Custom Cassette?

Manc33

Since this topic got deleted from the MTB forum...

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16298132

...I will post it in this "Road bike" section.

Maybe you thought I posted in the wrong place because I was talking about a mountain bike? Yes I was, but it is a road cassette that is being fitted to it. So you could say neither is right, or wrong.

Had there been a "Mountain bikes with road components" section I would have just posted there.

I have already tried posting in the MTB forum and that one got deleted. Not merely closed, but deleted? Yeah I am sat here typing all this for nothing. :shock:

If this gets deleted I will assume this forum doesn't actually want to help people?

Since joining here I have been told I know "next to nothing" about bikes... no sh*t Sherlock - why the f**k do you think I am posting asking about bikes here in the first place?

If I knew all about everything, I wouldn't have to post and ask.

Some people are... wait for it... dumber than even me!

Yes you can poke fun at someone that doesn't know much about bikes (on a bike forum), but poking fun at someone for ASKING a question about bikes on a bike forum is as arrogant as it gets... and just ignorant, it shows whoever said that knows oh so much about bikes... but thats probably about all he knows, then comes to a bike forum to show off with what he knows... lol its the only place these people fit in, where they can take the piss out of other people... thriving on it etc lol WTF you guys are comical, why not try a playground, after all, kids are such an easy target... don't want any intelligent people threatening your almighty kingdom of bike wisdom. Watch out for the kids that might own a BMX, they might not be as easy to attack.

These same people would laugh at how slow some old lady crosses the road and not think to help.

All I was asking is WHERE in the UK sells cogs? Thats it, a very simple easy to answer question. I wouldn't have ranted, but my post got rudely deleted.

People say "build your own cassette" but how?

Show me a cycle shop in the UK selling separate cogs?

I want to fit a custom set of cogs to a cassette (11-12-13-14-15-16-17-23) but I can't find anywhere selling the separate cogs.

cougie

Will it work properly with a jump of 6 ? None of mine have that ?

I know you used to be able to buy seperate sprockets - and then you'd also get 3 bolted together that you could unbolt if you wanted to.

I'd ring SJ cycles - they know their stuff.

(top rant by the way - nearly CBA'd reading it all.

Manc33

cougie wrote:

Will it work properly with a jump of 6 ? None of mine have that ?

I know you used to be able to buy seperate sprockets - and then you'd also get 3 bolted together that you could unbolt if you wanted to.

I'd ring SJ cycles - they know their stuff.

(top rant by the way - nearly CBA'd reading it all.

Thanks, you're one of the rational people round here.

I also thought a jump of 6 would be too much, but at the moment the cassette on it is a bog standard MTB setup:

11.12.14.16.18.21.26.32

So on the current cassette there is a jump of 6 from 26 to 32.

Or will it not work because the actual height it has to shift the chain up would be more on a 17.23 than it would on a 26.32?

It always must have the 11 and it always must at least go up to 23.

Yeah maybe not having it as close would solve it but thats starting to get towards MTB setup again lol, with big jumps between gears.

I could go for a more common setup... like 11.12.13.14.16.18.21.24 but then lol I would be getting close to the same teeth setup as a standard cassette and making a custom one would be pointless.

If a jump of 17 to 23 is too much then I will just buy a full cassette... even those are hard to find when it is 8 speed. :roll:

chriskempton

You can get custom cassettes from marchisio:

http://www.highpath.net/highpath/cycles/plural.html

Manc33

SJS do not sell a 11T cog for an 8 speed cassette.

I also found a cassette here that changes from 26 to 34 :P

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/product-Shim ... 4-1558.htm

"MegaRange gearing gives a super-low 34T sprocket making it easier to climb even the steepest of hills."

Oh really? My advertising jargon would have said...

"MegaRange gearing gives a super-low 34T sprocket making it easier to climb even the steepest of hills that you could just get off the bike and walk up faster."

balthazar

What is your rationale for such an uneven gear range? You concede that you know little about bikes: why not use a cheap cassette with a normal spread of sprockets? That's what most experienced cyclists use, whatever kind of bike they ride. I can't imagine the mixture you propose being pleasant to ride with, even if it is possible to construct.

Still, if you must, then I'll agree with those above: Marchisio sprockets are the only practical option, available from Highpath or SJS. Complicated "lucky" mixtures of normal modular cassettes are possible, but invariably require a binful of parts from which you can cherrypick.

Manc33

Yeah its getting tougher... after reading Sheldon Brown's site there are for example 3 different types of 15 tooth cogs for Hyperglide, depending on whether it is sat between a 14 and a 16, a 13 and a 17 or whatever, so the teeth always match up.

