weekend wheels - do I swap cassette

poprad

Hi,

Thinking of getting some slightly better wheels and tyres to use at weekends. Do I fit a cassette to the new set or do I swap the cassette from commuter wheels onto the weekend wheels?

I guess the reason for my question is that i've read that you are supposed to change a chain and cassette together, so using the new wheels and cassette with existing chain would be bad. So sounds like I should swap cassette between wheelsets.

fuzzynavel

poprad wrote:

Hi,

Thinking of getting some slightly better wheels and tyres to use at weekends. Do I fit a cassette to the new set or do I swap the cassette from commuter wheels onto the weekend wheels?

I guess the reason for my question is that i've read that you are supposed to change a chain and cassette together, so using the new wheels and cassette with existing chain would be bad. So sounds like I should swap cassette between wheelsets.

Can you really be bothered swapping the cassette over every weekend?
If not then get a second cassette on your new wheels and a second chain...unlinking and swapping the chain will be quicker than swapping out the cassette.

woodford2barbican

Could you keep a chain for use with the better wheels / cassette? Perhaps one with those easy to use new fangled joinging mechanisms?

(The word is on the tip of my tongue - power link or something linke that....)

Lagavulin

I'd rather buy two new cassettes and chains than ar$e around everytime I wanted to swap wheels out - and I don't change wheel sets as regularly as you're proposing.

What are the teeth on your chainset like? I recently replaced the chain on my Allez. Bought a new Ultegra 12-27 for the Askiums but had a spare Ultegra 12-25 that'd only done about 400 dry miles when it was on my DT Swiss wheels. Ended up chucking that on the Racing 7s as I'd been kind to it.

I'm coming up on 4,000 miles on my Allez though and am a little concerned about the inner front ring. Original chainrings still on there and not sure how long they're good for and likely to be doing more harm than a lightly tarnished cassette.

JWSurrey

I have several sets of wheels and cassettes, however I only have the one chain! (Note, if your cassettes are of different sizes, you may indeed require different length chains).
No problems in over 2 years of all-weather riding.
Farting around with the lockring is too much hassle, so I just have a cassette per wheel.
KMC do a quick-link for their chains.
I prefer the Wippermann links though - beware, the Campag. and Shimano chains require different width links.

redddraggon

JWSurrey wrote:

I have several sets of wheels and cassettes, however I only have the one chain! (Note, if your cassettes are of different sizes, you may indeed require different length chains).

If you size the chain up correctly you shouldn't have too much problems. The chainlength I have on my winter bike can handle any mixture of 12-25, 13-29, 53-39 and 50-34.

poprad

Thanks for the replies.

As i've never fitted a chain, but have fitted a cassette a couple of times, my initial feeling was that it would be easier or as easy to swap the cassette. However, from the postings sounds like breaking/joining chain is easier.

Presumably, if I don't have a chain with a quick link I'm going to have to break the chain and rejoin it each time. Is this done at the some position in the chain each time so that you don't have multiple joins in the same chain?

A while ago I bought, but haven't used, a chain (Shimano 10 speed) and a pack of the joining pins and I seem to remember the joining pins were about a quid each. I was doing it every weekend i'd need a few packs of pins or would have to get a chain with quick link. Are teh quick link chains as reliable as fixed links?

alfablue

You can get a KMC (preferred) or SRAM link for about £2 - get the right size for the chain (8, 9 or 10 speed), you can use this on any chain, for get the Shimano joining pins. These are just as reliable.

poprad

Ah, OK. I thought it had to be an SRAM/KMC chain to use the link. Thanks, I'll give it a try.

alfablue

poprad wrote:

Ah, OK. I thought it had to be an SRAM/KMC chain to use the link. Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Nope, any chain is fine - KMC are easier to open IMHO (indeed the 10 speed SRAM ones are single use - can't be re-opened, as far as I know) - £1.99 from wiggle.

John.T

Don't bother messing about with the chain. Providing it is fairly new it will work fine with both cassettes. I have 2 bikes and 4 sets of wheels. I use all on both bikes with no trouble.

acorn_user

Wipperman Connex makes the best links imho. I have a KMC 7 speed chain, and the link it came with is just for joining the chain. It seems to be a very secure link, but you are supposed to use a chain tool to remove it. With the Wipperman link, you can reuse the link, even over a couple of chain lives. Anyway, I have had very good results with it.

alfablue

acorn_user wrote:

Wipperman Connex makes the best links imho. I have a KMC 7 speed chain, and the link it came with is just for joining the chain. It seems to be a very secure link, but you are supposed to use a chain tool to remove it. With the Wipperman link, you can reuse the link, even over a couple of chain lives. Anyway, I have had very good results with it.

The accessory KMC links are reusable, but also the one that came on my KMC X10 SL chain is also reusable - perhaps the single use thing is just the 7 speeds. Nevertheless, Wipperman are fine too.

craigenty

John.T wrote:

Don't bother messing about with the chain. Providing it is fairly new it will work fine with both cassettes. I have 2 bikes and 4 sets of wheels. I use all on both bikes with no trouble.

What he said.

I have training wheels, racing wheels, everyday wheels and interchange them with 4 different casettes between two different bikes and groupsets.
Only one chain though on each bike which I replace every 3 months. At 17 quid for a new Dura Ace chain and even less for Ultegra / 105 you might as well.

Craig

John.T

As my 2 best bikes only do summer milage the chains last very well. The chain on the oldest one has done over 5000 miles now but is still well within limits. Dura-ace chains are good value IMO.

dazzawazza

Have a chain and cassette for each wheel, but make sure you keep them as clean as possible. I aways find cleaning up the greasy mess more of a chore than doing the change-over.

dazzawazza

Have a chain and cassette for each wheel, but make sure you keep them as clean as possible. I aways find cleaning up the greasy mess more of a chore than doing the change-over.