

I won't explain more here-as their site does better than I could

PM me if you're interested

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acorn_user

Marchisio is over the top for this. Either block the derailleur or go for a Miche cassette. They have loose cogs, and do lot's of youth racing bits like chainsets and cassettes. There's one on fleabay.
www.miche.it

maddog_2cp

CRC have Ultegra in 14-25 but they're 9spd

...or Tiagra 8spd in a 13-26?

One option is just to buy two cheap (non-spider) 8spd cassettes and merge the two. The shifting may not be spot on though as the sprockets form one cassette often don't line up with sprockets from another, but in practice it's usually okay.

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liversedge

I love this forum, thanks guys.

I'm getting the <s>miche</s>(oops) tiagra and then block off the first sprocket for a while. Must admit I always use under/over gearing the wrong way round, as well as top and bottom gear ...

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