UKC

Hi,

After this weekends attempts at (almost) completely stripping my bike down to thoroughly clean it, replace cables and generally tune it i'm now full of confidence. so my next project will be replacing the cassette. However, being a complete beginner at this, and not massively into cycling and gear geekiness i need some advice.
Is there any real difference between a cassette that cost £10, or one that cost £150? other than weight perhaps.
is there anything additional i need to do to the bearing or ratchet while the cassette is off?

also, there's quite a lot of wiggle in my rear derailleur, especially the jockey wheels, is it worth replacing these or replacing the whole lot with a cheap one, again whats the difference between a £20 and £100 one?

cheers!

In reply to La benya:

Good questions. I am also interested in the answer to the bit about the cassette.

Last time I took a cassette off, it was a case of individual bearings going everywhere (I had expected a joined race, not individual balls) and I swore never to do it again. I'm keen to get over this fear.

Certainly, my poor bike wants me to get over this fear. The chain and cassette are in dire straights!

Regardless of which cassette you buy, the chain should be cleaned and re lubricated regularly and checked for "stretching". Can't really help with cassette bearings, never had to change them. Jockey wheels are relatively inexpensive are definitely worthwhile replacing depending on what derailleur you have and where it "wobbles".

In reply to La benya:

As with most things there is a significant difference between the cheaper items but the law of diminishing returns applies at the upper end.
The more expensive cassettes should be lighter, more resistant to corrosion and smoother shifting.
What you can do with a freewheel while the cassette is off depends a lot on the wheels you have. On most the freewheel is not that serviceable and if it sounds and feels ok it's best leave it alone.

If the rear derailiure jockey wheels are worn out this will affect the shifting, you can buy replacement wheels but if you are looking at the lower end of the market you can buy a new derailiure for not much more.
Expensive derailiures for mtb use often come with clutches built into them to reduce chain slap and help retain the chain on the chainset rings.

In reply to Xharlie:

There's no bearings in a cassette. You may be refering to a freehub. Replacing a cassette is really simple providing you have a chain whip and the right cassette tool which aren't expensive at all.

In reply to yesbutnobutyesbut:

You see! My fears are justified. I probably unscrewed the wrong bit.

I'm a sailor. Bike bits make no sense to me. Give me ropes and stuff.

In reply to La benya:
On most modern bikes the cassette slides onto a freehub body (The part that does the clicky freewheel bit). The cassette body itself does not contain any bearings, it is simply an assembly of gear sprockets and spacers (some of these may be connected to a 'spider', the outer, smaller ones are usually loose). The cassette is connected to the freehub via a splined joint and is secured with a lock ring. You will need an appropriate tool (shimano or campagnolo, depending on system used) to undo/do up the lock ring. Difference in cassettes is based on weight/materials/ gear range - you pays yer money. As said above, chain and cassette wear together - best change both at the same time to start with.
Before mounting a new cassette, check that the freehub runs smooth (it can get gubbed with road dirt). These can be more tricky to change, depending on tools available. If in doubt, get the local bike shop to do it.
Check the main hub bearings at the same time for any play (this can be done with the wheel attached to the frame - check for any lateral play; sounds of roughness; tight (or loose) spots during rotation).
Rear mech jockeys are also easy to replace, but depending on the type and level of wear/corrosion , it might be just as well to replace the whole mech.

Hours of wet afternoon fun!

N

PS videos of most of the above can be found on YouTube!

In reply to Xharlie:

From what I gather free hubs and cassettes are variations on a theme with the latter being more common nowadays.

I take the point about not messing with the bearing though. It sounds a feels fine so I'll leave it.
With derailleurs, I might just change the whole lot if I can find a cheap one, as I can't imagine the one currently on my bike is anything special. Any recommendations? It's a tiagra 9sp I believe.

In reply to La benya:

Most derailleurs have a worrying amount of wobble but they wear very slowly so unless you are getting ghost shifts, just replace the cable inner and the outer where it curves around, which will make a huge improvement to the shifting.

