Using Two Sets of Wheels - A novice asking for trouble?

superkenners

I ride Specialized Allez Sport with the 9 speed Tiagra groupset and have just bought myself some Fulcram 3's with the idea I will use them for training and some Sportives while keeping my current Mavic CXP-22's which are a bit heavy but fairly solid for commuting on which is where most of my miles come from at this time of year.

I want to be able to simply switch over the wheels without having to make any adjustments but not sure if this works. Wondering if I would need to use the same cassette (which I think is the Shimano HG-50 11-25) on the Fulcrams to achieve this or will i need to tweak the gears to get this to work irrespective of which cassette I fit.

Alternately can I use a different cassette and expect this to work seamlessly? Would not mind an upgraded cassette for the better wheels.

Any pointers or thoughts much appreciated!

danowat

I have four sets of wheels, each with their own cassette, they are interchangable without any adjustment needed.

superkenners

That's reassuring! Do you use the same type of cassette on each wheel? Wondering if any shimano 9 speed would be fine.

danowat

Any Shimano 9sp will work

geebee2

You may find you need to adjust the rear derailleur limit screws after switching wheels.

I once failed to do this and over-shifted past the largest cog, resulting in chain jammed, which could have damaged the spokes ( I just about got away with it, but that's not a good thing to happen ).

Alumin-Liam

geebee2 wrote:

You may find you need to adjust the rear derailleur limit screws after switching wheels.

You don't have to. So long as your gears are set up properly for one 9 speed shimano cassette it should be easy to switch wheels to another with a shimano 9 speed cassette. Just make sure you don't have too many teeth on the largest sprocket if you are using a short reach rear mech.

If you ever watch the professionals they always change the wheel when they puncture in a race - it takes seconds and there is no fannying around with limit screws!

ColinJ

I tried running two sets of wheels on a MTB, one with knobblies, one with slicks. The trouble was, the rims were slightly different profiles so I had to adjust the brakes every time I swapped the wheels over - not very convenient!

You might have a similar problem so remember to check your brake block alignment after putting the new wheels on.

geebee2

If you ever watch the professionals they always change the wheel when they puncture in a race - it takes seconds and there is no fannying around with limit screws!

Clearly if the wheels are identical in every respect, there will not be a problem.

I'm reporting my experience ( which was with 8-speed ).

It turned out, for whatever reason, that I did need to change adjust the limit screw when changing between the wheels.

Lagavulin

At one point I was using a mixture of Tiagra and three Ultegra (12-25 or 12-27) 9-speed cassettes on four different wheelsets on my old Allez. Never found the need to make adjustments to the gears when swapping out rear wheels. Only change I had to make was to the brake calipers barrel adjustment as some of the rims were wider.

petemadoc

I run two sets of wheels on the same bike

Wheels No 1 are some the ones that came with the bike - shimano 105 cassette 11-25

Wheels No 2 are Miche race - shimano ultegra 11-28 cassette

They swap over with no adjustments whatsoever

danowat

As above, I swap between Easton EA70's, Fulcrum 7's, Mavic CXP22's and a set of Carbon aero's, no adjustments needed to the gearing.

All the cassettes are different, can't remember exactly which ones, but I know they are a combination of Tiagra, 105 and Ultegra

superkenners

Thanks for comments, very helpful. Just looking forward to getting the Fulcram 3's up and running, hopefully should be a big improvement on the Mavic's.

clx1

Alumin-Liam wrote:

geebee2 wrote:

You may find you need to adjust the rear derailleur limit screws after switching wheels.

You don't have to. So long as your gears are set up properly for one 9 speed shimano cassette it should be easy to switch wheels to another with a shimano 9 speed cassette. Just make sure you don't have too many teeth on the largest sprocket if you are using a short reach rear mech.

If you ever watch the professionals they always change the wheel when they puncture in a race - it takes seconds and there is no fannying around with limit screws!

That's because they are changing to the same type of wheel!

clx1

Alumin-Liam wrote:

geebee2 wrote:

You may find you need to adjust the rear derailleur limit screws after switching wheels.

You don't have to. So long as your gears are set up properly for one 9 speed shimano cassette it should be easy to switch wheels to another with a shimano 9 speed cassette. Just make sure you don't have too many teeth on the largest sprocket if you are using a short reach rear mech.

If you ever watch the professionals they always change the wheel when they puncture in a race - it takes seconds and there is no fannying around with limit screws!

That's because they are changing to the same type of wheel!

andy_wrx

If the wheels are set-up identically, you'll simply be able to swap-over.

But if the axle is centred very slightly differently, you might find that you need to give the rear mech adjustment screw a half turn or something to get the gears to mesh perfectly, but they should be OK for top & bottom limit screws unless the axle centreing/wheel dishing is out on one set.

And as Colin says, the rims might be a different width, meaning you have to adjust the brake clearance/lever reach slightly with the brake adjustment screw
- my Ksyriums are narrower than my Fulcrum 5's

Should only be minor tweaks, take seconds to do

Rodrego Hernandez

7 sets, mix of campag and shimano, none of which need any adjustment when fitting into either of the 3 bikes I use.

ADIHEAD

Make sure your chain is in perfect condition though - an old chain will skip on a new cassette and vs/vs. You will also cause wear to the newer component if not carefull. I've 4 sets of wheels for 2 bikes. I get fed up with re-indexing and adjusting brakes though to be honest and tend not to swap much:roll: As you've only 9sp that does tend to be more tolerant however

Wobblehead

Rodrego Hernandez wrote:

7 sets, mix of campag and shimano, none of which need any adjustment when fitting into either of the 3 bikes I use.

My god, how do you choose

Like having 3 houses and seven girlfriends...