ultegra chain/cassette compatibilities

mactrax

Hello.
I have a bike fitted with full 2006 Ultegra. When it went for a service lbs fitted SRAM 1030 chain and the gear changing has not been nearly as good. The links even have some small cracks in rhem. Anyway I have beem wanting to go back to an Ultegra chain and at same time replace the cassette. Problem is the 6600 ultegra seems to be discontinued. Would a DA 7800 or 7900 chain work as they are fairly cheap online. Is the new ultegra 6700 backward compatible? I have some knee trouble and was thinking of putting on a 12-27 ultegra cassette but these seem hard to find now. Have heard the 12-28 (6700) may not work.
With Shimano are you actually better to try and stay with the one type i.e. ultegra 6600 for everything as the technology on the 6700 seems to have moved on.

Thanks,

Confused!

salsarider79

Wow! Lots of questions...ok:

1. How old is your cassette? Have you done over 500 miles on it? When the LBS changed the chain did they change the cassette? The cassette may be worn so the new chain might not sit correctly on the teeth. Look at the cassette. If the teeth look like sharks teeth (Look for a pic online if you don't get what it looks like), then the cassette is worn.
2. I doubt the chain links have cracks in them, but they might have a machined edges for better shifting
3. DA 7800 and 7900 chains should work fine. Provisio being answer number 1, the cassette not being worn.
4. The 6700 should again be fine, as to which cassette you get depends on a number of things. What ratio's you have up front, what kind of riding you do, etc. If you aren't a good climber and want low gears, or if you want 30mph+ blasts.
5. Knee trouble can be down to a number of things. Seat height, peddles/cleats, etc. For that you need to have someone look at your riding.
6. 12-28 cassettes might not work because the rear mech can only cope with so much chain. They have a max teeth limit because thats how much chain they can cope with. Too much chain (If you run MTB gearing especially) the rear mech won't take up the slack, too little and you risk snapping the chain.
7. Often groupsets are designed to work together. This doesn't mean that you should stay with one groupset or even one make. I run a shimano cassette with a SRAM chain, and when I build my new bike up it'll be using a Campag rear mech (Unless I go 11 speed when I'll go all Campag!).

Hope this helps.

keef66

Don't ride it with cracked links in the chain. At best you'll only crush your nuts when it breaks. Take it back to the shop and complain (assuming you haven't done 15,000 miles on it)

I put a cheap (relatively) 10 spd chain on my 105 groupset, and find it noisier and less precise shifting. Next one will be 105, Ultegra or possibly KMC.

In your position I'd give a KMC chain a go.

Can't help you with regard to which cassette will fit.

Just a thought; isn't your 2006 Ultegra 6600 a 9 speed system, and the SRAM 1030 chain 10 speed??

sungod

this may help...

http://tinyurl.com/24rsl8x

...there is a better version out there somewhere, but can't find the link

keef66

Just a thought; isn't your 2006 Ultegra 6600 a 9 speed system, and the SRAM 1030 chain 10 speed??

Which means that compared to a 9 spd chain it is slightly thinner externally but has the same internal width. Not sure that would create problems / noise with rear shifting on a 9 speed system....

mactrax

Hi...thanks for the replies. I have done 6000 miles on this cassette and just thought I might as well replace it. lbs said cassette was fine when they replaced chain. The chain does have some little cracks on it. It was never as good from the time the chain was changed. I'm running 53/39 on a trek 5200. I'm trying to find a 6600 12-27 cassette but they are being discontinued. Even if I find one, which I should, I'm just wondering what to put on in future. (Oh and it's 10 speed ultegra)


Just looked at the link from sungod and this clears everything up...thanks I was looking for something like this myself.

Thanks again.

richiebones

"Have heard the 12-28 (6700) may not work. "

you will be able to run a 28 rear cog with abit of tinkering with the b screw on the derailer

paultheparaglider

mactrax wrote:

Hi...thanks for the replies. I have done 6000 miles on this cassette and just thought I might as well replace it. lbs said cassette was fine when they replaced chain. The chain does have some little cracks on it. It was never as good from the time the chain was changed. I'm running 53/39 on a trek 5200. I'm trying to find a 6600 12-27 cassette but they are being discontinued. Even if I find one, which I should, I'm just wondering what to put on in future. (Oh and it's 10 speed ultegra).

I have a 2006 Trek 5.2SL with Ultegra 6600. Triple front and 12-25 rear. I've just put on my third chain and decided to go with a Wipperman10 speed chain with a Connex link for easy maintenance.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=25071
This seems to work well. My rear casette has done over 11,000 miles and is still going strong. Might even get a 4th chain out of it.

antfly

You can still get 105 cassettes with 12-27.

ADIHEAD

There's no problem using a Sram chain with Ultegra, it's purely that your cassette is worn if it's done 6000miles! The untrained eye cannot see if a cassette is worn. Us mere mortals just have to try it :roll: If it's not smooth then just change the cassette. I've used an 11-28 with a 6600 and it does work if you wind the 'b' adjuster right out. The 6700 rear mech I now use does give faster, more accurate changes however. 6600 is all 10sp, it's 6500 that's 9sp.

So just get a new cassette, and a new chain if you've done more than a few miles on your worn cassette. You may need a new one anyhow if you want the bigger cassette as it may need to be longer than your current one. Lots of people use Sram chains due to the easy linking system. Sram and Shimano cassettes and chains are totally interchangeable.

Hope this helps?