Ultegra 6800 cassettes

Iknownothing

Hi
Looking at Ultegra cassettes and wondering about difference between 11-25 and 11-28. From what i can find on internet (with difficulty!), seems to be -
11-25 goes 11-12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-25
11-28 goes 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-23-25-28
So, moving from 11-25 to 11-28 seems to drop the 16 and gain the 28, but rest are same (albeit in slightly out of sync order after 15). Can anyone confirm this?
It's for spec of a new bike. Current bike is 10 speed 12-28 Tiagra that, i believe, is same as 11-28 above but (obviously!) without the 11. So, just wondering what difference i'm looking at given i have chance to make an informed choice.
Thanks for any help.

markhewitt1978

Not entirely sure what you're asking tbh.

11-28 will give you the same bottom gear as 12-28 but the top gear will be quite a bit more.

Mad_Malx

Do you spin out on the 12? If not then you aren't going to see any difference.

Edit: or is this a Spinal tap joke?

Bar Shaker

I would prefer a 12-28 that kept the 16, if it's for hilly terrain.

The time you spend in 11 will be counted in seconds on each ride as a 12 will have you still producing usable power at just under 40mph.

Conversely you will spend a lot of time between 14 and 17 so a 16 makes this easier to fine tune for your cadence range.

ai_1

That looks correct.
Rose lists the sprocket tooth counts on their site. Anyone selling these should. It seems like the most basic bit of info to provide for a cassette!
http://www.rosebikes.com/article/shiman ... aid:675880

Like Bar Shaker I wish they did a 12-28 (basically knock the 11 off one end of the 11-25 and put a 28 on the other end instead). That would be the ideal general purpose cassette for me. The 11 sprocket is nice to have but I can easily live without it to keep small gaps and still have a 28 tooth big sprocket for tough hills.

markhewitt1978

Bar Shaker wrote:

I would prefer a 12-28 that kept the 16, if it's for hilly terrain.

The time you spend in 11 will be counted in seconds on each ride as a 12 will have you still producing usable power at just under 40mph.

I concur with this. Over the winter I ran 11-28 instead of my more usual 12-30, and I found I hardly ever used the 11T, perhaps on some long steep descents for the sake of actually getting into top gear, whereas I use the 12T all the time. I'd rather have a gear that earns it's keep!

ic.

There's a 12-28 in the DA 9000 range, but not the Ultegra 6800 range. Shame really as it would be the same as running 10 speed 12-25 but with an extra 28 on the end, which IMO is more useful to more people than an extra 11 tooth at the other end of the cog.

Not worth the extra money though to run it. Hopefully they'll address this with the 5800 range next year

markhewitt1978

That's why I was surprised they came out with 11-32 - yeah super wide range, but I would imagine 12-32 would be more useful.

ai_1

I presume you could fabricate a 12-28 by using 12-17 from a 12-25 and 19-28 from a 11-28? (or the same approach with 12-16 from a 12-25 and 18-32 from a 11-32)
Are all sprockets of a given tooth count the same or do Shimano claim to design the ramps etc specifically for a given cassette combo? i.e. will the gear change between 17 and 19 on the fabricated 12-28 be just as good as any other?

Iknownothing

Thanks to Ai_1 for the link and confirmation - very helpful. I agree that i will spend little time on the 11T and the other comments on preferences, but unfortunately limited to the options available on Ultegra 6800 as that's the spec of the bike i'm looking at.
Cheers

slowbike

Iknownothing wrote:

but unfortunately limited to the options available on Ultegra 6800 as that's the spec of the bike i'm looking at.

Then get the one that is closest to your requirements then change for one that matches afterwards ... cassettes are consumables anyway ...

foggymike

I went for 11-28 for hilly north yorks riding. With 53/39 up front the 11 is only used with a tailwind or downhill but on the flip side it makes an occasionally useful spacer to give a better chain line in the 12/13/14.

I presume they did the 11 to match with the more compact chainsets offered.

iPete

I skipped the Ultegra 12-28 as I use 16t quite a bit, went for the 105 12-27 instead. That's on 53/39.

foggymike

That's only 10 speed though

iPete

foggymike wrote:

That's only 10 speed though

Yup, stupid me!

Surprised they didn't do a 12-28 with the 16t. Might be worth looking into the upcoming 5800 cassette ranges.

dj58

iknownothing, for future reference your first port of call for specifications for Shimano components is:

http://techdocs.shimano.com/techdocs/index.jsp

Locate the groupset in the Road Bike section and scroll through to the component you are interested in. The light blue coloured links are the pdf document data/fitting instruction sheets.

duckson

5800 don't have a 12-28 listed as an option.