How can I tell if my cassette is SRAM or Shimano?

silverpigeon

Swapping 4 cassettes around today between wheelsets and I've lost track of which is which. Is there a way to to tell from the cogs, specific markings etc.

arlowood

On Shimano the lockring is branded. Also the individual cogs are marked with 12T 13T etc

Don't know about SRAM bit I would guess the same applies.

However if you've ended up with a dog's breakfast of cogs and lockrings lying around then I'm not quite sure how you would go about re-assembling things other than by trial and error. The two brands are cross compatible when purchased as a complete cassette so if you're lucky the individual cogs may be also as a harlequin set-up

silverpigeon

They've all got the same lockring but at least the cogs aren't mixed up.

desweller

But the Shimano lockrings have 'Shimano' written on them and the SRAM lockrings have 'SRAM' written on them...all mine do.

silverpigeon

I swapped the lock rings for anodized bling jobs ages ago. No clues there I'm afraid.

diy

You can mix shimano chains with sram cassettes etc.. but obviously you want to put the matched chain with the cassette based on the wear. You might find the letters PG stamped on the SRAM cassettes.

matt@theforce

This depends on the model & age but all the Shimano tend to have small round holes cut into their cassettes (depending on model) where-as SRAM tend to have oval holes cut into theirs.

Shimano


SRAM


The only other difference I've noticed is the shimano cassettes seem to look quite dull (matt appearance) and very quick to turn black when used.

Bar Shaker

They are completely interchangeable so it shouldn't matter, if they are comparable specs.

silverpigeon

I know they're cross compatible, I want to match them back up with the right chains which are still on the bikes.

Matt - I think you've solved it for me. Many thanks

matt@theforce

silverpigeon wrote:

Matt - I think you've solved it for me. Many thanks

No problem, let me know how you get on.

mallorcajeff

One will be smooth and quiet running. The other will be sram ;-)