How often do you replace the cassette?

am7

Just put in a new chain and had to replace both the cassette and all the crank chainrings as they were so damaged that pedalling was impossible let alone shifting, the chain would not spin a single rotation without catching/jamming somewhere. Old chain no problems with shifting/pedaling.
I always knew you had to replace chain regularly and cassette every 2-3 chains? but thought I would neglect this as it is not applicable to me, recreation rider very few miles.
So after spending a not insignificant amount and learning my lesson I bought I tool to measure chain wear. This will allow me to replace the chain before it causes damage to the cassette and chainrings.
Hopefully I won't have to replace the chainrings as these are stronger? but what about the cassette?
What is the rule of thumb? Per how many chains replaced should I replace it? I know you can visually inspect it shark teeth etc. but unless there is a tooth missing it all looks the same to me.

The Rookie

You just keep swapping chains when they are worn (called stretched, although its not really) until you get a problem, its the chain that wears it, so keep on top of the chain swaps, and worry about the cassette and rings only when they take objection to a new chain.

The cassette on my commuter (bought used at unknown mileage) managed 3500 miles before I started to get mild skipping in my most used gear when I next swapped the chain, so I put the old chain back on, got a new cassette and swapped that on with the new chain.

Chunkers1980

Or you use the same chain and cassette till you get problems. Often longer than you think it'll be. You do end up with a really sloppy chain at the end and it will do more damage to chain rings and jockeys than replacing when it gets close to worn though.

markhewitt1978

Or just replace the cassette every time you replace the chain save all the bother.

The Rookie

That's just a crazy waste of money

Chunkers1980

And bad for the environment even if you are running 8spd, 8 quid cassettes.

cooldad

Not really. I do the same, but use cheap chains and cassettes. Normally costs about £25 and last me a year or two.
Some rarely used bikes - a decade.

The Rookie

Fine by me as I stick to used XT cassettes.....

markhewitt1978

Chunkers1980 wrote:

And bad for the environment even if you are running 8spd, 8 quid cassettes.

£8 on a new cassette means it's not worth the bother hanging onto the old one, might as well swap it out.

The Rookie

Why, its still £8, swap chain, if it works OK, carry on riding, if not buy another!

njee20

I've generally been an advocate of 'run it all into the ground and replace the lot', until ludicrously expensive cassettes made that a daft method.

The XTR cassette and X10SL chain on my Top Fuel did 3 years like that, I'd guess at 4500 miles or so, I wasn't complaining.

On the road I get over 5000 miles out of a chain without it wearing the cassette out.

stubs

It seems counter intuitive to me with everything being about 10% narrower but I am getting better mileage out of 10 speed kit than I ever got out of equivalent spec (X9, XT level) 9 speed. My current SRAM cassette XT rings and KMC chain seems to be everlasting, over 1,300 miles and still shifting sweetly and silently. Whereas the 9 speed kit would have chainsucked from about 900 to 1,000 miles.

kajjal

When used to do a lot more MTB as soon as the trails dried out enough I replaced the cassette and chain each year so I didn't have to think about them again. Now doing less MTB I just wait for wear.

swod1

I just check the chain until it gets a little stretched .5 on the chain wear tool thing and buy a new one and run until the cassette get really worn in the most used gears which happen to be 5-10 for me.

I did notice 10 speed wearing better until I had some rivets fail on an xt cassette I was using so gone to slx which I haven't noticed any difference between

njee20

Not overly perceptive then? It's a totally different construction :?