In reply to La benya:

Just buy a Shimano Tiagra 9 speed, no need for anything more expensive, if you want you can use SRAM 9 speed too, i would recommend replacing the chain too

In reply to La benya:



That's wrong. The cassette is the 'cogs' that go on to the freehub body.

youtube.com/watch?v=05WxxDo4CvY&

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

Yup will replace the chain. I'd have to anyway as I don't have a quick release link, which I might get this time round

In reply to yesbutnobutyesbut:

Correct, a 'block' was the old generic term for the group of sprockets which contained the free hub i.e. ratchet and pawls and the sprockets.

In reply to Rigid Raider:

That's interesting.
It's shifting a lot better with new cable, but I did get a couple of slips this morning, mid range cogs. I think I just hadn't got the indexing quite right.

In reply to La benya:

Well technically you can use the old one, just split it and Join with a quicklink.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:


But for the sake of a tenner on a new 9 speed chain it really isn't worth using the old one.

In reply to La benya:

Quite a few pro teams use 105 cassettes instead of Dura-ace - £24 or so instead of £150 and they have to make the bike's weight up somewhere anyway. Hence my new bike has a shiny dura-ace cassette all still wrapped up, and is fitted with a 105 cassette with a few larger sprockets for the hills I'm currently battling. It makes no difference to the shifting whatsoever.

In reply to nniff:

I did struggle to see how the expensive ones could differ that greatly, surely they are the same design/ shape just made with lower quality materials. id rather buy 5 new ones than one expensive one.
Hadn't realised race bikes all had to be the same weight though. i thought that was the whole point of the marginal gains programme at the olympics, or is track different to road?

I hadn't thought about changing the size of the cogs, as all i do is flat, london commuting, im normally in and out of the first 6 gears only. In fact, i've just taken off my front derailleur as i never used it (and it has seized as a result)

In reply to La benya:


There's your answer - ditch the gears entirely and get yourself a fixie. Much less hassle with cassettes and derailleurs.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:


Just to clarify this for the OP, SRAM and Shimano cassettes are interchangeable but the mechs are not, if you have Shimano shifters you need shimano mechs and the same for SRAM mechs and shifters.

In reply to Removed UserBwox:


And while you're at it why not got right back into the dark ages and buy some solid rubber tyres on wooden wheels and just scoot yourself along with your feet rather than bothering with the complexity of pedals etc.

All my bikes run 2X or 3X groupsets, I only really look after my nice bike but, I can't say any of them really cause any problems. The mechs on the one bike are over 20 years old and work fine.
I don't understand why people are so keen to always be either grinding in a low gear or spinning away in a fast gear when cheap and available technology is so reliable allowing you to be more efficient and friendly to your knees.

In reply to gethin_allen:

I agree, i've never really understood the premise of a fixie/ single speed. other than for fashion, they do look 'cleaner'. and traction stands look cool, but i'm sure you can do them on a geared bike (i haven't mastered them).

Part of the fun is faffing around, tinkering with the gears anyway

Cheers for the heads up re mechs- I probably would have bought shimano anyway as they seem to do a product and every price point.

In reply to La benya:

Slips will be your chain skipping round the cog. The chain and cog wear together and keep working with a lot of wear. Generally you can get away with just changing the rear cassette and chain and only change the front cog every so often.. You can measure your chain wear. It's something like 10" to a certain number of links 1/4" is a lot of wear (6 mm). A chain is generally shot by 1/8".

In reply to La benya:



The UCI set a minimum weight for bikes used for road racing. I don't know about the track. Weight isn't the only issue with a bike - aerodynamics are important as well, as is comfort, stiffness and reliability.


I think you have to be careful to ensure the rear derailleur suits the size of the cassette. There are long and short ones I think - someone might be able to clarify / correct.

In reply to Removed UserBwox:


I don't understand the fascination with them. They're just inefficient.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:



Yes, this is correct, most mechs come in a few different cage lengths, longer cages being required for larger cassettes. This is becoming more of an issue as people are starting to run 1 x 11 setups with a single chainring and a very wide ratio (eg. 11-44) rear cassette.