How do I know if I need a cassette spacer or not
Whiteeddymurphy
Posts: 169
Bought some wheels (ultegra) and the guy removed his 105 10 speed cassette to put my tiara one on. His came off with a spacer but when he tried to fit mine it wouldn't tighten up so he put cassette on without it. It seems to have worked fine. I am putting an ultegra one on tomorrow do I put the spacer in or not? How do I know / what is it for. Thanks
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Tiagra (and I believe Sora) cassettes has some dimples on the rear that act as a spacer thus negating the requirement for one. All the 105 and above that I have fitted require the spacer.0
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tiagra 10-speed uses no spacer
105 etc. uses a spacermy bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
Thanks very much gents for the replies0
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Hmm... I recently fitted my 9 speed Sora cassette onto my new Mavic wheel and used the supplied spacer without thinking. It works perfectly and didn't need adjusting. What speed is your Tiagra, 9 I presume? basically, I guess the rule is that if your cassette is wobbly and your shifting suddenly declines, use the spacer?0
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Just to clarify things there are actually two widths of spacer for use with Shimano cassettes - 1.85mm and 1.0mm.
The 1.85mm is necessary if you have an 11-speed freehub but are using a 9 or 10-speed cassette.
The 1.0mm spacer is used if you are using a 10-speed cassette, the 10-speed cassette actually being narrower than the 9-speed.
I personally don't bother with the 1.0mm spacer on my 10-speed equipped bikes but do use the 1.8mm spacer on my Mavic 11-speed freehub wheels. I have Ultegra, XT and SLX 10-speed cassettes on three sets of wheels that I interchange between two road bikes and don't have any rear mech issues when swapping the wheels over.
I haven't heard of Tiagra 10-speed cassettes having dimples on the rear and not needing the 1.0mm spacer. It seems a bit inconsistent and unnecessary to me but stand to be corrected never having used a Tiagra cassette.0 -
hypster wrote:I personally don't bother with the 1.0mm spacer on my 10-speed equipped bikes but do use the 1.8mm spacer on my Mavic 11-speed freehub wheels.
Um, why? Just because it works without doesn't mean it won't work better with. There will be less play if you include the spacer, and they come with the cassettes so why wouldn't you? And on the Mavic freehub, you should use both the 1.85 and 1.0mm spacers for best results.
And yes, Tiagra 10 speed is the exception to the rule. No spacers required on a 10 speed freehub.0 -
Hypster may have a point, kind of. My new wheels only came with a 1.85mm spacer, presumably for 8 and 9 speed cassettes. There was no sign of a thinner spacer in the packaging.0
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That's because, as I said above, the thin spacer comes with the cassette.0
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(10 speed Shimano cassette, that is. No others.)0
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Cheers for explaining. Didn't realise and it's always nice to learn summat new :-).0
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MajorMantra wrote:hypster wrote:I personally don't bother with the 1.0mm spacer on my 10-speed equipped bikes but do use the 1.8mm spacer on my Mavic 11-speed freehub wheels.
Um, why? Just because it works without doesn't mean it won't work better with. There will be less play if you include the spacer, and they come with the cassettes so why wouldn't you? And on the Mavic freehub, you should use both the 1.85 and 1.0mm spacers for best results.
And yes, Tiagra 10 speed is the exception to the rule. No spacers required on a 10 speed freehub.
On one of my frames, the chain just touches the chainstay when in the smallest cog on the big ring with the 1.0mm spacer in. Rather than have the faff of keep switching the 1.0mm spacer in-and-out when I swap wheels, I just left it out on all of them. I adjusted the rear mechs on both bikes accordingly and it doesn't cause any problems.
Others might have a different experience such as maybe the lockring not clamping the cassette up tight so will have to do whatever is necessary. I'm just pointing out that you don't necessarily have to use the 1.0mm spacer. There is no "best results" only what works for you.0 -
hypster wrote:I haven't heard of Tiagra 10-speed cassettes having dimples on the rear and not needing the 1.0mm spacer. It seems a bit inconsistent and unnecessary to me but stand to be corrected never having used a Tiagra cassette.
I dug out the 10-speed Tiagra cassette that came off my CAADX to fit to my wife's road bike at the weekend. Mana faded to confuse myself as I'd stuck it in a 105 box and was left scratching my head wondering where I placed the spacer.
I then recalled when I had changed the cassette from an 12-28 Tiagra to an 11-28 105. I removed the Tiagra from the wheel and, due to finding no spacer there, fitted the 105 minus the spacer. Result? It locked up the free hub so was quickly removed and refitted with spacer in place.
A close look at the back of a Tiagra 10 speed cassette shows several raised points (dimples isn't the correct word) that sit a little proud of the rest of the cassette thus providing correct spacing.0 -
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hypster wrote:There is no "best results" only what works for you.
it's not about "best results" it's about using components correctly
if one frame has an issue the correct option is resolve that, not bodge things by reducing safety margin on all the others, which is what you're doing by reducing clearance between rear mech and spokesmy bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
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sungod wrote:hypster wrote:There is no "best results" only what works for you.
it's not about "best results" it's about using components correctly
if one frame has an issue the correct option is resolve that, not bodge things by reducing safety margin on all the others, which is what you're doing by reducing clearance between rear mech and spokes
Yeah, whatever.0 -
I've just upgraded to the 11 speed 105 from the 10 speed 105 - my Mavic Ksyrium Elites had the 1.85 spacer with the old 105 but I've just fitted the new 11 speed with no spacer!0
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No - I probably shouldn't have put in the explanation mark at the end. My post was to help the OP.0
