changing cassette and chain

snig

about to buy a new cassette and chain for my MTB that I use for commuting,14 miles round trip.

at present it has a SRAM 9.0 12-32T and a HG-53 chain, I only tend to use the small chain ring on the cassette and swap between the front 3, large when I have a straight bit of road, middle for around town and small for up hills, and tbh they have been fine, the only time I notice them is if I try and change gears going up hill, was thinking of moving to shamino XT or even reducing the total amount of gears as I only use the 3, but would I notice any improvement? or should I just replace like for like?

Initialised

If your bike's main use is commuting consider a closer ratio cassette like 11-25, you still have the bail-out option of the granny ring but will be able to maintain a more even cadence by changing at the back instead of the front.

Also if you only use the 12T on the back why not just replace that rather than the entire cassette?

snig

Initialised wrote:

If your bike's main use is commuting consider a closer ratio cassette like 11-25, you still have the bail-out option of the granny ring but will be able to maintain a more even cadence by changing at the back instead of the front.

Also if you only use the 12T on the back why not just replace that rather than the entire cassette?

I looked at the 11-25 option think I sort of discounted it because it would affect the chain etc but as I'm changing the chain I might as well go for that option.

The Rookie

The different largest sprocket only means you need to shorten the new chain a bit more than you would have done anyway, plus you should always be sizing the chain not relying on the old one being right.

Just changing at the chainwheels is daft, its a clunkier shift (as it's on the tension side of the chain) and does more 'damage' to the chain, it also gives gaps between ratios that are bigger than ideal so your cadance will rarely be right either. If you only want to use one shifter, much better to drop to a single chainring and use the whole cassette at the rear (as I have on mine, 1x9 with an 11-28 cassette).

Kieran_Burns

The Rookie wrote:

The different largest sprocket only means you need to shorten the new chain a bit more than you would have done anyway, plus you should always be sizing the chain not relying on the old one being right.

Just changing at the chainwheels is daft, its a clunkier shift (as it's on the tension side of the chain) and does more 'damage' to the chain, it also gives gaps between ratios that are bigger than ideal so your cadance will rarely be right either. If you only want to use one shifter, much better to drop to a single chainring and use the whole cassette at the rear (as I have on mine, 1x9 with an 11-28 cassette).

+lots