Manc33

I think I found the almost perfect cassette, no need to hand build one, its not the cheapest but its still cheap enough...

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=17901

That is a 12.13.14.15.17.19.21.23 setup. 8)

It seems no 11-23T cassettes exist with 8 cogs.

For anyone wanting to know why the hell would someone want a road cassette on a MTB - well I only really ride along canal paths (mostly flat) and old railway paths (flat) so yeah, I cannot go riding down those types of tracks on an out and out road bike (too bumpy etc, bike too weak to take that sort of thrashing) but at the same time I hate the stupid MTB cassette on this bike with its stupid huge jumps from cog to cog on the back cassette. Having 11-32T is all very well, but when you have such big jumps in gearing from say cog 4 to cog 5 at 10mph on a trail, with it on the middle front ring, I can't even find the right gear and it seems to be at the exact speed I go at where that "missing gear" should be.

Current MTB cassettes suck ass because of this low gearing IMO.

Even on a trail you are going to always get annoyed if you cannot find the right cadence!

I could even argue that it matters more on a trail to have a close ratio (ok I mean canal, rail trails, FLAT ones) because the terrain is unpredictable. Roads are all tarmac.

Ride an old 21 speed bike and you will see what I mean, where you have 26-36-46 on the front (not a siilly 22-32-42 like today) and it had a 28 on the back as the biggest cog. So your lowest gear was 26F-28R. Well my bike with the MIDDLE cog now in 2010 almost has that low a gear at 32F-32R! Stupid man, I dare anyone to say the jumps on a MTB cassette are acceptable, unless you ride exclusively up the side of a mountain, these big jumps from one gear to the next are simply aggravating. Like I said the old 21 speed (and 18 and 15) were never like that. Low gears (as low as 22F-32R) its a gimmick, a useless fad where the cassette has become impractical.

They will be making cassettes out of plastic or something equally as absurd next........ oh look it weighs less and is a £500 cassette....

cougie

A decent road bike can take a lot of abuse. I've ridden my steel fixie and my carbon race bike over cobbles, trails, mud, gravel, bumps, whatever. Just get some decent tyres with enough of an airpocket in them.

pastryboy

Manc33 wrote:

For anyone wanting to know why the hell would someone want a road cassette on a MTB - well I only really ride along canal paths (mostly flat) and old railway paths (flat) so yeah, I cannot go riding down those types of tracks on an out and out road bike (too bumpy etc, bike too weak to take that sort of thrashing)

Single speed cross bike, works for me on the canal path.

balthazar

I can't escape the feeling that you're creating a problem for your own entertainment. Rough, fast paths can be approached any number of ways: with a normal road bike, as I do (and cougie), a cyclo-cross bike, an MTB, a hybrid, a shopper... however you do it, I don't see the benefit of the gear range you describe. If you want a road cassette, get one! They're 30 quid, or less. But why the peculiar mixture?!

Manc33

I want the road cassette for 1 reason only - to avoid those annoying jumps from cog to cog on the MTB cassette.

A gear feels easy, so I change to the next cog and it feels too hard to pedal, so then I have to change back up, like there's a gear missing or something, its horrible and all because the gears are set to be extremely low. :x

Well they even do a 34T cog that people use with a 22 front... it feels like the chain has fallen off it though in a gear that low. I have no use for gearing this low, period.

My aim is to eliminate the lowest gears entirely (because I don't need them) and have like a 75% range of what I used to have, in order to bring the ratios a lot closer and always find the right gear.

MTB adverts claim "24 gears, always find the right gear" well no, thats not true. Some jumps on that SRAM MTB cassette are over a 23% difference to the next cog! :shock:

With 22-32-42 front chain rings and this 12.13.14.15.17.19.21.23 road cassette, your lowest gear would be 0.96 (comparable to the old 26F with 28R of the old 7 speed I had that comes out to be 0.93 - where I never had a problem with the gears not being low enough by the way even on the steepest hill around here) and a highest gear of 3.5 which I admit is a low gear (losing the 11T cog means the 3.82 top gear now becomes 3.50) but, on trails I am never going to need to have it on 42F with 12R and on the road on a MTB the wind resistance doesn't let me go much over 30MPH anyway. Yeah, with 42F and 12R you'd be pedalling like the clappers at 30MPH but I can live with that, its the close ratio I am after.

I know that a 12.13.14.15.17.19.21.23 setup is a close ratio even for a road bike, its about the closest I have seen on a 8 speed... but I want to experiment.

PS would I need to buy a special tool to remove a SRAM cassette? :oops: Last time I took a cassette off it was a Shimano and with a chain whip. Now it has a "locking nut" and the last sprocket is not threaded like the old ones? Hmmmmmm.....